You Can’t Run Forever | Billy Graham

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That beautiful song was written by lee fisher who spoke to us a few minutes ago before we went on television and it’s a wonderful song that came out of his heart and experience tonight.
I want you to bow your head in prayer. Shall we pray our father.
We pray for those that are here tonight.
Standing at the crossroads of their life, we pray that the Holy Spirit will draw them is that it’s draw these two that have witnessed tonight and these others that testified that they found christ on other occasions.
Speak to us tonight and may many a person in this audience come to know christ as Lord and Master and Savior tonight before we ask it in his name, Amen!
I want you to turn with me to the 12th chapter of Matthew, Matthew the 12th chapter.
I hope that you have your bible.
It’s the same text that we took a few nights ago except I spoke a few nights ago on Solomon and the Queen of Sheba Tonight.
I want to speak on the other part of that same text on the about Jonah.
And these are the words of the scriptures concerning this incident in the life of our Lord, jesus christ.
Then certain of the scribes and the Pharisees answered, saying Master, we would see a sign from the but he answered and said unto them, an evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah.
And 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 and the men of none of us shall rise up in judgment with this generation and condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah and behold a greater than Jonah is here.

Why are the men of ancient never going to rise up at the judgment and condemn us because a greater than Jonah has come in the person of christ and we have rejected him.
Now the people of that day were wanting a sign or a miracle, but jesus rebukes them and he picks out one of the most difficult stories in all the bible to believe the story of Jonah and he gave it his authenticity by talking about Jonah and you remember the story of Jonah as I’ll tell it to you in just a moment.
But this is a type of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus christ.
Now, the little book of Jonah is only four chapters long and some of the controversies surrounding the book as to whether Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale and all fish.
The bible doesn’t say a whale.
It says a fish has obscured the spiritual lesson that the bible that God wants us to have out of this text.
Now, I believe the story just as it is because jesus said so and I want you to get six things about this important story.
First, the directive to Jonah. Second the disobedience of Jonah. Third the despair of Jonah thoughtfully. The decision of Jonah.
Fifthly the declaration of Jonah. And if we have time, the discouragement of Jonah.
In fact, if we have time for any of these.
But first, the directive to Jonah, now the word of the Lord came under Jonah, the scripture says and it’s used seven times in the little book of Jonah when the word of the Lord came under Jonah.
I remember the time that God called me to preach just as though it were yesterday I was in florida and I had been battling with this decision for several weeks.
I never dreamed I would ever be a clergyman. I had said before.
There are two things that I’ll never be. One is an undertaker and one is a clergyman.
Those are two things I didn’t want to be.
And God was calling me to preach and I kept saying no, I said Lord, I can’t speak and Lord, I don’t have the proper education and I don’t have this and I don’t have that.
And I argued with the Lord.

But one night about midnight out under the moon and the stars on the 18th green of a golf course that surrounded the little bible school I went to, I said yes with tears coming down my cheek.
I said Lord, I’ll go where you want me to go and be what you want me to be.
I didn’t know then that I was to be an evangelist or pastor and educator, I didn’t know what I was to be.
I was just saying Lord, I’ll do what you want me to do.
And I remember the first time I was called on to preach in a church, I had prepared four sermons, I thought that each sermon would take me for at least 45 minutes, maybe an hour.
I didn’t know. And that night when I was called on in front of 36 people in a little baptist church in the northern part of Florida, a cold evening.
I remember I preached all four of those sermons in eight minutes. Okay.
But ever since then I have known that I was been called of God.
And I told the young man this past week or several young men that I’ve spoken to, they said they were wondering about the call to preach.
I said if you can do anything else, don’t preach, we have too many people that get in the pulpit that have never been called of God.
And we have poor people in the pew that have been called of God that have not answered the call, be sure of your call from God, that God has his hand upon you.
I’ll talk about that a little bit more because young people want to know the will of God and they constantly write me and they asked me and they ask some of you, how can you know the will of God for your life.
The scripture says, if any man will do his will, he shall know.
The first suggestion I’d have would be studied the bible. It contains many of the parallel situations that you face.
It doesn’t give specific detailed guidance for you, but it gives general principles.
You can go by in finding the will of God.
The second thing, pray ask God to lead and to guide you.
He said, jesus said, you have not because you ask not.
Thirdly, I ask advice, the bible says in the multitude of counselors, there is wisdom.
God has given pastors and teachers and friends and parents to give you advice and counsel and especially if they’re spiritually minded people go and sit down and have a chat with them.
And then the fourth suggestion I’d make to young people is the circumstances.
We had a man come forward in our meeting in new york After I’d spoken to young people on the subject of missionary service and he was 91 years of age and he said that God had called him back to the mission field.
And we tried, we told him we didn’t think that his call was accurate.
We don’t believe that God would call you at 91 to go back to the mission field.
We tried to discourage him. We did everything we possibly could to discourage him.
We didn’t think he had been called.
But you know he got on a boat and went to Columbia South America and became another missionary again.
And God used him.
But the circumstances would indicate that he shouldn’t have gone because in a year he had died on the mission feed and he was a burden perhaps to some of those.
But you also should evaluate the gifts that God has given.
You be sure their God given gifts God calls some in the bible before they were even born.
He called Jeremiah while he was in his mother’s womb, he called john the baptist before he was born.
And it’s a sin to waste the gifts of God. Now God has given each of us a gift.
If you know jesus christ then you’ve been given a gift by the holy spirit.
He gives gifts as he wills.
Find out what your gift is, Paul wrote to timothy and said stir up the gift that’s within you find out what your gift is.

