In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of following God's leading and being devoted to the Savior. He compares the opportunity to work and earn money to the opportunity to change lives and save souls. The danger lies in becoming attached to material wealth rather than listening to God's voice. The speaker also discusses the possibility of being afraid of blessings and not fully embracing the mission God has for us. The sermon references the story of Jonah and highlights the lessons that can be learned from his experiences.

We turn this morning to the Book of Jonah. We're going to skip over that, and we're just going to look at a more familiar book this morning, that's the Book of Jonah. And tomorrow in the will of God, we'll pick up Malachi, and then I will have told you all I know. The Book of Jonah. The outline of this book is easy, it just goes according to the chapters. It almost stares at you from the very pages. Chapter one has to do with the disobedience of the prophet, the disobedience of the prophet, chapter one. Chapter two has to do with the deliverance of the prophet, the deliverance of the prophet, chapter two. Chapter three, the declaration of God's message by the prophet, the declaration of God's message by the prophet. And then, chapter four, the displeasure of the prophet. Let's turn to chapter one and just read a portion of this wonderful chapter. Chapter one, verse one. 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 has come up before me. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa. 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. 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 one unto his God, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship unto the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship, and he lay and was fast asleep. So the shipmaster came to him and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God, if so be, that God will think upon us, that we perish not. They said, Every one whose fellow come, let us cast lots, that we may know, for he who causes evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lots 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 whence comest thou? What is thy country? And of what people art thou? And he said unto them, I am in Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land. 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 contemptuous. 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 the land, but they could not, for the sea wrought and was contemptuous against them. Therefore 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 it innocent blood, for thou, O Lord, hast done a deceiving thing. So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea, and the sea ceased from her racing. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord, and made vows. Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Jonah's name means dove, d-o-v-e, the dove. And he lived in the time when Israel was menaced by Assyria. And of course the capital of Assyria, and you really would get the picture perhaps a little more clearer if you thought of, and God telling him to go to Moscow and he repented to the Russians. Jonah was intensely nationalistic, he was intensely loyal, and there was one thing he didn't want to happen, and that was if anything good should come to it. He pretended to Nineveh. He knew that if the Ninevites repented, God would prophet. In fact, from all the prophets, there's a difference about this. From now on, the prophecy in Jonah is not so much as in what happened to you, but what you said that he did prophesy, that he did, happened to him. For instance, in the New Testament, we learn that he gave pain to the Lord Jesus Christ, and he gave him a sign from heaven, that there shall be no sorrow. In other words, the Lord Jesus Christ spoke to you, and this was to be the consummation. Of course we know that in spite of that sign, he was headed up in that particular hour. Now people have some difficulty with that subject of three days and three nights. Any part of an owner was counted as an owner. In other words, any part of three days, of a day and a night, and three nights, people themselves. And this is brought up very clearly in this book. You know, God originally taught sin and iniquity, as it were. Before the Jews, I told everyone that the Gentiles couldn't reach God and expect God to be different from all the rest of them. They were a witness to the Gentile Jesus, God, and Testament. Of course, when you have it in the book of Jonah, to Nineveh, we went to the Lord Christ, as it were. And then you have, before I go on, but it's an interesting thing to me, in that when I talk to Jewish people today, they always make a great point to emphasize to me that a Jew will never seek to convert a Gentile to Judaism. They boast about this. No Jew will ever seek to convert a Gentile to Judaism. If you want to become a Jew, you can. That's the insight, and we ask the question, and if you decide you will use any evangelistic deal to get you to become a Jew. And what a striking fulfillment that is. Well, then you have God's punishment upon the Jewish people for their failure to be a testimony to him, and you have that typical sea invariably. He swallowed by miracles, of course, and the world has now been dispersed and assimilated by the Gentile nation. It's no different than any other people on the earth. So people are Jews, and photographs will come, and you'll find the Jews, they talk with a strapped accent, but they're still Jews. And all over the world, the same is true in China and in Japan. As far as you look into the future, this is how. Good news to the city of Nineveh, the people of Israel, and in the New Testament, it's in keeping with the Book of Mormon. God so loved the world, and finally went to Noah, and blessings, unparalleled blessings, will flow through this channel. ...verse 6... ...be the record... ...that life... ...he... ...nation... ...to a great... ...to Jonah... ...traveling... ...journey... ...to a... ...and so that's a picture of millennial glory when, in a coming day, the Gentiles... ...study the Word of God... ...over... ...never stop... ...last few days... ...and I'd like to just speak for a little while this morning on this verse, and then some other... ...day unto him... ...tell us these phrases... ...for he... ...caught... And George went in and said, What's the matter? And there this fellow cries, and Lord, you know I can't give it up, you know I can't give it up. And he said, Well, what's the matter, fellow? He said, Are you afraid of a blessing? And that's what John was afraid of. He was afraid of a blessing. And Marjoram, the incomparable privilege that he had of going to Nineveh and really doing of God and the salvation of that city, and God spared that city for a hundred and sixty years after none of his evangelistic crusades. And did he do it? I don't know. It's possible that God has been speaking to some of us here at the conference. You know, nobody else would know, but maybe you know that God has been speaking very loudly, and there's something he wants you to do, and there's a holding back. There's a seemingly nothing to go on with it. But I don't know, but maybe the Lord would save you from the Book of Jonah this morning. What's the matter? You afraid of a blessing? God never asks us to do anything, but what he has on this blessing in store for us is to do it. And then just one final thought, in connection with the Book of Jonah, and that is that I really shouldn't be too high on Jonah, because he lived on the other side of the cross. He really did. And we have a motive that he didn't add to the thing he said. What is it? Calvary. The love of Christ that is the frame of us, because we thus said that if one died for all, then we are all dead, and that he died for all that they which live should not live, but unto him which died for them and rose again. Jonah might have been grimly, and this is the greatest of all motives.