0:01 Welcome once again to Words of Life. Today in our study through the Bible, we are going to look at the book of Jonah. Most Christians know the story. There are between my Isaiah and Malachi, 0:24 there are 16 prophets who wrote their books. And out of those 16 prophets, Jonah was the only one who did not prophesy anything to Israel or Judah. God did not give him any message for 0:49 Israel or Judah. He prophesied only to Nineveh. And his prophecy was just about one sentence, that's all. And the book of Jonah itself is not a prophecy, it's a story. He probably wrote it himself in the 1:12 third person. And it's a story that illustrates God's tremendous love for all the nations of the world. We could say that Jonah is the great 1:32 missionary book of the Old Testament. You see two things here. The narrow-heartedness of Jewish people and the large-heartedness of God. And God's concern and love 1:54 even for the most wicked nation on Earth. Cuz Assyria was a very wicked nation and its capital was Nineveh. And when God wanted to send a messenger 2:12 to Nineveh, he chose Jonah. Jonah should have seen that that was a tremendous honor. Because he would be the first prophet of God to the outside world. 2:30 To the non-Jewish nations. But he almost missed that privilege by his disobedience. We see here another thing and that is how much God is dependent on a human channel 2:48 to give his message. Thousands of angels would have readily gone to Nineveh with this God's message. But God uses men 3:06 and women. The angel who came to Cornelius' house could not tell him the gospel message even though he knew it. God used had to use a man. And we also see here that until God's 3:29 man is ready, God has to wait. Just like in the case of Moses. Israel was ready to be delivered from Egypt, but Moses was not ready. And so Israel had to wait till Moses was 3:49 ready. Nineveh should have got that message from God much earlier. But God's messenger had gone off in another direction. So Nineveh had to wait. God had to prepare his message first. 4:14 Peter was prejudiced and unwilling to go to the Gentiles and Jonah was prejudiced and unwilling to go to the Assyrians. Prejudice against certain people or certain nations or certain communities 4:32 is very deep-rooted in all of us. And what we learn from Jonah's example and Peter's example is if that God is not able to remove that prejudice, then 4:52 it's very difficult for him to use us in his service. He may still use us even with our prejudices. He will be limited in what he can do 5:12 through us. Why? Cuz God's heart is much larger than ours. And he's always trying to enlarge our heart. To be open to certain people whom he is 5:29 open to, but we are not open to. To accept certain people whom he has accepted, but we don't accept. This problem is there even among Christians. You can't accept certain other 5:50 Christians because of prejudice. God has accepted them. But this group of Christians can't accept that. And who's the loser? 6:08 The ones who are narrow-hearted. So I hope we can learn something from here to be large-hearted in this book. Nineveh was about 600 km east of Israel. Of course, that was a long journey to 6:29 walk. It would take many days to get there. But that is not the main reason why Jonah didn't want to go. Everyone in the world hated the Assyrians because they were so cruel. 6:50 And Jonah did not want those Assyrians to repent of their sins. Because he knew if they repented, God would spare them and would not punish them. And he wanted God to destroy them. Otherwise, he thought one day they'll 7:12 come and attack Israel and destroy Israel. So we can say Jonah was a patriot who wanted to stand up for his nation. Many of us can make the same mistake. 7:34 An Indian Christian can sometimes be more Indian than Christian. And he can have a prejudice against others because of his Indianness of his nature and life. We see many others like that. 8:01 I've seen many American Christians who are more American than they are Christian. Their country is the big thing for them. But Jonah was like that. And all such people are narrow-hearted. We have to be careful that our love for 8:20 our country does not hinder us from doing the will of God. From accepting all of God's people. There are two sections in this book. The first two chapters deal with Jonah's first commission and the next two 8:39 chapters deal with his second commission. Jonah was clearly told to go to Nineveh and cry out against it in verse two. But Jonah went to Joppa instead and 8:57 found a ship and went off to Tarshish. Because Jonah had money to buy a ticket, he he missed the will of God. How blessed it would have been if at that time he had no money in his pocket to buy a ticket. When God tells us to go somewhere, 9:21 we want to go somewhere else. It'll be good if we don't have money to buy a ticket to that other place. Many Christians feel if I've got money, I can travel somewhere. Lots of people, particularly in Western 9:41 countries, they have a great lust to travel like tourists to different countries, poorer countries. God hasn't sent them. They got money in the bank, that's all. These are not spiritual people. 