I've got to sell a couple books. And I was given these to review. Here's one that I think very, very helpful by Patricia St. John, missing the way they could not enter in. How Israel missed God's rest. An excellent little book that will be at the bookstore. Then, of course, the Chicken Little series was Chicken Little Right. If you haven't read any of these, you'll find them very interesting and thought-provoking. And then here's one. That's rather interesting. I read about eighty-five percent of it. It's entitled Authors of Confusion. It deals with the charismatic movement. I don't think you'll find any heresy in this book. I'm not in complete agreement with the author on some of his interpretations of the Scripture, but basically I am. And so that book is available in the bookstore, and I suggest you take a look at it. It may be of help to you. I think I neglected last night to mention the great pleasure that has been for Mrs. Pilon and I to be with Mr. and Mrs. Taylor. I never knew this man, as I mentioned on Saturday night, and my heart has been blessed. And I'm getting his tapes, and I have a tape recorder that connects in the cigarette lighter in my car, and I'm going to listen to his ministry all the way up to Canada. And so I've appreciated it, and I know my heart has been tremendously blessed, refreshed, and challenging them not to forget those Bible readings over there in the music room with our brother McNeil. I was brought up in Bible readings and I hated them. You know why? Because some brother would sit there and he'd read out of the notes out of his Schofield Bible and then we'd sit there for four minutes and then someone else would do something else. But I've really been blessed because of the way our brother McNeil has conducted these Bible studies and I'm sure we've all benefited and learned. Our dear sister that sang this morning must have read my mind. I'll tell you I never had a song hit me anymore than her song because it goes exactly with the last chapter of Jonah. And I'm going to ask you to turn with me to that place. Jonah chapter four, actually chapter three in verse ten, you know the chapter The chapter divisions in our Bible are not necessarily inspired, and I think they would have been a lot better off if they had started chapter four with verse ten of chapter three, because that gives us the sense. Chapter three of Jonah beginning at verse ten, will you follow as I read. And the Lord God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them, and he did it not. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. And he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying when I was in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarsus, for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, and slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee my life from me. for it is better for me to die than to live. Then said the Lord, do us thou well to be angry. So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city and there made a booth for himself and sat under it in the shadow till he might see what would become of the city. And the Lord God prepared a gourd and made it to come up over Jonah that it might be a shadow over his head to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceedingly glad of the gourd. But God prepared a worm when the morning arose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. And it came to pass when the sun did rise that God prepared of the vehement east wind. And then the sun beat upon the head of Jonah that he fainted and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live. And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd. And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death. Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for which thou hast not labored, neither madeest it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. And should not I spare Nineveh that great city, in which are more than six-score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle. And God will bless to us, I am sure. this from his own word and shall we just ask his lesson. Father now help us in this aisle. May we see and hear these speaking to us through this dear prophet and we pray that whatever is said and done might redound to thy honor and glory. We place each one in thy hands, we place thy servant in thy hands right now and look to thee for Thy help and thy blessing, in Jesus' name. Amen. A city is singing this morning. If you would have gone into Nineveh that great city and you had gotten in a taxi cab or gotten on a bus or stood on a corner, you would have heard a group of people singing. And do you know what they would have been singing? To God be the glory great things He have done. Never before had such a meeting been held in the city of Nineveh, when a lone prophet with the marks of resurrection on his body moved into a city. And the result was that a city repented and a city was saved. There was not only rejoicing in that city, but look for a minute with me up into heaven. And watch those angels as they scurry down the golden street. And I can hear one saying to another, Have you heard the good news? Have you heard the good news? Do you know that a whole city has been saved? And there is joy in the presence of the angels of God because God has been pleased to move. A city singing. The courts of heaven are stirred. But let's take a look at Jonah. What do you suppose he was doing? Well, let me tell you what he was doing. He was sore. If you don't think so, look at Jonah chapter four, verse one. