Romans: Law, Obedience, and Sanctification: Holiness and Obedience

Truths from the Life of Jonah

Transcript: AI Transcript

Professor: John Weaver

Subject: New Testament Studies

Genre: Sermon

Dictation Name:

Date: 2024-07-14

Synopsis: John Weaver introduces a series on Jonah, emphasizing the Old Testament's equal inspiration and profitability with the New. He defends Jonah's historicity, citing 2 Kings and Jesus' testimony. The sermon explores Jonah's flight from God's commission to Nineveh, his disobedience, and the consequences, highlighting God's omnipresence and omniscience. Weaver draws applications about the cost of running from God's will and the inevitable impact of our actions on others.

[John Weaver] All right, I want you to open your Bibles, if you would please, today to the book of Jonah, chapter 1, and you're going to find the little book of Jonah right after Obadiah and right before Micah. Lord willing, I'm going to be preaching four messages on this book. And so, if you want to get a little head start, just read Jonah for the next several weeks. And you'll pretty well come up with a lot of truth, I am sure. So, look in, if you would please, in Jonah chapter 1. And the title of the message today is Truths from the Life of Jonah. Truths from the Life of Jonah. So Jonah 1, beginning there with verse 1, the Word of God says this, 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 Jabba.

[John Weaver] And he found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with the men into 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 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 going down into the sides of the ship, And he lay and was fast asleep.

[John Weaver] 17 And whence comest thou? what is thy country, and of what people art thou? 18 And he said unto them, I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which made the sea and dry land. 19 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. 20 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 unto them, 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 it as it pleased thee.

[John Weaver] So they took up Jonah and cast him forth into the sea, and the sea ceased from raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice, and the Lord had 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." A few years back I brought two messages which I entitled Old Testament Principles and New Testament Truths. My aim on those two messages was simply to demonstrate that we have one Bible and not two Bibles. I've repeatedly said that the Old Testament is just as much the Word of God as is the New Testament.

[John Weaver] In fact, the Apostle Paul wrote In 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17, for all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for correction, for instruction or reproof, and also that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished under all good works. Now, we may deduce several wonderful truths from these verses. First of all, The Scripture tells us that all Scripture is God-breathed.

[John Weaver] The Greek word there is a very important word. It is the word theopneuktos. It literally means exhaled from the mouth of God or God-breathed or God-exhaled. So the truth of the matter is all of the Scripture came from the breath of God. That is why it's called the Word of God. That's why it's referred to as the truth of God. You say, well, I understand that the Bible was inspired, and that is true. Men wrote the Bible, but they were men who were inspired. So what is inspiration? Inspiration is a strong, conscious in-breathing of God into men, qualifying them to give utterance to the truth, so that the words which they wrote were and are indeed the very words of God.

[John Weaver] So let me put this another way. What inspiration actually means is, the Bible is just as much the Word of God as if God spoke every single word of it with His own lips. That's what it means when it said it was God breathed. Now, you say, but men wrote the Bible. I've already covered that, but you know the Bible says in 2 Peter 1, for the Word of God or prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. So it was the Holy Ghost then who inspired the words. It was the Holy Ghost who moved upon the men to pen these words, and they are indeed the very words of God Himself.

[John Weaver] The second thing that we may deduce is this. When Paul wrote these verses, 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17, He had primarily the Old Testament in mind, because the New Testament had not been completed at that time. And, of course, these words, these verses, would apply to any of the New Testament passages or books that had been completed by that particular time. So, primarily, when he wrote that, he had in mind the Old Testament.

[John Weaver] Thirdly, and clearly, the Bible teaches us that all of God's Word is profitable. When he said, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable, that means the Old Testament is just as profitable as is the New Testament. So those then who ignore the Old Testament, who denigrate the Old Testament, who deny the Old Testament, or denying and depriving themselves of great truths, great promises, and great warnings, because the Old Testament is just as profitable as is the New Testament. Fourth, let me point out, based upon 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17, it is impossible for the man of God to be complete and thoroughly furnished unto all good works without the Old Testament. Now, the Scripture said, all Scripture is inspired of God. Didn't you get to verse 17 that the man of God may be perfect? The Greek word for the word perfect is the word archivos, which literally means one that is fit, One that is complete, one that is perfect, one that is equipped for just about any and every possible use.

[John Weaver] So, without the Old Testament, then it is impossible for a man to be equipped the way he should be. And then when you look at these words from Scripture that the man of God might be thoroughly furnished unto every good work. The Greek word happens to be exartizo, and it means that which is complete and that which is perfectly furnished. So the individual who ignores the Old Testament is not complete. He is not furnished. So any preacher then who would ignore the Old Testament is an incomplete preacher, and he's not furnished into everything that he possibly needs.

[John Weaver] Now, the interesting thing is this. You cannot understand the New Testament apart from the Old Testament. There's an adage that has been repeated, I guess, for years. And it is very true. It goes like this. The new that is the New Testament is in the old concealed and the old is in the new revealed. And that is certainly true because you cannot understand the old without the new and the new is hidden in the old as well.

[John Weaver] Now, let me begin by saying this before I go any further. Yes. I believe that Jonah was a real, living, historical person. And yes, I do believe that Jonah was swallowed by a whale, because the Bible does indeed teach that. If you would look in your Bibles, holding Jonah chapter 1, but turn back to 2 Kings chapter 14, 2 Kings chapter 14, you will find that Jonah is spoken of Not only is a real live prophet, but he is one who prophesied and one whose prophecy came to pass. So if you look in 2nd Kings chapter 14 and verse 25. 2nd Kings chapter 14 verse 25. And here's what the Bible says. He restored, that is the king now, 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 spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gath-Heper." So notice if you would, Jonah is specifically named, his father is named, he's designated as a prophet, and even the city from which he originated yet ever.

[John Weaver] So Jonah then indeed was a real living person. So if you deny the historical personhood of Jonah, you're not only denying the truth of the Old Testament, but hang on, you would also be denying the Lord Jesus Christ. Because the Lord Jesus Christ Himself testified to the person of Jonah and to that which happened to Jonah. So if you will turn in your Bibles to the book of Matthew chapter 12, you're going to find where our Lord recognized Jonah as a real, live individual, and also the very fact that Jonah was swallowed by a whale. So if you look at Matthew chapter 12 and verses 40 and 41, Our Lord said, For as 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. The men of Nineveh shall rise up in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah's, and behold, a greater than Jonah's is here. So our Lord then is testifying not only to the personhood of Jonah, but to the preaching of Jonah, the fact that he went to Nineveh, and the fact that he was swallowed by a whale and stayed in the belly of the whale for three days and for three nights.

[John Weaver] Now, let me point out the fact that whales were known to the ancients. If you would go back, before we go back to Jonah chapter 1. But if you would go back to the book of Job, and look in Job chapter 7 and verse 12, you'll find the book of Job right before the book of Psalms. But look in Job 7 and verse 12, you have the question that Job asked. Here it is, Job 7 verse 12, Am I a sea or a whale that thou settest watch over me? Note that question. Am I a sea or a whale that thou sittest watch over me? Job 7 and verse 12. Job 7 verse 12.

[John Weaver] Now, if you want some really interesting stories, you need to go to the Internet and just type in the men who were swallowed by whales. And you're going to find some astounding stories. One of these that I'm going to give you right now happened in 1891 to a young man by the name of James Bartley, who was 21 years of age. He was a whaler and somehow he fell overboard. And the whale actually swallowed him. And he spent 16 hours in the whale's belly before his mates were able to get the whale, kill the whale, cut the whale open, and rescue James Bartlett.

[John Weaver] So here's what was said. Listen carefully. He was a whaler and ended up swallowed by the whale before his mates could get him out. When he was cut out of the whale's belly," remember he'd been in there 16 hours, when he was cut out of the whale's belly, his digestive juices, that is those of the whale, had permanently bleached his skin a deathly white. He lost his hair and was nearly blind. For two weeks he was delirious, and it was a month before he could tell how he had fallen into the whale's mouth, felt the huge teeth grate over him as he slid down the throat and into his stomach." Wow! I'm not sure that I would want to be swallowed by a whale. I don't want to be swallowed by any sea creature. But if you look back in your Bibles at the book of Jonah chapter 1, I'm going to tell you that this fish or this whale that God prepared was a special fish or a special whale. The Bible says in Jonah 1 in verse 17, 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.

[John Weaver] So, God had prepared this fish specifically to swallow Jonah. Now, Jonah, of course, did not have his skin bleached. He did not lose his hair. And certainly, while Jonah was in the whale's belly, He had his senses all about him because he knew where he was. And when we get to Jonah chapter 2, he was praying. He was crying out, he said, out of the belly of hell. So he knew exactly where he was. He knew exactly what had happened. So this fish was a special one that was prepared by God. Look if you would please, Jonah chapter 2 and verse 1.

[John Weaver] I'll cover this more next week. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord God out of the fish's belly. And he said, I cried by reason of mine infliction unto the Lord, and He heard me. Out of the belly of hell I cried, and thou heardest my voice. So clearly then, Jonah knew exactly what was going on when he was swallowed by the whale. I want you to understand that Jonah basically was a runaway prophet. He did not want to preach what God had sent him to preach. So if you look in Jonah 1, verses 1 and 2, 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. So instead of obeying God, Jonah ran. Instead of obeying God, Jonah decided he was just going to leave the country. So if you look in verse 3, 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 into Tarshish from the presence of

[John Weaver] the Lord." Now, the first question that we have to ask ourselves today is this. Why did Jonah flee? God said, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it. Their wickedness has come up before me. Jonah, all you've got to do is go to Nineveh and preach. But instead of going to Nineveh and preaching, Jonah goes down to Joppa and he gets on a ship to head to Tarshish. Well, I hope you remember that Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire.

[John Weaver] The Assyrians were mortal enemies of the Israelites. I hope you also remember that it was the Assyrians who captured the ten northern tribes. The Assyrians were cruel, wicked, horrible people. It was the Assyrians who actually began crucifixion. They did not crucify people the way the Romans crucified people. In fact, there are inscriptions on steles where the kings of Assyria are bragging about how many people they have crucified and how many piles of heads they've made in front of cities. The way the Assyrians did crucifixion was they would sharpen a stake and plant it firmly into the ground.

[John Weaver] And the sharp end is pointed up. They would take the man to be crucified, strip him naked, Two men would spread his legs, hold him over the stake, pull him down. The stake would go through the anus, up through the intestines, and stop right before they got to the heart. Which means then, the man would writhe in pain for hours before he died.

[John Weaver] Now when the Romans came along, they were not making crucifixion easier. It was actually crueler because now you'd be hanging on the cross for several days in excruciating pain and anger. So these Assyrians were mortal enemies of Israel. And of course, Jonah considered them his enemy as well. So Jonah actually wanted and desired the wholesale destruction of Nineveh and everybody that was in Nineveh. He wanted them dead. In fact, when we get to the end of the book of Jonah, you'll find in chapter 4 that even though he preached, he went out and got himself on a little hill under a shade, made himself a booth so he could sit and watch, and hopefully that God would destroy all of them. And God, of course, knew that he was angry. If you'll look very quickly to Jonah 4, verses 1 and 2, Jonah did not want Nineveh to repent. Jonah 4, verse 1, But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. That is, when the people repented, it displeased him. And he was exceedingly angry, and he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying when I was yet in my country?

[John Weaver] Therefore I fled before the end of Tarshish. For I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentant of evil. He said, God, I know you'd give them repentance. And I didn't want them to repent. And I'm angry, I'm upset. And certainly Jonah knew that if the Assyrians lived, then Israel would suffer. So in one sense of the word, Jonah was a patriot of sorts in the fact that he was willing for another nation to perish and not the covenant people.

[John Weaver] So why did he flee? Because he did not want the Assyrians to repent. He wanted them killed, is what it amounted to. The second question would be this. Did Jonah actually believe that he could flee from the presence of the Lord? So if you look in verse 2, God says, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it. for their wickedness to come up before me." Look at this in verse 3,"...but Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD." Then if you look down in verse 10, you'll see this again,"...then were the men exceedingly afraid," that is the Maronites,"...and they 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." Now, is it possible to flee from the presence of the Lord?

[John Weaver] And the answer is no. And yet on the other hand, the answer could be yes in the sense that Jonah was trying to do it. But no, it's impossible because of God's omnipresence. The omnipresence of God means that God is everywhere at one time in the totality of His being. So let me say this again. The omnipresence of God means that God is everywhere at one time in the totality of His being. The reason I repeated that is because I want to make sure that you do not fall into error or heresy, because there are some people that say, here's how you explain The omnipresence of God. Part of God is in Russia, part of God is in England, part of God is in China, part of God is in America, part of God is in Canada, part of God is in South America. You put all these parts together and you've got God. No. That is heresy. That is blasphemy. No. The omnipresence of God means that God is everywhere at one time in the totality of His being.

[John Weaver] So let me ask you to turn in your Bibles, holding Jonah 1, to Psalm 139. Psalm 139 is a very important psalm. It's a very beautiful psalm. It's a psalm that you should read and, I would even say, memorize. Because this psalm not only speaks of God's omnipresence, it also speaks of God's omniscience. So if you look in Psalm 139, beginning there with verse 1, the Scripture says, David wrote, O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting and my up-rising. Thou understandest my thought afar off. So David is saying, Lord, you know when I sit down. You know when I rise up. You understand my thought afar off. In fact, in the book of Ezekiel, God says, I know thy thoughts, every one of them, even before they come into thy mind. So, obviously, God does indeed know our thoughts. Then he says in verse 3, Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.