10:01 These are tourists. We should not entertain such people in your churches. Jonah was a tourist here. What is he going to Tarshish for? Yeah, Tarshish is a good place to go and do some sightseeing. And you got the money. 10:23 As a Christian worker, you got money. Can go as a tourist. That's how Jonah went. He was out of the will of God. Like a lot of Christian tourists today. Just because we have money, it does not mean it's God's will for us to go 10:42 somewhere. Just because you got money, it doesn't mean you can buy something. Money is a great deceiver. And the availability of money should not be the deciding factor on whether we go somewhere or buy 11:02 something. But to many Christians, that is. They don't know God. They operate exactly like the people in the world. And so, because God loved Jonah, 11:22 he sent a storm. Thank God for his love. For every storm that he sends across our path to prevent us from missing his will for our life. Thank you we are not sent the storm. 11:44 Jonah would have gone to Tarshish. Done his sightseeing. Come back. You'd never have We'd never have heard of him. He would not have had the supernatural experience. He would not have had this opportunity to be a type of Jesus Christ who was in 12:03 the grave for 3 days and 3 nights. Like Jonah was in the whale's belly. And somebody else would have got the privilege to go and preach to Nineveh. Thank God for the storm. 12:24 Sometimes, you know, inconveniences and storms and difficulties are in God's will for us. These godless idol worshipers in the ship, the sailors, 12:42 they were telling Jonah to pray. The others in the ship were much greater sinners than Jonah. But the storm came not because of them, 12:59 it came because of Jonah. What does that teach us? That when a child of God disobeys, that is much greater in God's serious in God's eyes than multitudes of other sinners doing something wrong. The Lord said in Amos 3:2, 13:23 because you are the only people on earth whom I have chosen. So, I have to punish you more than others. So, Jonah admitted his sin and said, "Please pick me up and throw me into the sea." They were afraid of God and they didn't 13:42 want to do it. They tried their best to save him. But finally, they threw him over. And as soon as he was thrown over, we read that the Lord, verse 17, 14:01 appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah. We don't know whether it was a whale or whatever. But there was some huge fish that could keep a man inside its stomach. And Jonah was there 3 days and 3 nights. 14:23 Just like Jesus when he died, went down to the heart of the earth, paradise. And in the spirit, he was there in paradise for 3 days and 3 nights while his body was lying in the grave. And then we read in chapter 2, verse 1, 14:42 then Jonah prayed. And that's after the after the 3 days and 3 nights. See, it says Jonah was there 3 days and 3 nights, and then Jonah prayed, which means after that. So, what was he doing for 3 days and 3 15:04 nights? I think he was doing what we would do when we are in a difficult situation. We'd try our best to get out of that difficult situation. So, he must have been trying to crawl out of the stomach of the great fish. And every time he tried to climb the he 15:26 would slip back. That slimy belly of the fish would come back into the belly itself. And after 3 days, he said, "Oh, I might as well pray." See, that's how we do it, too. 15:47 When we first get into a difficult situation, we don't usually pray. We contact people to help us. We try ourselves. And when everything fails, then we pray. 16:03 So, Jonah prayed after 3 days of trying. And then he begins to pray. And this is what he said. I called out of my distress to the Lord. I cried for help. Thou has cast me into the deep. None. I 16:21 was put into the heart of the seas. Wherefore I've been ex- I thought I'd been expelled from his sight and so on. Nothing happened. While I was fainting, the Lord I remembered the Lord. And he is saying all these things. 