Sermons on Biblical Characters | Page 9

religious program and look at it? What
does discipleship cost you? What is involved in your allegiance to the
Lord? Coming to church once or twice a month on Sunday mornings
and making a small contribution. Only this and nothing more. The
Sunday School is not your burden. The prayer meeting is not your
burden. Visiting the new members that have recently come into our
Church and into the Kingdom and need your help is not your

responsibility. Helping by your presence and by your prayers to give
spiritual fervor to all the services, is not your responsibility. Yours is to
make your way up to the doors of the House of Many Mansions by and
by without ever having made one single costly sacrifice in order to
follow the Lord.
Are you running away from your duty this morning? You know what it
is. At least you may know it. This is a needy world. This is a needy
Church. It has an opportunity to touch the uttermost parts of the earth if
it is spiritually alive and spiritually mighty. Are you making your
contribution? Are you accepting your responsibility or have you turned
your back upon it for no other reason than just this, that it is too much
trouble? If that is true of me and if that is true of you, may the Lord
wake us up this morning and give us to see our deadly danger.
So Jonah turned his back on his duty and turned his back on God. He
took ship for Tarshish and went to sleep. Surely his situation is critical
indeed. But though he has forgotten God, God in His mercy has not
forgotten him. God still loves Jonah, still longs for him and still hopes
for him. And so in mercy He sends a storm after him. That was
dangerous cargo that that ship had on board. It had better have had
gasoline or T N T than a rebellious prophet.
It was in mercy, I say, that the Lord sent the storm after Jonah.
Coverdale translates it, "The Lord hurled a storm into the sea." Let us
thank God for the storms that rouse us, that wake us up, that keep us
from sleeping our way into the pit. May the Lord send us any kind of
storm rather than allow us to fling ourselves eternally away from His
presence. I am so glad God will never allow a man to go comfortably
and peacefully to eternal death. He never allows any man to be lost
until He has done His best to save him.
I read some years ago of a New England farmer who was driving to
town on a cold winter's day. He overtook a woman on the way who was
walking and carrying a baby in her arms. He took her up on the seat
beside him. The cold became more bitter. He noticed after a while that
the woman replied to his questions drowsily. A little later he saw that
she was asleep. Ho knew that unless awakened she would sleep the

sleep of death. So he did what at first seemed a cruel thing. He sprang
from the wagon, dragged her out into the snow and took the child from
her clinging arms. With the child he sprang into the wagon and started
his team down the road at a trot. The woman roused herself and began
to totter feebly forward. A little later she quickened her pace. At last
she broke into a run. And as she caught up with the wagon a little later
and the farmer put the baby back into her arms, life had come back to
the mother. A temporal loss was a blessing to this woman. Let us thank
God for any losses that may come to us that will keep us from sleeping
our way to ruin.
So Jonah was down in the sides of the boat asleep. Meanwhile the
tempest was raging. Meanwhile the fear-filled crew was rubbing
elbows with death. Then a hand is clapped on Jonah's shoulder and he
is being given a vigorous shaking and a voice is calling to him. And
though it is a heathen voice it is full of rebuke. "What meanest thou, O
sleeper? How is it that you can sleep amidst all the agony, amidst all
the danger that is about us? When the situation is as it is, how is it that
you are not on your knees? Else and call upon thy God."
I wish through this message that I might take some of you who are
sleeping so soundly and peacefully and shake you awake. I wish that
God might speak through my voice to my heart and yours and say to us,
"What meanest thou,