[John Weaver] Thou hast beset me behind, and before, and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, it is high, I cannot attain unto it."

[John Weaver] Now that refers to God's omniscience. Now we get to God's omnipresence. He asks, whether shall I go from thy spirit, or whether shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, art thou there? If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as the day, and the darkness and the light are both alike to thee."

[John Weaver] So the truth of the matter is God is not only omniscient, God is omnipresent. There's not a thought in your mind that God does not know, and there's no place that you can go to hide from Him. It's impossible to do things in the dark where God cannot see you, or where God is not. I think I may have told you this one time, but it's still funny to me. Mel Trotter was an old drunk that God saved.

[John Weaver] In fact, the interesting story about his conversion Well, he was such a horrible drunk, he stole the shoes off of his baby and was going to trade those shoes for a drink of whiskey. And on the way to the saloon, he passed a gospel meeting. They were singing psalms and hymns. And he went in just to get out of the cold and to rest and get warm for a few minutes.

[John Weaver] And he listened to a man preach and God saved him. And so converted him gloriously and Mel Trotter, of course, became a preacher. And he got concerned about a lover's lane in that area where young people would go and park and fornicate and all this kind of stuff. And he would go down there and preach to them. And some of them would leave. Some of them would laugh at him, wouldn't pay him any attention. And so finally, he got a neon sign, and all it was was an eyeball that flashed. And every time it flashed, it said, Now my God, see it's me. Now my God, see it's me. And within a week, no one else would come back to Lover's Lane.

[John Weaver] Well, this is what I'm talking about in the sense that you cannot hide from God. And since God is omniscient since he knows everything, I tell everybody, you know, if you've got something on your mind, if there's some question, if there's some doubt, if there's some sin, you might as well go ahead and confess it because God already knows it anyhow. You can't hide anything from Him, neither can you hide your presence from Him. Well, how is it then that the Bible tells us that Jonah was fleeing from the presence of God, if it's impossible to flee from the presence of God. Well, if you will turn to two places in your Bible, the first one is 1 Kings 8, and then the second one is 2 Chronicles. So, 1 Kings 8, verse 11, and then we're going to go to 2 Chronicles 5. I will go ahead and tell you this, that from which Jonah was fleeing, what you and I would call the manifest presence of God. So here's a good question. Where was God's manifest presence in the Old Testament?

[John Weaver] Where did God particularly and peculiarly manifest Himself? And here's the answer. He did so in the tabernacle. And he did so in the temple. So when the temple is dedicated, Solomon has been praying and has prayed. And in 1 Kings 8 and verse 11, the Scripture says this, so that the priests could not stand to minister because the cloud of the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God. And then if you would turn right over to 2 Chronicles, Chapter 5 and verse 14, you'll basically see the same truth. 2 Chronicles 5 and verse 14. Here the Word of God said, So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God. So anytime in the Old Testament that you really wanted to worship God, you had to go either to the Zabernacle or Temple. Why? Because that is where God particularly and peculiarly manifested Himself. So what Jonah was doing was fleeing from the Temple. He was fleeing from the manifest presence of God.

[John Weaver] Wow! Well, let me ask you a question. Where does God particularly and peculiarly manifest Himself today? Or where does God particularly and peculiarly manifest Himself in the New Testament? Well, in our lives that is true, but in our corporate meeting would be the church. What did He say? Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them. Maybe that's why a lot of people don't want to come to church. Because they're running from God. They don't want to hear the preaching and teaching of the Word of God. They don't want to see or sense the manifest presence of God.

[John Weaver] And so they just simply ignore it. So that's exactly what Jonah was doing. Jonah was getting out of Dodge. He was fleeing from the manifest presence of God. Another thought is this. Jonah could also have been fleeing from the commission that God had given him. That is, he was actually fleeing from his duty, his obligation, his responsibility to go to Nineveh and to preach the preaching that God had told him to do. So, he was just getting out of dodge.

[John Weaver] Evidently, he believed that old saying, out of sight, out of mind. So he thought if he could get away from the manifest presence of God, then God wouldn't forget about sending him over to Nineveh. Wow. Well, it might work with us because we're so forgetful, but it does not work with the sovereign God of heaven and earth, who is the omniscient and omnipresent God of heaven and earth. So, Jonabab, in thinking, if he left, then God would get someone else to go to Nineveh, because He certainly did not want to go. Now, I want you to look at verse 3 again. Jonah 1, verse 3. Because here's something else. In fact, several truths. But notice if you would, Jonah 1, verse 3.

[John Weaver] But Jonah rose up to flee into 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." Now, as best as I can tell from most of the sources, Tarshish would have been Spain. There were some scholars that said, no, he was not fleeing to Spain, he was actually fleeing to Tarsus. which was a city of Cilicia, and that is the city from which the Apostle Paul came, Saul of Tarsus, and Tarsus was a city of Cilicia. To be absolutely honest, I think he was going to Spain.

[John Weaver] I think he was trying to get as far away from God as he possibly could get. He wanted to get away from God's manifest presence. He wanted to get away from His commission.

[John Weaver] Now, whether or not Tarshish is Spain, or whether or not it is Tarshish the city of Cilicia, that is not the point in verse 3. Here's the point I want to bring out. Look at this. But Jonah rose up to flee into Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and he went down to Joppa, and he found a ship going to Tarshish. Look at this next phrase. So he paid the fare thereof and went down into it, the ship. He paid the fare thereof. So here's the point. Jonah paid the fare.

[John Weaver] Whenever you're running from God. Is going to cost you. Listen carefully. It is true that what God orders, he pays for. But when you try to run from God in God's will and you begin to kick against the pricks and you're disobedient, then you pay. Jonah's fare was probably small in the beginning. I don't know how much it cost him to get on that ship. But before God got through with him, he found out that running from God was going to cost him more than he was willing to pay, and more than he was able to pay. So anytime you run from God, you're on your own is what it amounts to. It does not pay to run from the will of God. The safest place for any child of God is right smack dab in the middle of God's will. Now, in this book, in this chapter of Jonah, chapter one, there are two things that God prepared for Jonah. God prepared a great wind and God also prepared a great fish. The great wind, brought terror to the mariners.

[John Weaver] But it did not bring terror to Jonah. He was fast asleep. Look in verse 4. 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 going down into the sides of the ship, and he lay and was fast asleep."

[John Weaver] Watch this,"'So the shipmaster came to him and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon my God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.' So Jonah is sleeping through the storm. Now Jonah may have been asleep, before the storm began. That's a possibility. But the very fact that he was asleep before the storm began, you've got to remember that ship would have been rolling with the waves and people would have been screaming and crying and all kind of things going on. And he would have been sleeping all through it.

[John Weaver] Evidently, he was absolutely, totally unconcerned. All the wares of the ship had been dumped. They were screaming for their lives. And Jonah had to be rebuked by a heathen. He said, Awake thou sleeper. What are you doing? Are you insane? We're about to die, all of us, and here you are down here asleep. Wow. Notice what he said. And rise and call upon thy God. You know, Nowhere in this chapter and nowhere in the book of Jonah does it say that Jonah prayed during this experience with these mariners.

[John Weaver] He's called upon to pray, but nothing is recorded that he did pray. And in other words, they said, look, all of our lives are in danger.

[John Weaver] Now, since Jonah was a believer and the one true, believing God, and since Jonah was a prophet, since he was a preacher, would you not think that Jonah would be concerned about the lives of these mariners? It's true, they were heathen, but still, they were beings. Wow! I want you to learn this lesson right now. If you're not concerned about the many, you're not going to be concerned about the few.

[John Weaver] Hmm, what do I mean by that? Well, I have no idea how many people were on this ship. I don't even know how big the ship was. I'm sure probably 15 or 20 at a minimum. When you get to the New Testament, the Apostle Paul was on a ship and there's nearly 300 on that ship, 270 something I think. It could have been that many on this one. I don't know. Don't know the size of the ship. But what do I mean if you're not concerned about the many, you're not concerned about the few? Well, if you look in Jonah chapter 4 and verse 11, and I'll come back to this on the fourth message, but look at it. God is rebuking Jonah and he said, and should not I spare Nineveh, that great city where there are more than Six score thousand.

[John Weaver] That's 120,000 persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand and also much cattle. He said, Jonah, I got 120,000 little babies that do not know the difference between their right hand and their left hand. That does not count the older children. That does not count the teenagers. That does not count the adults. That does not even include all the cattle or all the animals that were there.

[John Weaver] Many have said that probably Minerva had about a million people in it. 120,000 children? Oh, yeah. They can't discern the left and the right. Listen, if you're not concerned about a million people, you're not going to be concerned about 15 or 20. It's kind of like Joseph Stalin reportedly said, one or two murders, is a tragedy. A million is a statistic. Nobody cares about that. That's what he's saying.

[John Weaver] So Jonah is totally asleep. So I find it interesting that Jonah was encouraged to pray, and yet we never read anything that he did pray. He evidently was at the point of not wanting to live, and he thought that somehow his death would cause God not to have mercy upon the Assyrians.

[John Weaver] Now, I think this is a valid point based upon what follows. So look in verse 7. And they said, Everyone 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 this evil is upon us.

[John Weaver] What is thine occupation, and which 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 made the sea and the dry land. Remember now, they're having problems with the sea right now. 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 unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea, so shall the sea be calm unto you.

[John Weaver] For I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you. Nevertheless the men rode hard to bring it unto land, but they could not, for the sea roared, and was tempestuous against them."

[John Weaver] Now there are two very important truths right here. The first one is this. that oftentimes heathen folks are more concerned with life than those who profess to be the worshippers of the one true and the living God. I find this absolutely astounding because here is Jonah who is supposed to be a preacher and supposed to be a prophet and supposed to be interested in the will of God, in glorifying God and in the lives of the people, And he's not even interested in helping save the lives of these mariners. Wow.

[John Weaver] How are we going to stop this tempest? Well, Jonah kind of smiles and says, oh, this is easy. Just pick me up, throw me in the sea, and everything will be calm under you. Do you get the idea that Jonah was only willing to die that he wanted to die? I want to show you this. Look at this. Look in verse 13. When he said, if you want this tempest to go away, just pick me up and throw me into the sea. Verse 13.

[John Weaver] Nevertheless, the men rode hard to bring it to the land, but they could not. For the sea wrought and was tempestuous against them. Did you see that? These men who were heathen, for whom Jonah had absolutely no compassion and no concern, were concerned about him, instead of just picking him up and throwing him over, which would be the easy way out, they rode hard to bring that ship to land. They did everything they could to keep from throwing Jonah into the deep." Wow! It's strange to me that sometimes the heathen have more concern for life than the righteous. The easy thing would have been to have just picked him up and pitched him in. Yay!

[John Weaver] He encouraged them to do it. Throw me in and it'll cease. Here's the second truth. The second truth, I think, is very, very profound. Jonah, in this instance, is an excellent illustration and an example of a New Testament truth. I want you to look in your Bibles, if you would, to Romans chapter 14 and verse 7. Romans 14 and verse 7. I want you to think as we read this verse. Jonah is an excellent illustration and example of this New Testament truth. Romans 14, verse 7 says, For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.

[John Weaver] If you cannot see this clearly, then you need to have your sight, your hearing, and your heart checked. Whatever you do, whether it is good or bad, right or wrong, Righteous or unrighteous, whatever you do always affects other people. Oftentimes, it affects people that you do not even know. When Jonah fled from the presence of the Lord, he didn't know these mariners. And yet, he was the cause of the loss of all their wares, all their goods, all the money they'd invested in that, and almost became the cause of the loss of their lives. So mark this down. Whatever we do, whether it's good or bad, always affects someone else. You must remember this. Here it is.

[John Weaver] When you and I sin, we're only interested in ourselves. We're only interested in our lusts, our desires, what pleases and satisfies us. We're not concerned with others or the effects of what we do upon the lives of others. Just this month, a week or so ago, I forget exactly how many, but there was a July the 4th celebration and someone ran a car into this crowd If I remember correctly, it was either a dozen killed or four or five killed and a dozen hurt.

[John Weaver] And the man was drunk. When he was drinking, he wasn't concerned about other people. He was only concerned about himself. I'm just pointing out the fact, whenever we sin, we're absolutely, totally selfish. Think about the homes. Think about the families that are destroyed because of pornography, fornication, adultery. We forget the impact that our actions have upon other people. If I ran out on Alice, let me ask you a question. Is that only going to affect my relationship with God? It's not only going to reflect and affect my relationship with her? What about our children? What about our grandchildren? What about our great-grandchildren? What about our friends? What about our family? What about the ministry? You follow what I'm saying?

[John Weaver] It's impossible for you and I to act independently in the sense that We never have any influence upon anyone else. We do. And usually whatever we do is bad and it always affects someone else. The positive side of that is, yes, we also have the privilege and the blessing of living a holy, godly, obedient life and affecting the lives of others through righteousness. But we cannot do one thing without affecting the lives of everyone else. It's just that simple.

[John Weaver] Now, so God sent that wind. And God, if you'll look in verse 17, prepared a fish especially for Jonah. 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. Do you realize? Probably Jonah thought that once they throw me into the sea, I'm going to drown. It's going to all be over.

[John Weaver] Well, it didn't work out like that. You know, a lot of people who commit suicide thought that once they killed themselves, it'd all be over. It's not. And they found that out after they died. But I'm just simply saying, folks, we cannot do one thing without affecting the lives of others. Alice and I were going down a dirt road this past week to avoid a train that had stopped. And we went by an old home place, and I pointed out to her where a neighbor shot and killed himself many, many years ago. I went to school with, I guess, I don't remember if it was a daughter or his niece. But after all these years, I remembered only that he had done it and how he did it.