16:45 And nothing happened. Then finally, in verse 10, he started praising the Lord. Till then, he was saying about what all had happened. I will sacrifice to thee with the voice 17:02 of thanksgiving. And the moment he is began to thank the Lord, he said, "Salvation is from the Lord." Then, then means at that point, the Lord commanded the fish to vomit 17:19 Jonah up onto the dry land. There's a principle here. Psalm 50:23 says, "Whoever offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving makes a way thereby for me to show him 17:37 my deliverance." That's how Jehoshaphat got delivered in 2 Chronicles 20. When we pray, that doesn't prove we have faith. But when we praise God, that proves we 17:57 have faith. I didn't have the faith to do it correctly. You can pray from your heart sincerely, and there may not be faith. But when you praise God sincerely from your heart, that's the proof of faith. But especially when this problem is not 18:16 yet solved, and you still praise the Lord. To say, "I praise you, Lord. Salvation comes from you." And when you have done that, you make a way for the Lord to deliver you. Then the Lord will command something to 18:35 deliver us to set you free. But that's what we see here. Then, the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. Thank God that if we have failed once, there is a second time. And that's a good thing. That's one of 18:55 the great messages in the book of Jonah. God wants to give you another chance. And he'll give you a third chance. He's not just the God of the second chance. Because most of us have lost our second chance long ago. He is the God of one more chance. 19:21 You may have failed a number of times. If you repent wholeheartedly, you can still come back to the Lord. So, now Jonah has learned his lesson. He decides he will go. And he went to Nineveh quite gladly now. And the city itself was so great that it 19:42 says in verse 3 that it took 3 days to walk from one end of the city to the other. And he kept on crying out every day, 40 days in Nineveh will be overthrown. Here is an unknown Israeli prophet coming and saying something in the 20:02 world's biggest city. And his message is only one sentence. And it says from the king down to the poorest man, they all repented, verse six. How powerful was this message? 20:26 You know, when the Holy Spirit backs up something, you don't have to be a very impressive preacher. You don't have to preach very long, either. Thousands are convicted with one sentence. This is the greatest and quickest 20:48 revival that ever took place in the history of the world. When God is able to deal with his servant, then even one sentence anointed by God has great power. God's not been able to deal with you. 21:12 Then even a many hours will not produce revival. You know, God was merciful to this city even though he knew that later on they would do much evil. Because God deals with us as we are now, 21:30 not as we are going to be in the future. If you repent now, you're forgiven. I even though God may know that 5 years from now you're going to be a backslider. His name is I Am. 21:54 Not I will be. He deals with you as you are at present. Now, we would have thought that 120,000 people repenting should have excited any preacher. But Jonah is upset. 22:14 He's upset because his prophecy is not fulfilled. And again, the old patriotism comes up that Nineveh will now repent and they won't be destroyed. Are you like Jonah? Is there someone on earth whom you don't 22:33 want God to bless? Are you unhappy if God blesses somebody whom you don't like? Somebody who's troubling you and God is blessing them? What about you? 22:52 And me? Didn't God bless us when we didn't deserve it? We deserved only hell. But God blessed us. Rejoice when God blesses somebody else. And the Lord teaches Jonah a lesson by allowing a little plant to grow up over 23:11 his head in chapter four. And the next day a worm destroyed it. And Jonah was very upset because he had to sit in the hot sun. And the Lord says, "You have compassion 23:30 on this plant, for which you didn't do any work. It came up in one night and perished in one night. And don't you think I should have compassion on Nineveh where there are more than 120,000 persons?" God's compassion is so great. 23:55 The more we come into fellowship with God, the more we will share his burden for a lost world. If you're an evangelist, he'll give you a compassion for lost souls. If you're If you're a teacher, he'll give you a compassion for believers who 24:14 are blinded and deceived. And you are not entering into a life of victory. I will in my day to life receive the glory. Compassion, fellowship with the heart of God is the secret of all ministry. That's what we learn from this passage. 