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. It seems that the very bottom of everything dropped out of his universe. You know why? Because his cup leaps. Here was a man who should have been in a city praising, and we find him in a booth pouting. Now I want to give you an outline of chapter four. Get your pencils ready. Here it comes. Here's the outline. Verse one, we have Jonah's displeasure and anger. Verses two and three, we have his prayer and request. Verses five and six, we have his plan and joy. Verses seven and eight, we have his trial and rebuke. And verses nine through eleven we have his question and silence. Now I'll give them to you again. Verse one, his displeasure and anger. Verses two and three, his prayer and request. Verses five and six, his plan and joy. Verses seven and eight, his trial and rebuke. And verses nine through eleven, his question and silence. Now, the only thing that God told this man, Jonah, to do was to deliver the message that all God asked him to do. God never said a word about results. God never said to his servant, Now, if you do this, then I'll do that, or something like that. He simply said, Jonah, deliver the message and leave the results with me. And my Christian friends, I don't know about you, but that's a difficult thing for me to do. I personally have had to learn this through bitter experience. It's hard to give the message of God, to teach that Sunday school class, to give out tracks, to work with those young people, to preach the gospel and preach your heart out, and then leave the results with God. Because Jonah is angry, you see, you know why he's angry? because God's will upset His plans. And this leads me to four or five things that I'd like to consider with you this morning. First of all, I see in this chapter Jonah peeved. You see, if you want to see a Christian soar, just come in contact with one who has plans have been changed by the Word of God. Listen, my Christian friends. It's something to know the will of God, but it's something else to do it. And if you don't think Jonah's peeve, look at chapter four, verse one again. And it displeased Jonah exceedingly. And he was very angry. I've been telling you about this preacher's prayer meeting. I've heard a lot of stories about that one. I want to give you another one this morning. In this particular prayer meeting that was held each week, as I mentioned in some of my previous messages, there was one man who always kind of got under the skin of the rest of the people. He would come in every morning after the weekend and he'd say, Brethren, what kind of a day or weekend did you have this past weekend? Well, most of the men were rather modest, you know, and some would say, Well, we got on pretty well or not so well or something like this. And then he'd straighten up and say, Well, brethren, if you would have been filled with the Holy Spirit, you would have had great meetings. And this friend I heard relate this story said, you know, after four or five years of that, you get sort of worn. And so one morning, it happened again, this man came in and this friend of mine who related the story said, he looked at me and he said, well, what kind of a meeting did you have yesterday? And the man looked at him and he said, well, better than we deserved. And of course the man straightened up again and said, Well, if you'd have been filled with the Holy Spirit, you would have had great meetings. And this man said, I couldn't stand it any longer. And he said, Listen, what about those men who had been filled with the Holy Spirit and killed? What about dear Stephen with his back up against the wall with the sticks and stones and staves being thrown at him and angry-faced men gnashing on him with their teeth? Wasn't he filled with the Holy Spirit? I want to ask this morning who can estimate the outreach of that meeting that day when the messenger of God was killed and finally stoned. Listen, it goes right on and on and it comes down to you and me today. Listen, I want to tell you something this morning and I need this. Don't let any of us be dictating to God regarding His will for your life or your ministry for the help, your ministry for God. Because listen, if you do, you'll find yourself where Jonah is this morning, peed. But I noticed something else. I noticed that Jonah prayed. Did you notice his prayer in verses two and three? In this state of mind, peeved, we hear Jonah pray. And it's a very interesting prayer. And it's a very revealing prayer as well. Look at verse two. 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 unto Tarsus. He said, I ran because I knew you. For I knew that thou art a gracious God and merciful. slow to anger and of great kindness and repentest thee of the evil. Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live." You know, as I read that prayer this morning, I believe that Jonah revealed himself. Did you notice this? The first thing he said is, I knew. What an indictment. What a judgment. I knew and I refused. Did you hear what our sister sang about this morning? I knew and I refused. To each of us who have been at the Bristol Conference this week, and I've been having conversations with so many, some of you have told me and with tears in your eyes that you know what God has been talking to you about. You knew. You say, I know. Listen, because you know and I trust because I know there rests upon our shoulders this morning, this last day of the conference, a tremendous responsibility. May it not be true of any of us who have come to the Bristol Conference to say, I knew and I refused. Jonah stands before us as he stands next to me this morning and he's condemned because a person who knows and doesn't do it is sin. James chapter four and verse seventeen therefore him who knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him it is sin. So as I read this prayer of Jonah first of all I notice that he reveals himself and he stands condemned. But then in this prayer, I also see something else. I see a revelation of God. You know, we speak of the revelation of God in the Old Testament, and it's sometimes it seems to me, especially those who are in so-called liberal circles, that they picture God as a great big bully. Well, I can say this to those people, they've never read their Old Testament