[John Weaver] And you always consider what in the world was the effect it had on that young girl because it happened in her house. I'm just simply saying, no man liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself. It's not all over.

[John Weaver] Now, let me make some applications. The first one is this. Listen carefully to this question. Are you a Jonah? Are you running from the will of God for your life? Are you paying your own way to get away from God and His will and His Word? If you are a Jonah, and if you're running away from the will of God, then don't be surprised if God doesn't prepare something just for you, just like He did Jonah. God has a way of stopping us, of arresting us, and bringing us back to our senses. I've often said when God got through with Jonah, he might have smelled a lot like fish, but he felt a whole lot more like preaching.

[John Weaver] When that whale spit him out, I believe he went running straight to Nineveh. I'm just saying, folks, the safest place to be is always right smack dab in the middle of the will of God for you and for your life. I'm thankful that I don't have to doubt for the will of God for my life, in that one sense of the word, because He called me to preach, and that's what I've been doing for 60 years. I always laugh and smile when I say this, but when I was a boy, I wanted to be a preacher. Well, the only reason, Gary, I wanted to be a preacher was because they only worked on Wednesday and Sunday, and you could play the rest of the week. How wrong was I on that one? How wrong.

[John Weaver] And Alice, Somehow when she was a little girl, she thought she'd end up marrying a preacher. And then when she married me, she said, well, I guess that was all down the road. But then God saved us both and called me to preach. And hey, that's where I am right now. I'm just simply saying I don't want to do anything else. That's all I ever want to do is to preach and teach the Word of God. So we've got to find out God's will for our lives and stay right smack dab in the middle of it. Here's a second application. I'm just going to reemphasize it.

[John Weaver] Whatever you do always affects others. Whether it's good or bad, right or wrong, righteous or unrighteous, you cannot escape the influence that you have on others. Whether it's your wife, your husband, your children, your grandchildren, your neighbors, your friends, you cannot escape it. You're either going to be a blessing to them or you're going to be a curse to them. Jonah teaches us that no man liveth to himself and no man died to himself. Lord willing, next week, I'm going to be bringing a message on chapter two. Run, Jonah, run.

[John Weaver] And so we'll see how God works in his life. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to Thee this day. We thank You for Your Word. We thank You for Your truth. We pray, Lord, that You would teach us and help us to make application to our lives. In the name of Jesus Christ, we ask and pray, Amen.

Truths from the Life of Jonah

John Weaver | SermonAudio

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	SermonAudio
Media ID	7152412520349
Subject	New Testament Studies
Course	Romans: Law, Obedience, and Sanctification: Holiness and Obedience
Genre	Sermon
Date	2024-07-14
Dictation Name
Book	Book 135: Romans: Law, Obedience, and Sanctification - Volume 2 — Chapter 23
Source Timed Segments	68

Formatted Transcript

Introduction and Scripture Reading

Weaver opens the sermon, directs the congregation to Jonah 1, and reads the entire chapter.

All right, I want you to open your Bibles, if you would please, today to the book of Jonah, chapter 1, and you're going to find the little book of Jonah right after Obadiah and right before Micah. Lord willing, I'm going to be preaching four messages on this book. And so, if you want to get a little head start, just read Jonah for the next several weeks. And you'll pretty well come up with a lot of truth, I am sure. So, look in, if you would please, in Jonah chapter 1. And the title of the message today is Truths from the Life of Jonah. Truths from the Life of Jonah. So Jonah 1, beginning there with verse 1, the Word of God says this, 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 the men into 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 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 going down into the sides of the ship, and he lay and was fast asleep. 17

Scripture Reading — Jonah 1:1-17

And whence comest thou? what is thy country, and of what people art thou? 18 And he said unto them, I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which made the sea and dry land. 19 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. 20 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 unto them, 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 it as it pleased thee. So they took up Jonah and cast him forth into the sea, and the sea ceased from raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice, and the Lord had 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."

A few years back I brought two messages which I entitled Old Testament Principles and New Testament Truths. My aim on those two messages was simply to demonstrate that we have one Bible and not two Bibles. I've repeatedly said that the Old Testament is just as much the Word of God as is the New Testament.

The Profitability of the Old Testament

Weaver argues from 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that all Scripture, including the Old Testament, is God-breathed and profitable for doctrine, correction, and equipping the believer.

In fact, the Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17, for all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for correction, for instruction or reproof, and also that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished under all good works. Now, we may deduce several wonderful truths from these verses. First of all, the Scripture tells us that all Scripture is God-breathed. The Greek word there is a very important word. It is the word theopneustos. It literally means exhaled from the mouth of God or God-breathed or God-exhaled. So the truth of the matter is all of the Scripture came from the breath of God. That is why it's called the Word of God. That's why it's referred to as the truth of God. You say, well, I understand that the Bible was inspired, and that is true. Men wrote the Bible, but they were men who were inspired. So what is inspiration? Inspiration is a strong, conscious in-breathing of God into men, qualifying them to give utterance to the truth, so that the words which they wrote were and are indeed the very words of God.

So let me put this another way. What inspiration actually means is, the Bible is just as much the Word of God as if God spoke every single word of it with His own lips. That's what it means when it said it was God breathed. Now, you say, but men wrote the Bible. I've already covered that, but you know the Bible says in 2 Peter 1, for the Word of God or prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. So it was the Holy Ghost then who inspired the words. It was the Holy Ghost who moved upon the men to pen these words, and they are indeed the very words of God Himself.

The second thing that we may deduce is this. When Paul wrote these verses, 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17, he had primarily the Old Testament in mind, because the New Testament had not been completed at that time. And, of course, these words, these verses, would apply to any of the New Testament passages or books that had been completed by that particular time. So, primarily, when he wrote that, he had in mind the Old Testament. Thirdly, and clearly, the Bible teaches us that all of God's Word is profitable. When he said, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable, that means the Old Testament is just as profitable as is the New Testament. So those then who ignore the Old Testament, who denigrate the Old Testament, who deny the Old Testament, are denying and depriving themselves of great truths, great promises, and great warnings, because the Old Testament is just as profitable as is the New Testament. Fourth, let me point out, based upon 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17, it is impossible for the man of God to be complete and thoroughly furnished unto all good works without the Old Testament. Now, the Scripture said, all Scripture is inspired of God. Didn't you get to verse 17 that the man of God may be perfect? The Greek word for the word perfect is the word artios, which literally means one that is fit, one that is complete, one that is perfect, one that is equipped for just about any and every possible use.

So, without the Old Testament, then it is impossible for a man to be equipped the way he should be. And then when you look at these words from Scripture that the man of God might be thoroughly furnished unto every good work. The Greek word happens to be exartizo, and it means that which is complete and that which is perfectly furnished. So the individual who ignores the Old Testament is not complete. He is not furnished. So any preacher then who would ignore the Old Testament is an incomplete preacher, and he's not furnished into everything that he possibly needs.

The Historicity of Jonah

Weaver defends Jonah as a real historical person and prophet, citing 2 Kings 14:25 and Jesus' words in Matthew 12:40-41, and mentions modern accounts of men swallowed by whales.

Now, let me begin by saying this before I go any further. Yes. I believe that Jonah was a real, living, historical person. And yes, I do believe that Jonah was swallowed by a whale, because the Bible does indeed teach that. If you would look in your Bibles, holding Jonah chapter 1, but turn back to 2 Kings chapter 14, 2 Kings chapter 14, you will find that Jonah is spoken of not only as a real live prophet, but he is one who prophesied and one whose prophecy came to pass. So if you look in 2nd Kings chapter 14 and verse 25. 2nd Kings chapter 14 verse 25. And here's what the Bible says. He restored, that is the king now,

Scripture Reading — 2 Kings 14:25

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 spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of

Gath-Hepher." So notice if you would, Jonah is specifically named, his father is named, he's designated as a prophet, and even the city from which he originated yet ever.

So Jonah then indeed was a real living person. So if you deny the historical personhood of Jonah, you're not only denying the truth of the Old Testament, but hang on, you would also be denying the Lord Jesus Christ. Because the Lord Jesus Christ Himself testified to the person of Jonah and to that which happened to Jonah. So if you will turn in your Bibles to the book of Matthew chapter 12, you're going to find where our Lord recognized Jonah as a real, live individual, and also the very fact that Jonah was swallowed by a whale. So if you look at Matthew chapter 12 and verses 40 and 41, our Lord said, For as 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. The men of Nineveh shall rise up in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, a greater than Jonah is here. So our Lord then is testifying not only to the personhood of Jonah, but to the preaching of Jonah, the fact that he went to Nineveh, and the fact that he was swallowed by a whale and stayed in the belly of the whale for three days and for three nights.

Now, let me point out the fact that whales were known to the ancients. If you would go back, before we go back to Jonah chapter 1. But if you would go back to the book of Job, and look in Job chapter 7 and verse 12, you'll find the book of Job right before the book of Psalms. But look in Job 7 and verse 12, you have the question that Job asked. Here it is, Job 7 verse 12, Am I a sea or a whale that thou settest watch over me? Note that question. Am I a sea or a whale that thou sittest watch over me? Job 7 and verse 12. Job 7 verse 12.

Now, if you want some really interesting stories, you need to go to the Internet and just type in the men who were swallowed by whales. And you're going to find some astounding stories. One of these that I'm going to give you right now happened in 1891 to a young man by the name of James Bartley, who was 21 years of age. He was a whaler and somehow he fell overboard. And the whale actually swallowed him. And he spent 16 hours in the whale's belly before his mates were able to get the whale, kill the whale, cut the whale open, and rescue James Bartley.

So here's what was said. Listen carefully. He was a whaler and ended up swallowed by the whale before his mates could get him out. When he was cut out of the whale's belly, remember he'd been in there 16 hours, when he was cut out of the whale's belly, his digestive juices, that is those of the whale, had permanently bleached his skin a deathly white. He lost his hair and was nearly blind. For two weeks he was delirious, and it was a month before he could tell how he had fallen into the whale's mouth, felt the huge teeth grate over him as he slid down the throat and into his stomach." Wow! I'm not sure that I would want to be swallowed by a whale. I don't want to be swallowed by any sea creature. But if you look back in your Bibles at the book of Jonah chapter 1, I'm going to tell you that this fish or this whale that God prepared was a special fish or a special whale. The Bible says in Jonah 1 in verse 17, 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.

So, God had prepared this fish specifically to swallow Jonah. Now, Jonah, of course, did not have his skin bleached. He did not lose his hair. And certainly, while Jonah was in the whale's belly, he had his senses all about him because he knew where he was. And when we get to Jonah chapter 2, he was praying. He was crying out, he said, out of the belly of hell. So he knew exactly where he was. He knew exactly what had happened. So this fish was a special one that was prepared by God. Look if you would please, Jonah chapter 2 and verse 1.

I'll cover this more next week.

Scripture Reading — Jonah 2:1-2

Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord God out of the fish's belly. And he said, I cried by reason of mine infliction unto the Lord, and He heard me. Out of the belly of hell I cried, and thou heardest my voice.

So clearly then, Jonah knew exactly what was going on when he was swallowed by the whale. I want you to understand that Jonah basically was a runaway prophet. He did not want to preach what God had sent him to preach. So if you look in Jonah 1, verses 1 and 2, 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. So instead of obeying God, Jonah ran. Instead of obeying God, Jonah decided he was just going to leave the country. So if you look in verse 3, 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 into Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

Jonah's Flight and Its Reasons

Weaver examines why Jonah fled to Tarshish instead of preaching to Nineveh, attributing it to his hatred for the Assyrians and his desire for their destruction, as seen in Jonah 4.

Now, the first question that we have to ask ourselves today is this. Why did Jonah flee? God said, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it. Their wickedness has come up before me. Jonah, all you've got to do is go to Nineveh and preach. But instead of going to Nineveh and preaching, Jonah goes down to Joppa and he gets on a ship to head to Tarshish. Well, I hope you remember that Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire.

The Assyrians were mortal enemies of the Israelites. I hope you also remember that it was the Assyrians who captured the ten northern tribes. The Assyrians were cruel, wicked, horrible people. It was the Assyrians who actually began crucifixion. They did not crucify people the way the Romans crucified people. In fact, there are inscriptions on steles where the kings of Assyria are bragging about how many people they have crucified and how many piles of heads they've made in front of cities. The way the Assyrians did crucifixion was they would sharpen a stake and plant it firmly into the ground.

And the sharp end is pointed up. They would take the man to be crucified, strip him naked, two men would spread his legs, hold him over the stake, pull him down. The stake would go through the anus, up through the intestines, and stop right before they got to the heart. Which means then, the man would writhe in pain for hours before he died.

Now when the Romans came along, they were not making crucifixion easier. It was actually crueler because now you'd be hanging on the cross for several days in excruciating pain and anger. So these Assyrians were mortal enemies of Israel. And of course, Jonah considered them his enemy as well. So Jonah actually wanted and desired the wholesale destruction of Nineveh and everybody that was in Nineveh. He wanted them dead. In fact, when we get to the end of the book of Jonah, you'll find in chapter 4 that even though he preached, he went out and got himself on a little hill under a shade, made himself a booth so he could sit and watch, and hopefully that God would destroy all of them. And God, of course, knew that he was angry. If you'll look very quickly to Jonah 4, verses 1 and 2, Jonah did not want Nineveh to repent. Jonah 4, verse 1, But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. That is, when the people repented, it displeased him. And he was exceedingly angry, and he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying when I was yet in my country?