24:37 And every one of us can have a ministry. It's not It's not enough just to say the right words. We must get into fellowship with God's heart. So, let's pursue that. And when if you have failed, like Jonah, you can come back to a ministry and 24:56 fulfill God's will. God bless you. Welcome once again to Words of Life. We are studying through the Bible book by book. And now we have reached the book of 25:13 Micah. It's good to get familiar with these lesser-known books at the end of the Old Testament. All of them have a message for our time. As we have seen in the last few 25:34 sessions, now here in the book of Micah, we read about corrupt leaders and God's authority. Micah lived at the same time as the prophet Isaiah. And he prophesied in Israel and in 25:55 Judah. His message was like most prophets, primarily to the religious leaders. And he was hitting out at them for exploiting poor people, misusing their privilege of serving God. 26:24 Just like many Christian leaders today. It's amazing to see how these Old Testament prophets had a tremendous concern for poor people. Especially poor people who are being deceived and led astray by covetous preachers. They were sharing God's concern for 26:48 these poor people. In the first three chapters, we read of God's judgment on Samaria, which is the capital of Israel and Judah. And Micah asked the people to listen to 27:10 him because the Lord is coming down to accuse them. In chapter two, we see the sins that these leaders were guilty of. You know, whenever God speaks to the leaders, it's good for all of us who are elders 27:30 and preachers of God's word, sit up and listen, and examine ourselves. See what he says here. In Micah chapter two, verse one and two. How terrible it's going to be for you 27:49 people who wake sit awake at night thinking up evil plans. You rise up in the morning and hurry up to carry out those schemes. And you have the power to accomplish it. 28:11 When you want a certain piece of land, you find a way to grab it. You find somebody's house, you find a way to get it by cheating. And with people like you, nobody is safe. He cannot have Nobody can have his 28:30 even have his family inheritance. Here are religious leaders. They're using their power to exploit the poor and rob them. It was like telling a man who's just 28:46 gotten an inheritance from his father, "Brother, give it for the Lord's work." "Sell it and give the money here." Where does the money go? Into the preacher's pocket. 29:06 He uses that poor man's inheritance to go and buy a property for himself. Or for his children. This is the type of cheating that went on in those days. Urge poor widows to pay their tithes. 29:28 And use the money to live in great luxury yourself. See, it's perfectly all right for a servant of the Lord to receive gifts from others. Because the Bible says 1 Corinthians 9:14, the Lord has directed those who preach 29:48 the gospel can get their living from the gospel. But you can't get your living from people who earn less than you. If you take money from a poor person, you must live at a standard lower than him. You have absolutely no right to live at 30:11 a standard higher than the person from whom you take money. It's absolutely un-Christian. Jesus would never have done it. But this is what many Christian pastors and preachers around the world are 30:30 doing. And when I rebuked and corrected many people for this, they defend themselves. They find some justification from here and there. Elijah took food from a widow. 30:51 But Elijah gave her more than a thousand times back what she gave him. If she He didn't just tell her the Lord will bless you like many preachers say today. He himself gave hundreds of meals back 31:10 to her and she gave one meal to him. One rich couple blessed Elisha by giving him a place to stay in their house. He blessed them by raising their son 31:28 from the dead. They're not like today's preachers who just collect the money and go away and say God will bless you. They don't even know these people. They don't even find out whether God has blessed them. You are listening to me. Don't be fooled 31:51 by these deceivers. This is what is happening today. That's why God's grace departs from them even if they have a gift to preach. I'm not preaching what I'm not practiced. I left my job to serve the Lord 40 years 32:12 ago. And in 40 years I've never taken money from someone who's poorer than me. I support myself. I don't believe it's right. Poor people have a right to give money 32:29 for the Lord's work. But if your living hand standard living is higher than theirs, put that money in the offering box. Don't touch it yourself. The great tragedy today is Christian 32:48 workers do not know how to live simply like Jesus and the apostles lived. If you honor God like this, He will honor you. But I find that most preachers in the 33:07 world are not serious about such small things. The Lord says, chapter 2, verse 3, I will reward your evil with evil and you won't be able to escape. But the people said, 33:28 Oh, don't say such things, verse 6. Oh, nothing like that will happen to us. We are all right. But the Lord Micah said to them in verse 7, You think the Lord will have patience with your behavior? You steal the shirts from the back, 33:49 verse 8, of those who trust you. You evict women from their homes. And you rob their children of their rights. You 34:06 sold the land with sin. And if a prophet full of lies comes to you and says I'll preach to you about wine and drink, that's the type of prophet you want to listen to. Throughout history, in Old Testament and 34:28 New Testament, and in 2,000 years of church history in every nation, it has always been true of the Israelites and of Christians, that they always preferred to listen to 34:45 false prophets who tickle their ears. And they will say things to make them happy. Even among God's people, most of them don't care to listen to God's true prophets. So I want to say to you, if you want to 35:06 be a servant of God, you'll never be popular and you'll never be able to make money, that I can tell you. But in spite of all this, the Lord said, like He says today, verse 12, I will still gather a remnant. 