of their Bibles. Did you notice Jonah's prayer? Verse two, I want to go right into the middle of it. Actually, he reaches back into Exodus chapter thirty-four and he says this, I know that thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, keeping your word. Here he says, I knew, I knew. He says to God, you're a great God. You know, as I read these words, I trust that you and I all get the message and get something, know something about God as Jonah knew about God. Look at what he says. Gracious, merciful, slow to anger, of great kindness. You see, as this man Jonah prays, he reveals himself. And he reveals his God. But he reveals something else. He reveals the heart of man. Did you notice all the personal pronouns in that prayer? I, me, mine. And then he ends up, listen. Lord, if I can't have my way, kill me. That's what he said. There are various ways of committing suicide. I heard of a man who keeps track just a file on suicides that are reported in their particular paper. He said, you know, it's amazing what you find. Not long ago, he said in one week there were six suicides in their city, and strange as it may seem, four of the six suicides happened to people who lived in areas where the homes were worth more than one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Here were people living for themselves, and they had absolutely nothing. Oh, let me tell you, self is a terrible monster. But you know, I've discovered something. There's one way that a man or a woman will never commit suicide, and that's by crucifixion. You see, this old eye of Jonah's And this old me of Jonas, wanting to have its own way, needs to experience crucifixion. Crucifixion with Christ, identification with Him, nailed to His cross, so that I can take my stand with the Apostle Paul and say, I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live yet not I. But Christ? liveeth in me. And here's Jonah. And as he prays, and he gives out all these wondrous truths, it's a tremendous prayer. You see Jonah. And you see your God. And I don't know about you, but I see myself. Who's our greatest enemy? Not your neighbors. Not the persons that live across the street. It's yourself. We not only see Jonah peed, we not only see that Jonah prayed, but I want you to notice Jonah's pleasure. Verse four. Then said the Lord, Doest thou well to be angry? And Jonah got on the telephone, and he called up the lumber yard, and he said, I'm going on a building project. Send me some tuba boards, and send me some raptors, I'm going to do some building. That's exactly what he did. Look at verse five. So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city. and there made a booth for himself, and sat under it in the shadow till he might see what would become of the city. And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceedingly glad of the gourd." Did you notice, as we've been reading in this fourth chapter, that we have several scenes This is a chapter of action. Great emotion seemed to play in this chapter upon the human heart. We see Jonah angry, very angry. So he goes on and he says, I'm going to build something. And he does. And right by that booth that Jonah built, God came in and pushed up a great big gourd. Now writers tell us that this kind of plant had great broad leaves. You know what happened? When Jonah saw his air conditioning system, he was glad. The sun was hot, was beating down on his head, and that gourd reached out its broad leaves and said to Jonah, You're sheltered. Jonah was glad. Here's a man that goes from sadness to gladness. Here's a man that goes from peace to pleasure in a moment. I want to say something this morning and I want to drive it home. Listen, my friends. The feelings of life are deceitful. Mark it down. The feelings of life are deceitful. I'm holding up this book. Mark it down. As far as I can recall in the Scriptures, there's only one man who went according to his feelings and he was deceived. You know who he was? Isaac. He was deceived by his son Jacob. He felt wrong. And so we have Jonah's peeve. And we have Jonah's prayer. And we have Jonah's pleasure. But I notice something else. I've got to get another pee in here. We have Jonah's precipice or his collapse. Look at verse seven. But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. And it came to pass when the sun did rise that God prepared a vehement east wind, and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah that he fainted, and he wished in himself to die and said, It is better for me to die than to live. And God said to Jonah, Doest thou want to be angry for the good. And Jonah says, I do well to be angry for you, God. I do well to be angry against you, God. And you see Jonah's precipice. And you see his collapse. Do you know why he collapsed? Because God prepared a worm. It's wonderful to be living in this modern day and age, and I'm thankful to be living in it. I think these are exciting times. I never lived on a farm. I was a city boy, but I married a farmer's daughter, and my farmer father-in-law taught me some very valuable lessons. In later years he became the general superintendent, a large insect sprayer manufacturing company where they have these large sprayers, you know, and they put certain kind of insecticide in it and they cover vast acreages at a time. With an application of one or two of these things and, you know, when they do that, their potato bugs just disappear. But when my father-in-law was a boy, it didn't work that way. And so he told me how he used to have to go with that little spray gun, you know, and walk down those rows of... And as he walked down those endless rows and tried to get rid of those potato bugs, I'm sure my father-in-law had a great doubt in his mind that potato bugs came from God. But you know, I've discovered something in quite a number of years of ministering to the people of God. Most of us collapse over this very thing. This is our