Therefore I fled before the end of Tarshish. For I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentant of evil. He said, God, I know you'd give them repentance. And I didn't want them to repent. And I'm angry, I'm upset. And certainly Jonah knew that if the Assyrians lived, then Israel would suffer. So in one sense of the word, Jonah was a patriot of sorts in the fact that he was willing for another nation to perish and not the covenant people.

So why did he flee? Because he did not want the Assyrians to repent. He wanted them killed, is what it amounted to. The second question would be this. Did Jonah actually believe that he could flee from the presence of the Lord? So if you look in verse 2, God says, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it. for their wickedness to come up before me." Look at this in verse 3, "...but Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD." Then if you look down in verse 10, you'll see this again, "...then were the men exceedingly afraid," that is the mariners, "...and they 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." Now, is it possible to flee from the presence of the Lord?

The Impossibility of Fleeing God's Presence

Weaver explains God's omnipresence and omniscience using Psalm 139, clarifying that Jonah was fleeing the manifest presence of God associated with the temple, not God's essential presence.

And the answer is no. And yet on the other hand, the answer could be yes in the sense that Jonah was trying to do it. But no, it's impossible because of God's omnipresence. The omnipresence of God means that God is everywhere at one time in the totality of His being. So let me say this again. The omnipresence of God means that God is everywhere at one time in the totality of His being. The reason I repeated that is because I want to make sure that you do not fall into error or heresy, because there are some people that say, here's how you explain the omnipresence of God. Part of God is in Russia, part of God is in England, part of God is in China, part of God is in America, part of God is in Canada, part of God is in South America. You put all these parts together and you've got God. No. That is heresy. That is blasphemy. No. The omnipresence of God means that God is everywhere at one time in the totality of His being.

So let me ask you to turn in your Bibles, holding Jonah 1, to Psalm 139. Psalm 139 is a very important psalm. It's a very beautiful psalm. It's a psalm that you should read and, I would even say, memorize. Because this psalm not only speaks of God's omnipresence, it also speaks of God's omniscience. So if you look in Psalm 139, beginning there with verse 1, the Scripture says, David wrote, O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting and my up-rising. Thou understandest my thought afar off. So David is saying, Lord, you know when I sit down. You know when I rise up. You understand my thought afar off. In fact, in the book of Ezekiel, God says, I know thy thoughts, every one of them, even before they come into thy mind. So, obviously, God does indeed know our thoughts. Then he says in verse 3, Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.

Thou hast beset me behind, and before, and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, it is high, I cannot attain unto it." Now that refers to God's omniscience. Now we get to God's omnipresence. He asks, whether shall I go from thy spirit, or whether shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, art thou there? If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as the day, and the darkness and the light are both alike to thee."

So the truth of the matter is God is not only omniscient, God is omnipresent. There's not a thought in your mind that God does not know, and there's no place that you can go to hide from Him. It's impossible to do things in the dark where God cannot see you, or where God is not. I think I may have told you this one time, but it's still funny to me. Mel Trotter was an old drunk that God saved. In fact, the interesting story about his conversion, well, he was such a horrible drunk, he stole the shoes off of his baby and was going to trade those shoes for a drink of whiskey. And on the way to the saloon, he passed a gospel meeting. They were singing psalms and hymns. And he went in just to get out of the cold and to rest and get warm for a few minutes.

And he listened to a man preach and God saved him. And so converted him gloriously and Mel Trotter, of course, became a preacher. And he got concerned about a lover's lane in that area where young people would go and park and fornicate and all this kind of stuff. And he would go down there and preach to them. And some of them would leave. Some of them would laugh at him, wouldn't pay him any attention. And so finally, he got a neon sign, and all it was was an eyeball that flashed. And every time it flashed, it said, Now my God, see it's me. Now my God, see it's me. And within a week, no one else would come back to Lover's Lane.

Well, this is what I'm talking about in the sense that you cannot hide from God. And since God is omniscient since he knows everything, I tell everybody, you know, if you've got something on your mind, if there's some question, if there's some doubt, if there's some sin, you might as well go ahead and confess it because God already knows it anyhow. You can't hide anything from Him, neither can you hide your presence from Him. Well, how is it then that the Bible tells us that Jonah was fleeing from the presence of God, if it's impossible to flee from the presence of God. Well, if you will turn to two places in your Bible, the first one is 1 Kings 8, and then the second one is 2 Chronicles. So, 1 Kings 8, verse 11, and then we're going to go to 2 Chronicles 5. I will go ahead and tell you this, that from which Jonah was fleeing, what you and I would call the manifest presence of God. So here's a good question. Where was God's manifest presence in the Old Testament?

Where did God particularly and peculiarly manifest Himself? And here's the answer. He did so in the tabernacle. And he did so in the temple. So when the temple is dedicated, Solomon has been praying and has prayed. And in 1 Kings 8 and verse 11, the Scripture says this, so that the priests could not stand to minister because the cloud of the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God. And then if you would turn right over to 2 Chronicles, Chapter 5 and verse 14, you'll basically see the same truth. 2 Chronicles 5 and verse 14. Here the Word of God said, So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God. So anytime in the Old Testament that you really wanted to worship God, you had to go either to the tabernacle or temple. Why? Because that is where God particularly and peculiarly manifested Himself. So what Jonah was doing was fleeing from the Temple. He was fleeing from the manifest presence of God.

Wow! Well, let me ask you a question. Where does God particularly and peculiarly manifest Himself today? Or where does God particularly and peculiarly manifest Himself in the New Testament? Well, in our lives that is true, but in our corporate meeting would be the church. What did He say? Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them. Maybe that's why a lot of people don't want to come to church. Because they're running from God. They don't want to hear the preaching and teaching of the Word of God. They don't want to see or sense the manifest presence of God.

And so they just simply ignore it. So that's exactly what Jonah was doing. Jonah was getting out of Dodge. He was fleeing from the manifest presence of God. Another thought is this. Jonah could also have been fleeing from the commission that God had given him. That is, he was actually fleeing from his duty, his obligation, his responsibility to go to Nineveh and to preach the preaching that God had told him to do. So, he was just getting out of dodge.

The Cost of Disobedience

Weaver notes that Jonah paid his own fare to flee, illustrating that running from God's will is costly, and contrasts this with God's provision for those in His will.

Evidently, he believed that old saying, out of sight, out of mind. So he thought if he could get away from the manifest presence of God, then God wouldn't forget about sending him over to Nineveh. Wow. Well, it might work with us because we're so forgetful, but it does not work with the sovereign God of heaven and earth, who is the omniscient and omnipresent God of heaven and earth. So, Jonah, in thinking, if he left, then God would get someone else to go to Nineveh, because He certainly did not want to go. Now, I want you to look at verse 3 again. Jonah 1, verse 3. Because here's something else. In fact, several truths. But notice if you would, Jonah 1, verse 3.

But Jonah rose up to flee into 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." Now, as best as I can tell from most of the sources, Tarshish would have been Spain. There were some scholars that said, no, he was not fleeing to Spain, he was actually fleeing to Tarsus. which was a city of Cilicia, and that is the city from which the Apostle Paul came, Saul of Tarsus, and Tarsus was a city of Cilicia. To be absolutely honest, I think he was going to Spain. I think he was trying to get as far away from God as he possibly could get. He wanted to get away from God's manifest presence. He wanted to get away from His commission.

Now, whether or not Tarshish is Spain, or whether or not it is Tarshish the city of Cilicia, that is not the point in verse 3. Here's the point I want to bring out. Look at this. But Jonah rose up to flee into Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and he went down to Joppa, and he found a ship going to Tarshish. Look at this next phrase. So he paid the fare thereof and went down into it, the ship. He paid the fare thereof. So here's the point. Jonah paid the fare.

Whenever you're running from God, it's going to cost you. Listen carefully. It is true that what God orders, he pays for. But when you try to run from God in God's will and you begin to kick against the pricks and you're disobedient, then you pay. Jonah's fare was probably small in the beginning. I don't know how much it cost him to get on that ship. But before God got through with him, he found out that running from God was going to cost him more than he was willing to pay, and more than he was able to pay. So anytime you run from God, you're on your own is what it amounts to. It does not pay to run from the will of God. The safest place for any child of God is right smack dab in the middle of God's will. Now, in this book, in this chapter of Jonah, chapter one, there are two things that God prepared for Jonah. God prepared a great wind and God also prepared a great fish. The great wind brought terror to the mariners.

Jonah's Unconcern and the Mariners' Compassion

Weaver highlights Jonah's sleep during the storm and his lack of prayer, contrasting it with the heathen mariners' concern for life and their efforts to save Jonah.

But it did not bring terror to Jonah. He was fast asleep. Look in verse 4. 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 going down into the sides of the ship, and he lay and was fast asleep." Watch this, "'So the shipmaster came to him and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon my God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.' So Jonah is sleeping through the storm. Now Jonah may have been asleep before the storm began. That's a possibility. But the very fact that he was asleep before the storm began, you've got to remember that ship would have been rolling with the waves and people would have been screaming and crying and all kind of things going on. And he would have been sleeping all through it.

Evidently, he was absolutely, totally unconcerned. All the wares of the ship had been dumped. They were screaming for their lives. And Jonah had to be rebuked by a heathen. He said, Awake thou sleeper. What are you doing? Are you insane? We're about to die, all of us, and here you are down here asleep. Wow. Notice what he said. And rise and call upon thy God. You know, nowhere in this chapter and nowhere in the book of Jonah does it say that Jonah prayed during this experience with these mariners.

He's called upon to pray, but nothing is recorded that he did pray. And in other words, they said, look, all of our lives are in danger. Now, since Jonah was a believer and the one true, believing God, and since Jonah was a prophet, since he was a preacher, would you not think that Jonah would be concerned about the lives of these mariners? It's true, they were heathen, but still, they were beings. Wow! I want you to learn this lesson right now. If you're not concerned about the many, you're not going to be concerned about the few.

Hmm, what do I mean by that? Well, I have no idea how many people were on this ship. I don't even know how big the ship was. I'm sure probably 15 or 20 at a minimum. When you get to the New Testament, the Apostle Paul was on a ship and there's nearly 300 on that ship, 270 something I think. It could have been that many on this one. I don't know. Don't know the size of the ship. But what do I mean if you're not concerned about the many, you're not concerned about the few? Well, if you look in Jonah chapter 4 and verse 11, and I'll come back to this on the fourth message, but look at it. God is rebuking Jonah and he said, and should not I spare Nineveh, that great city where there are more than six score thousand.

That's 120,000 persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand and also much cattle. He said, Jonah, I got 120,000 little babies that do not know the difference between their right hand and their left hand. That does not count the older children. That does not count the teenagers. That does not count the adults. That does not even include all the cattle or all the animals that were there. Many have said that probably Nineveh had about a million people in it. 120,000 children? Oh, yeah. They can't discern the left and the right. Listen, if you're not concerned about a million people, you're not going to be concerned about 15 or 20. It's kind of like Joseph Stalin reportedly said, one or two murders is a tragedy. A million is a statistic. Nobody cares about that. That's what he's saying.

So Jonah is totally asleep. So I find it interesting that Jonah was encouraged to pray, and yet we never read anything that he did pray. He evidently was at the point of not wanting to live, and he thought that somehow his death would cause God not to have mercy upon the Assyrians. Now, I think this is a valid point based upon what follows. So look in verse 7. And they said, Everyone 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 this evil is upon us.

What is thine occupation, and which 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 made the sea and the dry land. Remember now, they're having problems with the sea right now. 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 unto them, 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 unto land, but they could not, for the sea roared, and was tempestuous against them." Now there are two very important truths right here. The first one is this. that oftentimes heathen folks are more concerned with life than those who profess to be the worshippers of the one true and the living God. I find this absolutely astounding because here is Jonah who is supposed to be a preacher and supposed to be a prophet and supposed to be interested in the will of God, in glorifying God and in the lives of the people, and he's not even interested in helping save the lives of these mariners. Wow. How are we going to stop this tempest? Well, Jonah kind of smiles and says, oh, this is easy. Just pick me up, throw me in the sea, and everything will be calm under you. Do you get the idea that Jonah was only willing to die that he wanted to die? I want to show you this. Look at this. Look in verse 13. When he said, if you want this tempest to go away, just pick me up and throw me into the sea. Verse 13.

Nevertheless, the men rode hard to bring it to the land, but they could not. For the sea wrought and was tempestuous against them. Did you see that? These men who were heathen, for whom Jonah had absolutely no compassion and no concern, were concerned about him, instead of just picking him up and throwing him over, which would be the easy way out, they rode hard to bring that ship to land. They did everything they could to keep from throwing Jonah into the deep." Wow! It's strange to me that sometimes the heathen have more concern for life than the righteous. The easy thing would have been to have just picked him up and pitched him in. Yay!

He encouraged them to do it. Throw me in and it'll cease. Here's the second truth. The second truth, I think, is very, very profound. Jonah, in this instance, is an excellent illustration and an example of a New Testament truth. I want you to look in your Bibles, if you would, to Romans chapter 14 and verse 7. Romans 14 and verse 7. I want you to think as we read this verse. Jonah is an excellent illustration and example of this New Testament truth. Romans 14, verse 7 says, For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.

The Ripple Effect of Our Actions

Weaver uses Romans 14:7 to teach that no one lives or dies to himself; Jonah's sin affected the mariners, and our actions always impact others.