35:23 There will be a few people always. Even though most of Christendom is in a backslidden condition, there is a remnant of God-fearing people on the earth who are seeking for God and who are leaving these Babylonian systems. 35:43 They're not found in one denomination. In a town, you may not find them all in one church. They may be in different churches. In one town, there may be a very good church. In one town, but the branch of that church in another 36:03 town may not be a good church. So there's no such thing as a remnant denomination. Only remnant groups of people. And wherever you go, you must ask yourself not which is the branch of my home church. But say, "Lord, where are you gathering 36:26 with your people in this town?" Don't have a loyalty to a denomination that leads you to a dead church. Now I want to read to you chapter 3 now. It's very interesting, the first five 36:44 verses. In the New Living Translation, it reads like this. You leaders of Israel, you're supposed to know right from wrong. You know it. 37:05 And you say that you know it. And you're But you're the ones who hate the good and love the evil. You skin my people and strip them completely of what they have. You devour them and flog them and break 37:24 their bones and chop them up like meat for the cooking pot. Then when you're in trouble, you plead to the Lord for help. You think God will listen to you? He'll just turn the other way. 37:43 You false prophets, you lead God's people astray. to those who give you food. And those who don't pay you, you threaten them. Well, this is what God is saying to you, false prophets. 38:02 The night will surround you. Darkness will cover you and you'll never hear a word from God. The sun will go down on you and your day will end. And then you'll have to admit that your 38:19 messages never came from God. 2,600 years ago, in Micah's time, preachers loved those who gave them large gifts. And prophesied comforting messages to 38:38 them. The same thing is happening today. With the abundance of false prophets. If some poor brother could not invite one of these prophets for a rich meal to his house, they just despised them and threatened 38:58 them. You think such people are servants of God? They're just like the false prophets in Micah's time. They claim to see visions of God, chapter 3, verse 5 to 7. They talk about visions. 39:18 It's all a deception. But Micah says, I'm different. Non-Christian, verse 8. I'm filled with the spirit of the Lord and with boldness and courage, I make known to Jacob his rebellious acts and his sin to Israel. That may sound like boasting. It's 39:43 not boasting. Micah is just It's not boasting. Micah was just saying I'm different from these other preachers. As servants of God, we need to say that. Paul also said that in 2 Corinthians 11. He says I didn't charge you anything 40:00 when I preached the gospel to you. Because I wanted to show that I'm different from the other preachers who preached to you. Paul did not serve God for money. Micah had a lot to say to these preachers who served for money in 40:18 chapter 3. See for example in verses 9 to 12. He says, "Listen to me, you leaders of Israel. You take bribes. What is bribes? You get money in order to preach a comforting message to a person. That's a 40:38 bribe. And you priests and prophets, you won't preach or prophesy until you're paid. And you keep preaching everything is okay. The Lord is here among us. No harm can come. Why did the Old Testament prophets like 40:59 Micah speak so much about the corruption of the preachers in those days? Well, that was what was destroying God's people. People wonder why I speak so much about the corruption of preachers in this time. It's the same reason why those prophets 41:21 said it in their time. Those false prophets said they are depending on the Lord. But they were not depending on the Lord. They were depending on the rich people. To get a salary from them. 41:40 And we got to be careful. Then chapter 4 onwards, he Micah speaks about the coming kingdom of Christ. Here he preaches about the future. He first prophesied the Babylonian captivity in verse 10. He