problem. This is society's problem. Oh, we believe the gourds come from God. Oh, yes, we do. And we rest under those shady leaves, you know, and it's so lovely. And we fill our pockets with our money and our sprawling ranch homes and all the rest and have our lovely families and our pensions and our Social Security. But what about when the worms come and eat it away? What's that? And I have no doubt that every one of us has seen men and women in situations like this, and they drop off and they collapse. When their little gourd is nibbled off by a worm that is sent from God. I have a habit of marking up my Bible. I want to suggest that if you mark your Bible, that you mark something in verses six and seven. I have this marked in mine in verse six. And the Lord God prepared a gourd. Now notice in verse seven. But God prepared a worm, and you connect the two. Let me tell you, my Christian friends this morning, both Gords and worms come from God. They come from the hand of a sovereign God, who knows what's best for us. Do you know this? Do you really? You know when the days are bright, And everything's coming up, roses as we say, and there's a song in your heart, and you say, oh, isn't this great? Oh, this is great. Here I am at Bristol. It couldn't be better, but wait till you get home. What about those dark days? When the clouds darken your sky, and they begin to grapple with you and push you and pull you and dig you. What about those days? Gourds and words. Listen, do you believe they both come from God? Jonah didn't. Because of this, Jonah said, I'm peeved and I want to die. My Christian friends, I think we're all like this. Oh, we're glad when God gives and he gives and he gives, but when he ceases to give, what then? I want you to admit something in your presence. I've collapsed too. I want to share something with you this morning that I heard told as closely as I can. It was very early in the morning and the telephone rang in the home of one of the Lord's servants. And the caller on the other end of the line sounded very urgent as man could hear. And he said, I'm sorry to disturb you so early in the morning, but I wonder if you'd come right over to our house. I'll be right over, was the reply. The man said, what we've been fearing would happen has happened. And so this man went over to the house. He said he drove on the beautiful countryside, came up to a lovely home, parked his car, went to the door of that home and sat down with this little family at their breakfast table. The man whom I heard telling this story said, I wish you could have been there. As he came into the house just before he sat down with the family, the man whispered in his ear, Our little boy died this morning. He said, I thought maybe you ought to be here to talk to the children and help us tell them. So they sat down and they had their orange juice and their coffee and their toast. And then after they were through, this dear father said, now children, I want to talk to you this morning. Your mother and I were out late last night. You didn't know it. But we were at the hospital. And before we left the hospital, little Paul died. And the Lord's servant looked over at little Sarah. Her lip began to quiver. And then he looked over at the older boy. The tear began running down his cheeks. And this father said, now children, I want to explain it all to you. And when I've explained it all, then he pointed to the Lord's servant and he'll take over. He said, our little Paul went to be with Jesus. God gave him to us for a while and now he's taken him home. He said, someday you're going to ask God, oh, why did you do this? Why did you take him away? Why did you break up our family? Why did you make this thing come into our lives? And that dear father continued as calmly as he could. He says, you know, children, in our house we don't question God. God gave him to us. And now God has taken him away. As I heard that man telling that story, I wonder if you got the message that I did. Gorge and worms. The gorge was gone, and here was a man and his wife and their little family who sat together that morning in quiet confidence when they were brought face to the face with the fact that both gorge and worms come from God. When he was finished, he turned to that man of God and he said, do you have anything to say? The man was speechless. He said, let's pray. I don't know what he prayed about, but I have an idea. I think as he sat there with that little family that day, he thanked God for both gourds and worms because they both come from God. I want to ask you this morning, has this truth gripped our hearts? When that lovely gourd which has grown up over you and that booth suddenly begins to wither away and the leaves begin to drop on the ground, are you going to be like this man, Jonah? Would you be angry and say, why did God allow this thing in my life? Oh, the wonder of it this morning, oh, get this, both gourds and worms come from the hand of a sovereign God. Here's Jonah. He's angry. He prays. He's glad. He collects. But now God moves into the situation. I want to give you another P. This is God's prudence. God's sound judgment. Look at verse ten. Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for which thou hast not labored, neither madeest it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. And should not I have pity, same word as in verse ten. Should not I spare Nineveh that great city in which are more than one hundred twenty thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand and also much cattle? You talk about God. Well, he even thought of the cows. This is God. And Jonah, he's silent. And if I have one prayer this morning and I have one prayer only, that what God says to Jonah, God will say to me, No, we leave this conference this morning with a resolve to spread the tidings of God. And listen, my Christian friend, the cities to which we return are lost. We heard it in that song this morning. We go from this conference with a responsibility. Now notice what God said to Jonah. Oh, Jonah, you were happy for that booth. Oh, he said, I just loved it. It was so convenient, such a lovely kitchen, two baths. You know, I was so pleased with that booth. And God said to him, well, Jonah, how did you like your air conditioning system? Oh, that was tremendous. Why do you think that that gourd grew up and kept me cool and all the rest? And he said to Jonah, listen, Jonah, you were more concerned over booths and gourds. You were more concerned over what you could gather about you than over one hundred and twenty thousand lost people. More concerned about gourds and booths. My Christian friends, as I contemplate this this morning in these closing minutes, this strikes holy terror to my breast. Have you, have I pulled our little booth around us? Have we been able to switch on our little gourd? Have you tucked yourself away? Glad with all your pension, you know, and your company benefits, and you say, Oh, I'm glad we have so many things. And I am afraid in many of our lives the booth and the gourd have grown up and hidden our view. And in some instances it stopped us from seeing the reality of life. That song hit me this morning. There are lost men and women. And I believe that this having stopped seeing the reality of life is one of the greatest sins that besets Christian people today. We have become isolated and it's wrong. One thing to be insulated is another thing to be isolated. Now someone has said that booths and gourds are our enjoyment. So immediately you say to Mr. Pilon, don't you think we should have some things to enjoy? Certainly we should. But never to the exclusion of the vision. Mark it down. Do you see why that little worm is crawling up that stalk this morning? God had to take down that booth. God had to take away that gourd in a single sweep so that Jonah would be able to see. God said to Jonah, Jonah, you had pity on the booth. You had pity on the gourd. And now you're condemning me because I had pity on a city. And I think God is saying to Jonah this morning, Jonah, I've been trying to get to you ever since the day you started to buy your ticket. And I'm wondering if God is saying to us this morning, many of us, I've been trying to get to you ever since you came to Bristol Bible Conference. Remember the first words I gave on Saturday night? Hmm. Lovest thou me more than these. God said to Jonah, and he says to you and me this morning, I wanted you to see things as I see them. And because I've torn down your gourd, because I've torn down your booth, because I have had pity, shouldn't you have pity? I wonder if he's saying that to us this morning. My Christian friends, I have no idea what kind of booth you have. I don't know what kind of lovely gourds have grown around your booth that you've been building. But I do know this, that God will not accomplish in our lives his purposes. until gourds and gourds and booze are pushed aside so that we can see as God sees. And this can happen, you know. And when we do this by the help of God, Then we'll be able to see as God sees, and then we'll go into Romans chapter twelve and verse one and say, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, not a dead one. A living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God, which is only your reasonable service. I wonder if every one of us have had made up the presence of our bodies to God. I don't own this body anymore. It's been purchased by another and I don't own it. My friend John Mullenhower, who lives a couple blocks from my house, one day my lawnmower broke down and I said, John, can I borrow your lawnmower? He said, sure. So I used his lawnmower because we mow our lawns down in Florida fifty-two weeks out of the year, you know. And so I borrowed his lawnmower. Now you know what happened? I was much more careful of Mr. Mullenhower's lawnmower than I was of my own. I didn't dare hit a sprinkler head with his lawnmower. You know why? Because it wasn't mine. My body has been purchased by another. I don't own this body. Christ lives in this body. Therefore there are three things that I have to be careful of with this body. Oh, get this. What I put in this body. What I put on this body. And where I take this body. My brother, my sister, think of it carefully. God lives here. He doesn't dwell in temples made with hands, he dwells in this temple. What about the gourds? What about the booze? Are we willing to say this morning, oh Lord, take my life. And let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee. Take, my God, my all I pool, at thy feet its treasure store. Take my hand. Take my feet. Take my eyes. Take my ears. Take my everything. God, I give it to you. Someone asked me, and with this I'm through. What happened to Jonah? I don't know, but I'll give you an answer. I think Jonah became a castaway. Now I have written next to that verse in my Bible, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway, and I've got written in my Bible, Oh God, not me. Write it down. Oh, listen, he's worth serving. He's the greatest. Are we going to go from this conference with a renewed vigor to serve the Lord Christ? Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. Don't get the verse twisted up though. Huh? God first, then the same. And I'm praying to God that you won't forget what Jonah has said this week. We want to live for God and for his glory. I'm going to ask Mr. Redling to lead us in that closing hymn, Take My Life and Let It Be consecrated, Lord, to thee. Shall we sing it prayerfully as we keep our seats? I think it's one hundred ninety-nine. Take my hands and let them move and we impose our love, and we impose our love. Take my feet and rest with me, take my beauty always the will of my king, always, always for my king, always the will I be Take thy lips and let it be. Take thy lips and let it for thee. Take thy lips and let it be.