If you cannot see this clearly, then you need to have your sight, your hearing, and your heart checked. Whatever you do, whether it is good or bad, right or wrong, righteous or unrighteous, whatever you do always affects other people. Oftentimes, it affects people that you do not even know. When Jonah fled from the presence of the Lord, he didn't know these mariners. And yet, he was the cause of the loss of all their wares, all their goods, all the money they'd invested in that, and almost became the cause of the loss of their lives. So mark this down. Whatever we do, whether it's good or bad, always affects someone else. You must remember this. Here it is.

When you and I sin, we're only interested in ourselves. We're only interested in our lusts, our desires, what pleases and satisfies us. We're not concerned with others or the effects of what we do upon the lives of others. Just this month, a week or so ago, I forget exactly how many, but there was a July the 4th celebration and someone ran a car into this crowd. If I remember correctly, it was either a dozen killed or four or five killed and a dozen hurt. And the man was drunk. When he was drinking, he wasn't concerned about other people. He was only concerned about himself. I'm just pointing out the fact, whenever we sin, we're absolutely, totally selfish. Think about the homes. Think about the families that are destroyed because of pornography, fornication, adultery. We forget the impact that our actions have upon other people. If I ran out on Alice, let me ask you a question. Is that only going to affect my relationship with God? It's not only going to reflect and affect my relationship with her? What about our children? What about our grandchildren? What about our great-grandchildren? What about our friends? What about our family? What about the ministry? You follow what I'm saying?

It's impossible for you and I to act independently in the sense that we never have any influence upon anyone else. We do. And usually whatever we do is bad and it always affects someone else. The positive side of that is, yes, we also have the privilege and the blessing of living a holy, godly, obedient life and affecting the lives of others through righteousness. But we cannot do one thing without affecting the lives of everyone else. It's just that simple.

Now, so God sent that wind. And God, if you'll look in verse 17, prepared a fish especially for Jonah. 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. Do you realize? Probably Jonah thought that once they throw me into the sea, I'm going to drown. It's going to all be over.

Well, it didn't work out like that. You know, a lot of people who commit suicide thought that once they killed themselves, it'd all be over. It's not. And they found that out after they died. But I'm just simply saying, folks, we cannot do one thing without affecting the lives of others. Alice and I were going down a dirt road this past week to avoid a train that had stopped. And we went by an old home place, and I pointed out to her where a neighbor shot and killed himself many, many years ago. I went to school with, I guess, I don't remember if it was a daughter or his niece. But after all these years, I remembered only that he had done it and how he did it.

And you always consider what in the world was the effect it had on that young girl because it happened in her house. I'm just simply saying, no man liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself. It's not all over.

Applications and Conclusion

Weaver challenges listeners to examine if they are running from God's will, warns that God may prepare a 'fish' to stop them, and reiterates that our actions always affect others.

Now, let me make some applications. The first one is this. Listen carefully to this question. Are you a Jonah? Are you running from the will of God for your life? Are you paying your own way to get away from God and His will and His Word? If you are a Jonah, and if you're running away from the will of God, then don't be surprised if God doesn't prepare something just for you, just like He did Jonah. God has a way of stopping us, of arresting us, and bringing us back to our senses. I've often said when God got through with Jonah, he might have smelled a lot like fish, but he felt a whole lot more like preaching.

When that whale spit him out, I believe he went running straight to Nineveh. I'm just saying, folks, the safest place to be is always right smack dab in the middle of the will of God for you and for your life. I'm thankful that I don't have to doubt for the will of God for my life, in that one sense of the word, because He called me to preach, and that's what I've been doing for 60 years. I always laugh and smile when I say this, but when I was a boy, I wanted to be a preacher. Well, the only reason, Gary, I wanted to be a preacher was because they only worked on Wednesday and Sunday, and you could play the rest of the week. How wrong was I on that one? How wrong.

And Alice, somehow when she was a little girl, she thought she'd end up marrying a preacher. And then when she married me, she said, well, I guess that was all down the road. But then God saved us both and called me to preach. And hey, that's where I am right now. I'm just simply saying I don't want to do anything else. That's all I ever want to do is to preach and teach the Word of God. So we've got to find out God's will for our lives and stay right smack dab in the middle of it. Here's a second application. I'm just going to reemphasize it.

Whatever you do always affects others. Whether it's good or bad, right or wrong, righteous or unrighteous, you cannot escape the influence that you have on others. Whether it's your wife, your husband, your children, your grandchildren, your neighbors, your friends, you cannot escape it. You're either going to be a blessing to them or you're going to be a curse to them. Jonah teaches us that no man liveth to himself and no man died to himself. Lord willing, next week, I'm going to be bringing a message on chapter two. Run, Jonah, run.

And so we'll see how God works in his life. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to Thee this day. We thank You for Your Word. We thank You for Your truth. We pray, Lord, that You would teach us and help us to make application to our lives. In the name of Jesus Christ, we ask and pray, Amen.

Study Guide

Major Themes

The Authority and Profitability of All Scripture

Summary: The Old Testament is equally inspired and profitable as the New Testament, essential for equipping the believer.

Evidence: Weaver cites 2 Timothy 3:16-17, explaining the Greek word theopneustos and arguing that the Old Testament is necessary for the man of God to be complete.

The Historicity and Significance of Jonah

Summary: Jonah was a real prophet whose story is validated by Scripture and Jesus Christ, and his experience with the great fish was a miraculous act of God.

Evidence: Weaver references 2 Kings 14:25, Matthew 12:40-41, and the account of James Bartley to support the literal interpretation.

The Omnipresence and Omniscience of God

Summary: God is everywhere present in His totality and knows all thoughts; it is impossible to hide from Him.

Evidence: Weaver expounds Psalm 139:1-12, emphasizing that darkness and light are alike to God, and tells the story of Mel Trotter's neon sign.

The Cost of Disobedience and Running from God's Will

Summary: Disobedience to God's commission leads to personal cost and divine intervention to bring the runaway back.

Evidence: Weaver points out that Jonah 'paid the fare thereof' and later faced a storm and a great fish, illustrating that God prepares means to arrest the disobedient.

The Impact of Personal Sin on Others

Summary: No one lives or dies to himself; our actions, whether righteous or sinful, inevitably affect those around us.

Evidence: Weaver uses Romans 14:7 and the example of Jonah's flight endangering the mariners, as well as modern illustrations like drunk driving.

Key Arguments

The Old Testament is essential for Christian doctrine and life.

Summary: Weaver argues that without the Old Testament, a believer cannot be complete or thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Evidence: He cites 2 Timothy 3:16-17 and explains the Greek words artios and exartizo, concluding that preachers who ignore the Old Testament are incomplete.

Jonah's flight was motivated by hatred for the Assyrians and a desire for their destruction.

Summary: Weaver contends that Jonah fled because he knew God was merciful and might spare Nineveh, which he did not want.

Evidence: He references Jonah 4:1-2, where Jonah expresses anger at God's mercy, and describes the cruelty of the Assyrians.

Jonah was fleeing the manifest presence of God, not His essential omnipresence.

Summary: Weaver explains that Jonah's flight 'from the presence of the Lord' refers to leaving the land where God's presence was manifested in the temple.

Evidence: He cites 1 Kings 8:11 and 2 Chronicles 5:14, where the glory cloud filled the temple, and applies it to the church today.

Disobedience to God always carries a personal cost.

Summary: Weaver asserts that when you run from God's will, you pay your own way, and God may send storms or 'great fish' to stop you.

Evidence: He notes that Jonah 'paid the fare thereof' and later faced a tempest and the fish, contrasting with God's provision for those in His will.

Our actions, whether good or bad, inevitably affect others.

Summary: Weaver argues from Romans 14:7 that no one is an island; Jonah's sin nearly cost the mariners their lives, and our sins impact families and communities.

Evidence: He uses the example of Jonah's storm endangering the ship and modern illustrations like drunk driving and adultery.

Scripture References

Jonah 1:1-17

Context: Weaver reads the entire chapter at the beginning of the sermon.

2 Timothy 3:16-17

Context: Used to establish the inspiration and profitability of all Scripture, including the Old Testament.

2 Peter 1:21

Context: Cited to explain that holy men spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, supporting verbal inspiration.

2 Kings 14:25

Context: Referenced to prove Jonah was a real historical prophet who prophesied during the reign of Jeroboam II.

Matthew 12:40-41

Context: Jesus' testimony to Jonah's three days in the whale and the repentance of Nineveh, affirming the historicity of the account.

Job 7:12

Context: Mentioned to show that whales were known to the ancients, supporting the plausibility of Jonah's experience.

Jonah 2:1-2

Context: Read to show that Jonah prayed from the fish's belly and was conscious, indicating a special preparation by God.

Jonah 4:1-2

Context: Cited to reveal Jonah's anger at God's mercy on Nineveh, explaining his initial flight.

Psalm 139:1-12

Context: Expounded to teach God's omniscience and omnipresence, showing the impossibility of fleeing His essential presence.

1 Kings 8:11

Context: Used to illustrate the manifest presence of God in the temple, which Jonah was fleeing.

2 Chronicles 5:14

Context: Similar to 1 Kings 8:11, showing the glory cloud filling the temple as God's manifest presence.

Jonah 4:11

Context: Quoted to show God's compassion for the 120,000 children in Nineveh, contrasting with Jonah's lack of concern.

Romans 14:7

Context: The key New Testament verse applied to Jonah's situation, teaching that no one lives or dies to himself.

Historical References

James Bartley (1891 whaling incident)

Context: Weaver recounts the story of a whaler swallowed by a whale and rescued after 16 hours, as a modern parallel to Jonah's experience.

Assyrian Empire and its cruelty

Context: Weaver describes the Assyrians as mortal enemies of Israel, known for inventing crucifixion by impalement, to explain Jonah's hatred.

Mel Trotter (conversion and ministry)

Context: Weaver tells the story of Mel Trotter, a drunkard saved at a gospel meeting, who later used a neon sign to deter sin, illustrating God's omnipresence.

Joseph Stalin (attributed quote)

Context: Weaver references Stalin's alleged quote about one death being a tragedy and a million a statistic, to illustrate Jonah's lack of concern for the many.

July 4th celebration car incident

Context: Weaver mentions a recent event where a drunk driver killed or injured people, as an example of how sin affects others.

Important Quotes

All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for correction, for instruction or reproof, and also that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished under all good works.

Significance: Weaver quotes 2 Timothy 3:16-17 to establish the foundational premise that the Old Testament is equally inspired and profitable.

The Bible is just as much the Word of God as if God spoke every single word of it with His own lips.

Significance: This statement encapsulates Weaver's high view of verbal inspiration, emphasizing the divine authority of Scripture.

The omnipresence of God means that God is everywhere at one time in the totality of His being.

Significance: Weaver defines God's omnipresence to correct potential heresy and to explain why Jonah could not truly flee from God.

Whenever you're running from God, it's going to cost you.

Significance: A key application drawn from Jonah paying his own fare, warning that disobedience carries personal consequences.

The safest place for any child of God is right smack dab in the middle of God's will.

Significance: Weaver's practical exhortation to remain in God's will, contrasting with Jonah's dangerous flight.

For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.

Significance: The central New Testament truth (Romans 14:7) that Weaver uses to show the ripple effect of Jonah's sin on the mariners.

When you and I sin, we're only interested in ourselves.

Significance: Weaver diagnoses the selfish nature of sin, contrasting it with the inevitable impact on others.

When God got through with Jonah, he might have smelled a lot like fish, but he felt a whole lot more like preaching.

Significance: A memorable, humorous summary of God's corrective work in Jonah's life, leading to obedience.

Discussion Questions

How does understanding the Old Testament as 'God-breathed' and profitable change the way you read and apply it?

Context: Weaver emphasizes that all Scripture, including the Old Testament, is inspired and necessary for spiritual maturity.

Why do you think Jonah was so resistant to preaching to Nineveh, and what does that reveal about his heart?

Context: Weaver explains Jonah's hatred for the Assyrians and his desire for their destruction, as seen in Jonah 4.

In what ways might Christians today try to 'flee from the presence of the Lord' as Jonah did?

Context: Weaver discusses fleeing the manifest presence of God, such as avoiding church or God's commission.

What are some modern examples of 'paying the fare' when running from God's will, and what has been the cost?

Context: Weaver notes that Jonah paid his own way to Tarshish, illustrating the personal cost of disobedience.

How does the truth that 'no man liveth to himself' challenge the way you view your personal choices and sins?

Context: Weaver applies Romans 14:7 to Jonah's situation, showing that his sin endangered the mariners.

Why do you think the heathen mariners showed more concern for Jonah's life than Jonah showed for theirs?

Context: Weaver contrasts the mariners' efforts to save Jonah with Jonah's indifference and sleep.

What 'great fish' has God used in your life to arrest you and bring you back to His will?

Context: Weaver suggests that God prepares specific means to stop those who are running from Him.

Applications

Examine if you are running from God's will.

Summary: Weaver challenges listeners to ask if they are like Jonah, fleeing from what God has called them to do, and warns that God may prepare a 'fish' to stop them.

Evidence: He directly asks, 'Are you a Jonah? Are you running from the will of God for your life?' and states, 'If you are a Jonah... don't be surprised if God doesn't prepare something just for you.'

Recognize that your actions always affect others.

Summary: Weaver urges believers to consider the ripple effect of their sins and righteousness on family, friends, and even strangers.

Evidence: He says, 'Whatever you do always affects others... you cannot escape the influence that you have on others.'

Stay in the center of God's will.