says, "Like a woman in childbirth, go 42:02 to Babylon. But I will rescue you, he says, and deliver you from the grip of your enemies. But Micah said this 100 years before it actually happened. At a time when Babylon was an unknown 42:19 little country. That's how we know it's a real prophecy from God. Then chapter 5 verse 1 is like a dual prophecy. First about Zedekiah, the last king of 42:38 Judah, who will be smitten on the cheek when he's taken to Babylon. Secondly, about the real ruler of Israel, Jesus, who will also be smitten on the cheek. And that ruler, verse 2, will be born in 42:59 Bethlehem. After Zedekiah was taken to Babylon, there were no kings in Judah for 500 years. The next king was Jesus, born in Bethlehem. And that's the verse which the priests 43:21 told Herod when the wise men were asking, "Where is the king of the Jews born?" It's a lovely verse here in verse 7 to 9. The remnant of Jacob should be like dew from the Lord. Like showers on vegetation. 43:46 That's how we should be among the worldly people. I'm bringing the freshness of God to them. In chapter 6, we read about the controversy God has with his people. It's like a court scene where God says, 44:05 "This is my complaint." State your case against me. And let the mountains and hills listen to your complaints. He says, "What have I done to you? I brought you out of Egypt. I redeemed you. 44:24 Why have you turned away from me? What have I required from you?" That's a lovely verse, verse 8. "What does the Lord require of you? Three things. It's a very lovely verse that you must always remember. First of all, do justice. 44:46 Do what is right in every situation. Never show partiality. Secondly, love mercy. Rejoice in forgiving others. In doing good to them. Treat everyone mercifully. Don't be hard on anybody. You also made mistakes. Be merciful to 45:08 them. And also make allowance for the fact that they may not have light on what they are doing. If you're merciful like this, God will be merciful to you. And third, this is the secret of everything. 45:26 Walk humbly with your God. A humble attitude will bring the grace of God to you. To be to walk in humility means to recognize without Christ you can do nothing. And that you are a nobody. 45:46 Even though God values you, you don't yourself think you're somebody great. See in verse 6 and 7, he speaks about religious rituals. And in verse 8, he speaks about this 46:03 attitude that I spoke of. These are two different types of religions. One majors on rituals and rams and rivers of oil and all that. The other majors on walking with God. Doing good to others. 46:26 Then in verses 9 to 14, Micah prophesies against the businessmen who are cheating others. He says, "Your home is full of treasures you got by cheating. You have told so many lies that you 46:44 can't even speak the truth now. You try to save your money, but it will all come to nothing finally. If you are rich, God wants to know how you made your money. Did you cheat somebody to get it? 47:05 God says here it's so hard nowadays, chapter 7 verse 4 to find an honest man. Godly people have perished from the land. The judge takes bribes. And the rich man pays the judge 47:25 to trouble somebody else. This is the type of thing happening even today. Godly men are rare to find everywhere. Verse 6. We find a verse with Jesus quoted. 47:43 In relation to discipleship. You know, Jesus said I didn't come to bring peace but a sword. And daughter-in-law is against mother-in-law and daughter is against mother and son is against father. And a man's enemies are from his own 48:02 family. That's here in Micah 7:6. When you read it here, it doesn't look as if it were about a verse of discipleship at all. See, some of these things these Old Testament prophets prophesied that a double meaning. And here's a wonderful word we can speak 48:26 to Satan, verse 7 and 8. I will watch expectantly for the Lord. He will hear me. Don't rejoice against me, my enemy. The Lord may punish me. I may dwell in darkness, but the Lord 48:44 will be a light to me. And God will bring me out of my darkness into the light. And I will see his goodness. And he will plead my cause. And I will see his righteousness. Then my enemy will see. 49:03 And shame will cover my enemy. The one who said, "Where is that God of yours?" And my enemy will be trampled under my feet. Those are good words for us to say to the devil. Finally, Micah concludes his prophecy 49:22 with verse 18, "Who is a God like you who pardons iniquity? Such your eyes to our sins. And your anger doesn't stay forever. You have compassion on us. Cast 49:40 our sins into the depth of the sea. The prophets always had a word of encouragement and hope for God's people after preaching judgment. So, remember this as we conclude. 49:58 God is always on your side against the devil. Praise the Lord. God bless you. Amen.