Summary: Weaver exhorts that the safest place is in God's will, and that we should seek and remain in it.

Evidence: He states, 'The safest place to be is always right smack dab in the middle of the will of God for you and for your life.'

Do not neglect the Old Testament.

Summary: Weaver implies that believers should study and value the Old Testament as much as the New, since it is equally profitable.

Evidence: He argues that 'the Old Testament is just as profitable as is the New Testament' and that ignoring it leaves one incomplete.

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T16:25:40Z

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-06T07:10:14Z

Clean Transcript

Truths from the Life of Jonah

Clean readable transcript. This view follows the Commentary.net cleaned segment text while preserving timestamps for audio follow-along.

All right, I want you to open your Bibles, if you would please, today to the book of Jonah, chapter 1, and you're going to find the little book of Jonah right after Obadiah and right before Micah. Lord willing, I'm going to be preaching four messages on this book. And so, if you want to get a little head start, just read Jonah for the next several weeks. And you'll pretty well come up with a lot of truth, I am sure. So, look in, if you would please, in Jonah chapter 1. And the title of the message today is Truths from the Life of Jonah. Truths from the Life of Jonah. So Jonah 1, beginning there with verse 1, the Word of God says this, 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.
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And he found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with the men into 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 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 going down into the sides of the ship, and he lay and was fast asleep.
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17 And whence comest thou? what is thy country, and of what people art thou? 18 And he said unto them, I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which made the sea and dry land. 19 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. 20 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 unto them, 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 it as it pleased thee.
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So they took up Jonah and cast him forth into the sea, and the sea ceased from raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice, and the Lord had 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." A few years back I brought two messages which I entitled Old Testament Principles and New Testament Truths. My aim on those two messages was simply to demonstrate that we have one Bible and not two Bibles. I've repeatedly said that the Old Testament is just as much the Word of God as is the New Testament.
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In fact, the Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17, for all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for correction, for instruction or reproof, and also that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished under all good works. Now, we may deduce several wonderful truths from these verses. First of all, the Scripture tells us that all Scripture is God-breathed.
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The Greek word there is a very important word. It is the word theopneustos. It literally means exhaled from the mouth of God or God-breathed or God-exhaled. So the truth of the matter is all of the Scripture came from the breath of God. That is why it's called the Word of God. That's why it's referred to as the truth of God. You say, well, I understand that the Bible was inspired, and that is true. Men wrote the Bible, but they were men who were inspired. So what is inspiration? Inspiration is a strong, conscious in-breathing of God into men, qualifying them to give utterance to the truth, so that the words which they wrote were and are indeed the very words of God.
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So let me put this another way. What inspiration actually means is, the Bible is just as much the Word of God as if God spoke every single word of it with His own lips. That's what it means when it said it was God breathed. Now, you say, but men wrote the Bible. I've already covered that, but you know the Bible says in 2 Peter 1, for the Word of God or prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. So it was the Holy Ghost then who inspired the words. It was the Holy Ghost who moved upon the men to pen these words, and they are indeed the very words of God Himself.
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The second thing that we may deduce is this. When Paul wrote these verses, 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17, he had primarily the Old Testament in mind, because the New Testament had not been completed at that time. And, of course, these words, these verses, would apply to any of the New Testament passages or books that had been completed by that particular time. So, primarily, when he wrote that, he had in mind the Old Testament.
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Thirdly, and clearly, the Bible teaches us that all of God's Word is profitable. When he said, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable, that means the Old Testament is just as profitable as is the New Testament. So those then who ignore the Old Testament, who denigrate the Old Testament, who deny the Old Testament, are denying and depriving themselves of great truths, great promises, and great warnings, because the Old Testament is just as profitable as is the New Testament. Fourth, let me point out, based upon 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17, it is impossible for the man of God to be complete and thoroughly furnished unto all good works without the Old Testament. Now, the Scripture said, all Scripture is inspired of God. Didn't you get to verse 17 that the man of God may be perfect? The Greek word for the word perfect is the word artios, which literally means one that is fit, one that is complete, one that is perfect, one that is equipped for just about any and every possible use.
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So, without the Old Testament, then it is impossible for a man to be equipped the way he should be. And then when you look at these words from Scripture that the man of God might be thoroughly furnished unto every good work. The Greek word happens to be exartizo, and it means that which is complete and that which is perfectly furnished. So the individual who ignores the Old Testament is not complete. He is not furnished. So any preacher then who would ignore the Old Testament is an incomplete preacher, and he's not furnished into everything that he possibly needs.
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Now, the interesting thing is this. You cannot understand the New Testament apart from the Old Testament. There's an adage that has been repeated, I guess, for years. And it is very true. It goes like this. The new, that is the New Testament, is in the old concealed and the old is in the new revealed. And that is certainly true because you cannot understand the old without the new and the new is hidden in the old as well.
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Now, let me begin by saying this before I go any further. Yes. I believe that Jonah was a real, living, historical person. And yes, I do believe that Jonah was swallowed by a whale, because the Bible does indeed teach that. If you would look in your Bibles, holding Jonah chapter 1, but turn back to 2 Kings chapter 14, 2 Kings chapter 14, you will find that Jonah is spoken of not only as a real live prophet, but he is one who prophesied and one whose prophecy came to pass. So if you look in 2nd Kings chapter 14 and verse 25. 2nd Kings chapter 14 verse 25. And here's what the Bible says. He restored, that is the king now, 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 spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gath-Hepher." So notice if you would, Jonah is specifically named, his father is named, he's designated as a prophet, and even the city from which he originated yet ever.
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So Jonah then indeed was a real living person. So if you deny the historical personhood of Jonah, you're not only denying the truth of the Old Testament, but hang on, you would also be denying the Lord Jesus Christ. Because the Lord Jesus Christ Himself testified to the person of Jonah and to that which happened to Jonah. So if you will turn in your Bibles to the book of Matthew chapter 12, you're going to find where our Lord recognized Jonah as a real, live individual, and also the very fact that Jonah was swallowed by a whale. So if you look at Matthew chapter 12 and verses 40 and 41, our Lord said, For as 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. The men of Nineveh shall rise up in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, a greater than Jonah is here. So our Lord then is testifying not only to the personhood of Jonah, but to the preaching of Jonah, the fact that he went to Nineveh, and the fact that he was swallowed by a whale and stayed in the belly of the whale for three days and for three nights.
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Now, let me point out the fact that whales were known to the ancients. If you would go back, before we go back to Jonah chapter 1. But if you would go back to the book of Job, and look in Job chapter 7 and verse 12, you'll find the book of Job right before the book of Psalms. But look in Job 7 and verse 12, you have the question that Job asked. Here it is, Job 7 verse 12, Am I a sea or a whale that thou settest watch over me? Note that question. Am I a sea or a whale that thou sittest watch over me? Job 7 and verse 12. Job 7 verse 12.
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Now, if you want some really interesting stories, you need to go to the Internet and just type in the men who were swallowed by whales. And you're going to find some astounding stories. One of these that I'm going to give you right now happened in 1891 to a young man by the name of James Bartley, who was 21 years of age. He was a whaler and somehow he fell overboard. And the whale actually swallowed him. And he spent 16 hours in the whale's belly before his mates were able to get the whale, kill the whale, cut the whale open, and rescue James Bartley.
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So here's what was said. Listen carefully. He was a whaler and ended up swallowed by the whale before his mates could get him out. When he was cut out of the whale's belly, remember he'd been in there 16 hours, when he was cut out of the whale's belly, his digestive juices, that is those of the whale, had permanently bleached his skin a deathly white. He lost his hair and was nearly blind. For two weeks he was delirious, and it was a month before he could tell how he had fallen into the whale's mouth, felt the huge teeth grate over him as he slid down the throat and into his stomach." Wow! I'm not sure that I would want to be swallowed by a whale. I don't want to be swallowed by any sea creature. But if you look back in your Bibles at the book of Jonah chapter 1, I'm going to tell you that this fish or this whale that God prepared was a special fish or a special whale. The Bible says in Jonah 1 in verse 17, 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.
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So, God had prepared this fish specifically to swallow Jonah. Now, Jonah, of course, did not have his skin bleached. He did not lose his hair. And certainly, while Jonah was in the whale's belly, he had his senses all about him because he knew where he was. And when we get to Jonah chapter 2, he was praying. He was crying out, he said, out of the belly of hell. So he knew exactly where he was. He knew exactly what had happened. So this fish was a special one that was prepared by God. Look if you would please, Jonah chapter 2 and verse 1.
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I'll cover this more next week. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord God out of the fish's belly. And he said, I cried by reason of mine infliction unto the Lord, and He heard me. Out of the belly of hell I cried, and thou heardest my voice. So clearly then, Jonah knew exactly what was going on when he was swallowed by the whale. I want you to understand that Jonah basically was a runaway prophet. He did not want to preach what God had sent him to preach. So if you look in Jonah 1, verses 1 and 2, 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. So instead of obeying God, Jonah ran. Instead of obeying God, Jonah decided he was just going to leave the country. So if you look in verse 3, 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 into Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
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Now, the first question that we have to ask ourselves today is this. Why did Jonah flee? God said, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it. Their wickedness has come up before me. Jonah, all you've got to do is go to Nineveh and preach. But instead of going to Nineveh and preaching, Jonah goes down to Joppa and he gets on a ship to head to Tarshish. Well, I hope you remember that Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire.
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The Assyrians were mortal enemies of the Israelites. I hope you also remember that it was the Assyrians who captured the ten northern tribes. The Assyrians were cruel, wicked, horrible people. It was the Assyrians who actually began crucifixion. They did not crucify people the way the Romans crucified people. In fact, there are inscriptions on steles where the kings of Assyria are bragging about how many people they have crucified and how many piles of heads they've made in front of cities. The way the Assyrians did crucifixion was they would sharpen a stake and plant it firmly into the ground.
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And the sharp end is pointed up. They would take the man to be crucified, strip him naked, two men would spread his legs, hold him over the stake, pull him down. The stake would go through the anus, up through the intestines, and stop right before they got to the heart. Which means then, the man would writhe in pain for hours before he died.
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Now when the Romans came along, they were not making crucifixion easier. It was actually crueler because now you'd be hanging on the cross for several days in excruciating pain and anger. So these Assyrians were mortal enemies of Israel. And of course, Jonah considered them his enemy as well. So Jonah actually wanted and desired the wholesale destruction of Nineveh and everybody that was in Nineveh. He wanted them dead. In fact, when we get to the end of the book of Jonah, you'll find in chapter 4 that even though he preached, he went out and got himself on a little hill under a shade, made himself a booth so he could sit and watch, and hopefully that God would destroy all of them. And God, of course, knew that he was angry. If you'll look very quickly to Jonah 4, verses 1 and 2, Jonah did not want Nineveh to repent. Jonah 4, verse 1, But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. That is, when the people repented, it displeased him. And he was exceedingly angry, and he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying when I was yet in my country?
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Therefore I fled before the end of Tarshish. For I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentant of evil. He said, God, I know you'd give them repentance. And I didn't want them to repent. And I'm angry, I'm upset. And certainly Jonah knew that if the Assyrians lived, then Israel would suffer. So in one sense of the word, Jonah was a patriot of sorts in the fact that he was willing for another nation to perish and not the covenant people.
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So why did he flee? Because he did not want the Assyrians to repent. He wanted them killed, is what it amounted to. The second question would be this. Did Jonah actually believe that he could flee from the presence of the Lord? So if you look in verse 2, God says, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it. for their wickedness to come up before me." Look at this in verse 3, "...but Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD." Then if you look down in verse 10, you'll see this again, "...then were the men exceedingly afraid," that is the mariners, "...and they 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." Now, is it possible to flee from the presence of the Lord?
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And the answer is no. And yet on the other hand, the answer could be yes in the sense that Jonah was trying to do it. But no, it's impossible because of God's omnipresence. The omnipresence of God means that God is everywhere at one time in the totality of His being. So let me say this again. The omnipresence of God means that God is everywhere at one time in the totality of His being. The reason I repeated that is because I want to make sure that you do not fall into error or heresy, because there are some people that say, here's how you explain the omnipresence of God. Part of God is in Russia, part of God is in England, part of God is in China, part of God is in America, part of God is in Canada, part of God is in South America. You put all these parts together and you've got God. No. That is heresy. That is blasphemy. No. The omnipresence of God means that God is everywhere at one time in the totality of His being.
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So let me ask you to turn in your Bibles, holding Jonah 1, to Psalm 139. Psalm 139 is a very important psalm. It's a very beautiful psalm. It's a psalm that you should read and, I would even say, memorize. Because this psalm not only speaks of God's omnipresence, it also speaks of God's omniscience. So if you look in Psalm 139, beginning there with verse 1, the Scripture says, David wrote, O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting and my up-rising. Thou understandest my thought afar off. So David is saying, Lord, you know when I sit down. You know when I rise up. You understand my thought afar off. In fact, in the book of Ezekiel, God says, I know thy thoughts, every one of them, even before they come into thy mind. So, obviously, God does indeed know our thoughts. Then he says in verse 3, Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.
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Thou hast beset me behind, and before, and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, it is high, I cannot attain unto it."
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Now that refers to God's omniscience. Now we get to God's omnipresence. He asks, whether shall I go from thy spirit, or whether shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, art thou there? If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as the day, and the darkness and the light are both alike to thee."
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So the truth of the matter is God is not only omniscient, God is omnipresent. There's not a thought in your mind that God does not know, and there's no place that you can go to hide from Him. It's impossible to do things in the dark where God cannot see you, or where God is not. I think I may have told you this one time, but it's still funny to me. Mel Trotter was an old drunk that God saved.
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In fact, the interesting story about his conversion, well, he was such a horrible drunk, he stole the shoes off of his baby and was going to trade those shoes for a drink of whiskey. And on the way to the saloon, he passed a gospel meeting. They were singing psalms and hymns. And he went in just to get out of the cold and to rest and get warm for a few minutes.
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And he listened to a man preach and God saved him. And so converted him gloriously and Mel Trotter, of course, became a preacher. And he got concerned about a lover's lane in that area where young people would go and park and fornicate and all this kind of stuff. And he would go down there and preach to them. And some of them would leave. Some of them would laugh at him, wouldn't pay him any attention. And so finally, he got a neon sign, and all it was was an eyeball that flashed. And every time it flashed, it said, Now my God, see it's me. Now my God, see it's me. And within a week, no one else would come back to Lover's Lane.
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Well, this is what I'm talking about in the sense that you cannot hide from God. And since God is omniscient since he knows everything, I tell everybody, you know, if you've got something on your mind, if there's some question, if there's some doubt, if there's some sin, you might as well go ahead and confess it because God already knows it anyhow. You can't hide anything from Him, neither can you hide your presence from Him. Well, how is it then that the Bible tells us that Jonah was fleeing from the presence of God, if it's impossible to flee from the presence of God. Well, if you will turn to two places in your Bible, the first one is 1 Kings 8, and then the second one is 2 Chronicles. So, 1 Kings 8, verse 11, and then we're going to go to 2 Chronicles 5. I will go ahead and tell you this, that from which Jonah was fleeing, what you and I would call the manifest presence of God. So here's a good question. Where was God's manifest presence in the Old Testament?
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Where did God particularly and peculiarly manifest Himself? And here's the answer. He did so in the tabernacle. And he did so in the temple. So when the temple is dedicated, Solomon has been praying and has prayed. And in 1 Kings 8 and verse 11, the Scripture says this, so that the priests could not stand to minister because the cloud of the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God. And then if you would turn right over to 2 Chronicles, Chapter 5 and verse 14, you'll basically see the same truth. 2 Chronicles 5 and verse 14. Here the Word of God said, So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God. So anytime in the Old Testament that you really wanted to worship God, you had to go either to the tabernacle or temple. Why? Because that is where God particularly and peculiarly manifested Himself. So what Jonah was doing was fleeing from the Temple. He was fleeing from the manifest presence of God.
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Wow! Well, let me ask you a question. Where does God particularly and peculiarly manifest Himself today? Or where does God particularly and peculiarly manifest Himself in the New Testament? Well, in our lives that is true, but in our corporate meeting would be the church. What did He say? Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them. Maybe that's why a lot of people don't want to come to church. Because they're running from God. They don't want to hear the preaching and teaching of the Word of God. They don't want to see or sense the manifest presence of God.
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And so they just simply ignore it. So that's exactly what Jonah was doing. Jonah was getting out of Dodge. He was fleeing from the manifest presence of God. Another thought is this. Jonah could also have been fleeing from the commission that God had given him. That is, he was actually fleeing from his duty, his obligation, his responsibility to go to Nineveh and to preach the preaching that God had told him to do. So, he was just getting out of dodge.
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Evidently, he believed that old saying, out of sight, out of mind. So he thought if he could get away from the manifest presence of God, then God wouldn't forget about sending him over to Nineveh. Wow. Well, it might work with us because we're so forgetful, but it does not work with the sovereign God of heaven and earth, who is the omniscient and omnipresent God of heaven and earth. So, Jonah, in thinking, if he left, then God would get someone else to go to Nineveh, because He certainly did not want to go. Now, I want you to look at verse 3 again. Jonah 1, verse 3. Because here's something else. In fact, several truths. But notice if you would, Jonah 1, verse 3.
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But Jonah rose up to flee into 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." Now, as best as I can tell from most of the sources, Tarshish would have been Spain. There were some scholars that said, no, he was not fleeing to Spain, he was actually fleeing to Tarsus. which was a city of Cilicia, and that is the city from which the Apostle Paul came, Saul of Tarsus, and Tarsus was a city of Cilicia. To be absolutely honest, I think he was going to Spain.
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I think he was trying to get as far away from God as he possibly could get. He wanted to get away from God's manifest presence. He wanted to get away from His commission.
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Now, whether or not Tarshish is Spain, or whether or not it is Tarshish the city of Cilicia, that is not the point in verse 3. Here's the point I want to bring out. Look at this. But Jonah rose up to flee into Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and he went down to Joppa, and he found a ship going to Tarshish. Look at this next phrase. So he paid the fare thereof and went down into it, the ship. He paid the fare thereof. So here's the point. Jonah paid the fare.
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Whenever you're running from God, it's going to cost you. Listen carefully. It is true that what God orders, he pays for. But when you try to run from God in God's will and you begin to kick against the pricks and you're disobedient, then you pay. Jonah's fare was probably small in the beginning. I don't know how much it cost him to get on that ship. But before God got through with him, he found out that running from God was going to cost him more than he was willing to pay, and more than he was able to pay. So anytime you run from God, you're on your own is what it amounts to. It does not pay to run from the will of God. The safest place for any child of God is right smack dab in the middle of God's will. Now, in this book, in this chapter of Jonah, chapter one, there are two things that God prepared for Jonah. God prepared a great wind and God also prepared a great fish. The great wind brought terror to the mariners.
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But it did not bring terror to Jonah. He was fast asleep. Look in verse 4. 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 going down into the sides of the ship, and he lay and was fast asleep."
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Watch this, "'So the shipmaster came to him and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon my God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.' So Jonah is sleeping through the storm. Now Jonah may have been asleep before the storm began. That's a possibility. But the very fact that he was asleep before the storm began, you've got to remember that ship would have been rolling with the waves and people would have been screaming and crying and all kind of things going on. And he would have been sleeping all through it.
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Evidently, he was absolutely, totally unconcerned. All the wares of the ship had been dumped. They were screaming for their lives. And Jonah had to be rebuked by a heathen. He said, Awake thou sleeper. What are you doing? Are you insane? We're about to die, all of us, and here you are down here asleep. Wow. Notice what he said. And rise and call upon thy God. You know, nowhere in this chapter and nowhere in the book of Jonah does it say that Jonah prayed during this experience with these mariners.
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He's called upon to pray, but nothing is recorded that he did pray. And in other words, they said, look, all of our lives are in danger.
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Now, since Jonah was a believer and the one true, believing God, and since Jonah was a prophet, since he was a preacher, would you not think that Jonah would be concerned about the lives of these mariners? It's true, they were heathen, but still, they were beings. Wow! I want you to learn this lesson right now. If you're not concerned about the many, you're not going to be concerned about the few.
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Hmm, what do I mean by that? Well, I have no idea how many people were on this ship. I don't even know how big the ship was. I'm sure probably 15 or 20 at a minimum. When you get to the New Testament, the Apostle Paul was on a ship and there's nearly 300 on that ship, 270 something I think. It could have been that many on this one. I don't know. Don't know the size of the ship. But what do I mean if you're not concerned about the many, you're not concerned about the few? Well, if you look in Jonah chapter 4 and verse 11, and I'll come back to this on the fourth message, but look at it. God is rebuking Jonah and he said, and should not I spare Nineveh, that great city where there are more than six score thousand.
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That's 120,000 persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand and also much cattle. He said, Jonah, I got 120,000 little babies that do not know the difference between their right hand and their left hand. That does not count the older children. That does not count the teenagers. That does not count the adults. That does not even include all the cattle or all the animals that were there.
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Many have said that probably Nineveh had about a million people in it. 120,000 children? Oh, yeah. They can't discern the left and the right. Listen, if you're not concerned about a million people, you're not going to be concerned about 15 or 20. It's kind of like Joseph Stalin reportedly said, one or two murders is a tragedy. A million is a statistic. Nobody cares about that. That's what he's saying.
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So Jonah is totally asleep. So I find it interesting that Jonah was encouraged to pray, and yet we never read anything that he did pray. He evidently was at the point of not wanting to live, and he thought that somehow his death would cause God not to have mercy upon the Assyrians.
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Now, I think this is a valid point based upon what follows. So look in verse 7. And they said, Everyone 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 this evil is upon us.
#50 | 40:45 to 41:08 | cleaned
What is thine occupation, and which 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 made the sea and the dry land. Remember now, they're having problems with the sea right now. 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 unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea, so shall the sea be calm unto you.
#51 | 41:08 to 41:51 | cleaned
For I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you. Nevertheless the men rode hard to bring it unto land, but they could not, for the sea roared, and was tempestuous against them."
#52 | 41:51 to 42:02 | cleaned
Now there are two very important truths right here. The first one is this. that oftentimes heathen folks are more concerned with life than those who profess to be the worshippers of the one true and the living God. I find this absolutely astounding because here is Jonah who is supposed to be a preacher and supposed to be a prophet and supposed to be interested in the will of God, in glorifying God and in the lives of the people, and he's not even interested in helping save the lives of these mariners. Wow.
#53 | 42:02 to 42:39 | cleaned
How are we going to stop this tempest? Well, Jonah kind of smiles and says, oh, this is easy. Just pick me up, throw me in the sea, and everything will be calm under you. Do you get the idea that Jonah was only willing to die that he wanted to die? I want to show you this. Look at this. Look in verse 13. When he said, if you want this tempest to go away, just pick me up and throw me into the sea. Verse 13.
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Nevertheless, the men rode hard to bring it to the land, but they could not. For the sea wrought and was tempestuous against them. Did you see that? These men who were heathen, for whom Jonah had absolutely no compassion and no concern, were concerned about him, instead of just picking him up and throwing him over, which would be the easy way out, they rode hard to bring that ship to land. They did everything they could to keep from throwing Jonah into the deep." Wow! It's strange to me that sometimes the heathen have more concern for life than the righteous. The easy thing would have been to have just picked him up and pitched him in. Yay!
#55 | 43:15 to 44:13 | cleaned
He encouraged them to do it. Throw me in and it'll cease. Here's the second truth. The second truth, I think, is very, very profound. Jonah, in this instance, is an excellent illustration and an example of a New Testament truth. I want you to look in your Bibles, if you would, to Romans chapter 14 and verse 7. Romans 14 and verse 7. I want you to think as we read this verse. Jonah is an excellent illustration and example of this New Testament truth. Romans 14, verse 7 says, For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.
#56 | 44:13 to 45:07 | cleaned
If you cannot see this clearly, then you need to have your sight, your hearing, and your heart checked. Whatever you do, whether it is good or bad, right or wrong, righteous or unrighteous, whatever you do always affects other people. Oftentimes, it affects people that you do not even know. When Jonah fled from the presence of the Lord, he didn't know these mariners. And yet, he was the cause of the loss of all their wares, all their goods, all the money they'd invested in that, and almost became the cause of the loss of their lives. So mark this down. Whatever we do, whether it's good or bad, always affects someone else. You must remember this. Here it is.
#57 | 45:09 to 46:14 | cleaned
When you and I sin, we're only interested in ourselves. We're only interested in our lusts, our desires, what pleases and satisfies us. We're not concerned with others or the effects of what we do upon the lives of others. Just this month, a week or so ago, I forget exactly how many, but there was a July the 4th celebration and someone ran a car into this crowd. If I remember correctly, it was either a dozen killed or four or five killed and a dozen hurt.
#58 | 46:15 to 46:57 | cleaned
And the man was drunk. When he was drinking, he wasn't concerned about other people. He was only concerned about himself. I'm just pointing out the fact, whenever we sin, we're absolutely, totally selfish. Think about the homes. Think about the families that are destroyed because of pornography, fornication, adultery. We forget the impact that our actions have upon other people. If I ran out on Alice, let me ask you a question. Is that only going to affect my relationship with God? It's not only going to reflect and affect my relationship with her? What about our children? What about our grandchildren? What about our great-grandchildren? What about our friends? What about our family? What about the ministry? You follow what I'm saying?
#59 | 46:59 to 48:04 | cleaned
It's impossible for you and I to act independently in the sense that we never have any influence upon anyone else. We do. And usually whatever we do is bad and it always affects someone else. The positive side of that is, yes, we also have the privilege and the blessing of living a holy, godly, obedient life and affecting the lives of others through righteousness. But we cannot do one thing without affecting the lives of everyone else. It's just that simple.
#60 | 48:07 to 48:43 | cleaned
Now, so God sent that wind. And God, if you'll look in verse 17, prepared a fish especially for Jonah. 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. Do you realize? Probably Jonah thought that once they throw me into the sea, I'm going to drown. It's going to all be over.
#61 | 48:44 to 49:24 | cleaned
Well, it didn't work out like that. You know, a lot of people who commit suicide thought that once they killed themselves, it'd all be over. It's not. And they found that out after they died. But I'm just simply saying, folks, we cannot do one thing without affecting the lives of others. Alice and I were going down a dirt road this past week to avoid a train that had stopped. And we went by an old home place, and I pointed out to her where a neighbor shot and killed himself many, many years ago. I went to school with, I guess, I don't remember if it was a daughter or his niece. But after all these years, I remembered only that he had done it and how he did it.
#62 | 49:27 to 50:26 | cleaned
And you always consider what in the world was the effect it had on that young girl because it happened in her house. I'm just simply saying, no man liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself. It's not all over.
#63 | 50:32 to 50:48 | cleaned
Now, let me make some applications. The first one is this. Listen carefully to this question. Are you a Jonah? Are you running from the will of God for your life? Are you paying your own way to get away from God and His will and His Word? If you are a Jonah, and if you're running away from the will of God, then don't be surprised if God doesn't prepare something just for you, just like He did Jonah. God has a way of stopping us, of arresting us, and bringing us back to our senses. I've often said when God got through with Jonah, he might have smelled a lot like fish, but he felt a whole lot more like preaching.
#64 | 50:49 to 51:45 | cleaned
When that whale spit him out, I believe he went running straight to Nineveh. I'm just saying, folks, the safest place to be is always right smack dab in the middle of the will of God for you and for your life. I'm thankful that I don't have to doubt for the will of God for my life, in that one sense of the word, because He called me to preach, and that's what I've been doing for 60 years. I always laugh and smile when I say this, but when I was a boy, I wanted to be a preacher. Well, the only reason, Gary, I wanted to be a preacher was because they only worked on Wednesday and Sunday, and you could play the rest of the week. How wrong was I on that one? How wrong.
#65 | 51:49 to 52:37 | cleaned
And Alice, somehow when she was a little girl, she thought she'd end up marrying a preacher. And then when she married me, she said, well, I guess that was all down the road. But then God saved us both and called me to preach. And hey, that's where I am right now. I'm just simply saying I don't want to do anything else. That's all I ever want to do is to preach and teach the Word of God. So we've got to find out God's will for our lives and stay right smack dab in the middle of it. Here's a second application. I'm just going to reemphasize it.
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Whatever you do always affects others. Whether it's good or bad, right or wrong, righteous or unrighteous, you cannot escape the influence that you have on others. Whether it's your wife, your husband, your children, your grandchildren, your neighbors, your friends, you cannot escape it. You're either going to be a blessing to them or you're going to be a curse to them. Jonah teaches us that no man liveth to himself and no man died to himself. Lord willing, next week, I'm going to be bringing a message on chapter two. Run, Jonah, run.
#67 | 53:13 to 54:00 | cleaned
And so we'll see how God works in his life. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to Thee this day. We thank You for Your Word. We thank You for Your truth. We pray, Lord, that You would teach us and help us to make application to our lives. In the name of Jesus Christ, we ask and pray, Amen.
#68 | 54:00 to 54:20 | cleaned

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T16:25:40Z

Truths from the Life of Jonah

John Weaver | Freedom Ministries

John Weaver introduces a series on Jonah, emphasizing the Old Testament's equal inspiration and profitability with the New. He defends Jonah's historicity, citing 2 Kings and Jesus' testimony. The sermon explores Jonah's flight from God's commission to Nineveh, his disobedience, and the consequences, highlighting God's omnipresence and omniscience. Weaver draws applications about the cost of running from God's will and the inevitable impact of our actions on others.

Introduction and Scripture Reading

Weaver opens the sermon, directs the congregation to Jonah 1, and reads the entire chapter.

Scripture Reading — Jonah 1:1-17

And whence comest thou? what is thy country, and of what people art thou? 18 And he said unto them, I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which made the sea and dry land. 19 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. 20 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 unto them, 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 it as it pleased thee. So they took up Jonah and cast him forth into the sea, and the sea ceased from raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice, and the Lord had 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."

The Profitability of the Old Testament

Weaver argues from 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that all Scripture, including the Old Testament, is God-breathed and profitable for doctrine, correction, and equipping the believer.

The Historicity of Jonah

Weaver defends Jonah as a real historical person and prophet, citing 2 Kings 14:25 and Jesus' words in Matthew 12:40-41, and mentions modern accounts of men swallowed by whales.

Scripture Reading — 2 Kings 14:25

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 spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of

Gath-Hepher." So notice if you would, Jonah is specifically named, his father is named, he's designated as a prophet, and even the city from which he originated yet ever.

I'll cover this more next week.

Scripture Reading — Jonah 2:1-2

Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord God out of the fish's belly. And he said, I cried by reason of mine infliction unto the Lord, and He heard me. Out of the belly of hell I cried, and thou heardest my voice.

Jonah's Flight and Its Reasons

Weaver examines why Jonah fled to Tarshish instead of preaching to Nineveh, attributing it to his hatred for the Assyrians and his desire for their destruction, as seen in Jonah 4.

The Impossibility of Fleeing God's Presence

Weaver explains God's omnipresence and omniscience using Psalm 139, clarifying that Jonah was fleeing the manifest presence of God associated with the temple, not God's essential presence.

The Cost of Disobedience

Weaver notes that Jonah paid his own fare to flee, illustrating that running from God's will is costly, and contrasts this with God's provision for those in His will.

Jonah's Unconcern and the Mariners' Compassion

Weaver highlights Jonah's sleep during the storm and his lack of prayer, contrasting it with the heathen mariners' concern for life and their efforts to save Jonah.

The Ripple Effect of Our Actions

Weaver uses Romans 14:7 to teach that no one lives or dies to himself; Jonah's sin affected the mariners, and our actions always impact others.

Applications and Conclusion

Weaver challenges listeners to examine if they are running from God's will, warns that God may prepare a 'fish' to stop them, and reiterates that our actions always affect others.

Truths from the Life of Jonah

John Weaver | SermonAudio

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	SermonAudio
Media ID	7152412520349
Subject	New Testament Studies
Course	Romans: Law, Obedience, and Sanctification: Holiness and Obedience
Genre	Sermon
Date	2024-07-14
Dictation Name
Book	Book 135: Romans: Law, Obedience, and Sanctification - Volume 2 — Chapter 23
Source Timed Segments	68

Lecture Guide

Outline

Introduction and Scripture Reading: Weaver opens the sermon, directs the congregation to Jonah 1, and reads the entire chapter.
The Profitability of the Old Testament: Weaver argues from 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that all Scripture, including the Old Testament, is God-breathed and profitable for doctrine, correction, and equipping the believer.
The Historicity of Jonah: Weaver defends Jonah as a real historical person and prophet, citing 2 Kings 14:25 and Jesus' words in Matthew 12:40-41, and mentions modern accounts of men swallowed by whales.
Jonah's Flight and Its Reasons: Weaver examines why Jonah fled to Tarshish instead of preaching to Nineveh, attributing it to his hatred for the Assyrians and his desire for their destruction, as seen in Jonah 4.
The Impossibility of Fleeing God's Presence: Weaver explains God's omnipresence and omniscience using Psalm 139, clarifying that Jonah was fleeing the manifest presence of God associated with the temple, not God's essential presence.
The Cost of Disobedience: Weaver notes that Jonah paid his own fare to flee, illustrating that running from God's will is costly, and contrasts this with God's provision for those in His will.
Jonah's Unconcern and the Mariners' Compassion: Weaver highlights Jonah's sleep during the storm and his lack of prayer, contrasting it with the heathen mariners' concern for life and their efforts to save Jonah.
The Ripple Effect of Our Actions: Weaver uses Romans 14:7 to teach that no one lives or dies to himself; Jonah's sin affected the mariners, and our actions always impact others.
Applications and Conclusion: Weaver challenges listeners to examine if they are running from God's will, warns that God may prepare a 'fish' to stop them, and reiterates that our actions always affect others.

Major Themes

Key Arguments

The Old Testament is essential for Christian doctrine and life.

Weaver argues that without the Old Testament, a believer cannot be complete or thoroughly equipped for every good work.

He cites 2 Timothy 3:16-17 and explains the Greek words artios and exartizo, concluding that preachers who ignore the Old Testament are incomplete.

Jonah's flight was motivated by hatred for the Assyrians and a desire for their destruction.

Weaver contends that Jonah fled because he knew God was merciful and might spare Nineveh, which he did not want.

He references Jonah 4:1-2, where Jonah expresses anger at God's mercy, and describes the cruelty of the Assyrians.

Jonah was fleeing the manifest presence of God, not His essential omnipresence.

Weaver explains that Jonah's flight 'from the presence of the Lord' refers to leaving the land where God's presence was manifested in the temple.

He cites 1 Kings 8:11 and 2 Chronicles 5:14, where the glory cloud filled the temple, and applies it to the church today.

Disobedience to God always carries a personal cost.

Weaver asserts that when you run from God's will, you pay your own way, and God may send storms or 'great fish' to stop you.

He notes that Jonah 'paid the fare thereof' and later faced a tempest and the fish, contrasting with God's provision for those in His will.

Our actions, whether good or bad, inevitably affect others.

Weaver argues from Romans 14:7 that no one is an island; Jonah's sin nearly cost the mariners their lives, and our sins impact families and communities.

He uses the example of Jonah's storm endangering the ship and modern illustrations like drunk driving and adultery.

Scripture References

Jonah 1:1-17: Weaver reads the entire chapter at the beginning of the sermon.
2 Timothy 3:16-17: Used to establish the inspiration and profitability of all Scripture, including the Old Testament.
2 Peter 1:21: Cited to explain that holy men spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, supporting verbal inspiration.
2 Kings 14:25: Referenced to prove Jonah was a real historical prophet who prophesied during the reign of Jeroboam II.
Matthew 12:40-41: Jesus' testimony to Jonah's three days in the whale and the repentance of Nineveh, affirming the historicity of the account.
Job 7:12: Mentioned to show that whales were known to the ancients, supporting the plausibility of Jonah's experience.
Jonah 2:1-2: Read to show that Jonah prayed from the fish's belly and was conscious, indicating a special preparation by God.
Jonah 4:1-2: Cited to reveal Jonah's anger at God's mercy on Nineveh, explaining his initial flight.
Psalm 139:1-12: Expounded to teach God's omniscience and omnipresence, showing the impossibility of fleeing His essential presence.
1 Kings 8:11: Used to illustrate the manifest presence of God in the temple, which Jonah was fleeing.
2 Chronicles 5:14: Similar to 1 Kings 8:11, showing the glory cloud filling the temple as God's manifest presence.
Jonah 4:11: Quoted to show God's compassion for the 120,000 children in Nineveh, contrasting with Jonah's lack of concern.
Romans 14:7: The key New Testament verse applied to Jonah's situation, teaching that no one lives or dies to himself.

Historical References

James Bartley (1891 whaling incident): Weaver recounts the story of a whaler swallowed by a whale and rescued after 16 hours, as a modern parallel to Jonah's experience.
Assyrian Empire and its cruelty: Weaver describes the Assyrians as mortal enemies of Israel, known for inventing crucifixion by impalement, to explain Jonah's hatred.
Mel Trotter (conversion and ministry): Weaver tells the story of Mel Trotter, a drunkard saved at a gospel meeting, who later used a neon sign to deter sin, illustrating God's omnipresence.
Joseph Stalin (attributed quote): Weaver references Stalin's alleged quote about one death being a tragedy and a million a statistic, to illustrate Jonah's lack of concern for the many.
July 4th celebration car incident: Weaver mentions a recent event where a drunk driver killed or injured people, as an example of how sin affects others.

Important Quotes

All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for correction, for instruction or reproof, and also that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished under all good works.

Weaver quotes 2 Timothy 3:16-17 to establish the foundational premise that the Old Testament is equally inspired and profitable.

The Bible is just as much the Word of God as if God spoke every single word of it with His own lips.

This statement encapsulates Weaver's high view of verbal inspiration, emphasizing the divine authority of Scripture.

The omnipresence of God means that God is everywhere at one time in the totality of His being.

Weaver defines God's omnipresence to correct potential heresy and to explain why Jonah could not truly flee from God.

Whenever you're running from God, it's going to cost you.

A key application drawn from Jonah paying his own fare, warning that disobedience carries personal consequences.

The safest place for any child of God is right smack dab in the middle of God's will.

Weaver's practical exhortation to remain in God's will, contrasting with Jonah's dangerous flight.

For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.

The central New Testament truth (Romans 14:7) that Weaver uses to show the ripple effect of Jonah's sin on the mariners.

When you and I sin, we're only interested in ourselves.

Weaver diagnoses the selfish nature of sin, contrasting it with the inevitable impact on others.

When God got through with Jonah, he might have smelled a lot like fish, but he felt a whole lot more like preaching.

A memorable, humorous summary of God's corrective work in Jonah's life, leading to obedience.

Discussion Questions

[Question]

How does understanding the Old Testament as 'God-breathed' and profitable change the way you read and apply it?

[Context]

Weaver emphasizes that all Scripture, including the Old Testament, is inspired and necessary for spiritual maturity.

[Question]

Why do you think Jonah was so resistant to preaching to Nineveh, and what does that reveal about his heart?

[Context]

Weaver explains Jonah's hatred for the Assyrians and his desire for their destruction, as seen in Jonah 4.

[Question]

In what ways might Christians today try to 'flee from the presence of the Lord' as Jonah did?

[Context]

Weaver discusses fleeing the manifest presence of God, such as avoiding church or God's commission.

[Question]

What are some modern examples of 'paying the fare' when running from God's will, and what has been the cost?

[Context]

Weaver notes that Jonah paid his own way to Tarshish, illustrating the personal cost of disobedience.

[Question]

How does the truth that 'no man liveth to himself' challenge the way you view your personal choices and sins?

[Context]

Weaver applies Romans 14:7 to Jonah's situation, showing that his sin endangered the mariners.

[Question]

Why do you think the heathen mariners showed more concern for Jonah's life than Jonah showed for theirs?

[Context]

Weaver contrasts the mariners' efforts to save Jonah with Jonah's indifference and sleep.

[Question]

What 'great fish' has God used in your life to arrest you and bring you back to His will?

[Context]

Weaver suggests that God prepares specific means to stop those who are running from Him.

Applications

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-06T07:10:14Z