And when you’re deciding your life’s work, a christians should study two things first the world and its need yourself and your gifts and then try to fit the two together.
My wife was telling me about American missionary engineer in Indonesia.
He had an expert knowledge in the country’s oil deposits and an American oil company sent him a cable.
This was many years ago offering him $20,000 if he would help them And become an advisor to them probably be 100,000 a day.
And he said no, they sent him a second cable said it’s 30,000.
Then the third cable 50,000 the fourth cable 100,000 year. If you will help us in Indonesia.
And then when he said no again they said, if that’s not enough, tell us what you want.
He replied, you don’t understand the money is fine but the job isn’t big enough.
God had called him to be a minister of the gospel of jesus christ to be an ambassador of the court of heaven to represent the king of kings and Lord of laws.
And when I go around the world preaching the gospel with this team of wonderful people.
We don’t go out there as representatives of America officially of the american government.
We go as representatives of the kingdom of God. I’m proud to be in America.
Thank God for America that gives us the freedoms that we have.
But we go primarily as representatives of the Kingdom of God to proclaim the kingdom and to proclaim the Gospel.
Now God called Jonah the word of the Lord came under Jonah and said God and preach your dependence.
But then we come to the disobedience of Jonah.
You see it’s tough to do the will of God.
You see it was several days journey to Nineveh, the Jonah over mountains and forests and burning deserts and they weren’t his people.
He didn’t care about them. Nine Eva was the greatest city in the world at that time.
It was the capital of the greatest and strongest nation. It was built following the flood. The capital of Assyria.
But none of it was one of the wickedest cities in the world.
And the bible tells us it had 100 and 20,000 population. Now.
He would have to face disease and wild beast and robbers on the way.
It was going to be tough to obey the call of God.
And Jonah said, I don’t I believe those people ought to be destroyed.
Anyway, look at all the bad things they’ve done against my country.
And he was in a rebellious mood toward God.
The true proclaim of God’s message will bring on criticism and opposition and often troubles and difficulties.
Jonah couldn’t take it all. So he decided to flee from the presence of the law.
And he went to Tarsus.
He got a ship at Joppa and the scripture says he paid the fare thereof.
It cost him a lot more than he ever dreamed.
It was gonna cost it cost him a cargo of the ship that was lost.
And it nearly cost him his life. And the bible says whatsoever a man.
So at that shall he also reap the bible says, be sure your sins will find you out.
Jonah was now in disobedience. He was going against the wishes and call of God on the ship.
Yeah, but Jonah could not get away from God. The psalmist said.
Whether shall I go from thy spirit of whether shall I flee from thy presence.
The devil will always have a ship ready When a man wants to sail away from God.
If you want to get away from God, the devil will plan it for you.
He’ll furnish the money, he’ll furnish the whole works.
And the bible says there’s pleasure in sin for a season, a short term.
Then it ends up in destruction and ultimately in hell, Jonah thought he had paid the fare and the ship’s captain also thought the same.
They both were mistaken. The most expensive sale that anyone ever takes his when he sails away from God.
You’ll start out smooth. At first. It all looks great.
But then you hit the stormy seas and you come to that angel dust experience that we were just told about.
I read some historian a book that became famous called dying at the top.
And one of them were quoted as saying and it’s a story of rich people and famous people in their latter days.
And one of them was quoted as saying, now that the struggle is over.
I can survey the feel and measure the loss. I became rich and famous.
I had a beautiful wife and Children. I left God out of my life. I’ve lost it all, man.
I’m dying of lung lung cancer. My God! I wish I could start it all over.
How many feel the same way? I wish I could start it all over.
Then we come to the despair of Jonah Hurricane came up, a storm came up.
A big east wind came up and every man began to cry to his God.
The crew began to cry out to their God to save him. What was wrong?
It’s interesting how people turned to God in trouble. They live their own life their own way.
But when trouble comes they cry out to God and many times it’s too late.
So they turned to God in trouble and Jonah was down in the hole of the ship.
He was asleep and the sailors began to cast lots and found out that Jonah was on board and that he was the troublemaker.
And so to make a long story short, he suggested that they throw him overboard, said I’m the Jonah, I’m the fellow that’s causing all this trouble.
I’m running away from the Lord God of Israel and those men on board had tremendous respect for the God of Israel and they threw over the cargo first and they did everything they could to save the situation and save the ship.
But finally they threw Jonah over Bull.
And so we find him under the judgment of God and we find ourselves under the judgment when we leave him out of our lives.
You have left God out of your life and yet you’re not happy.
Some of you have tried pleasure, illicit sex and money and power and all the others, but it hasn’t worked.
And when Jonah fell over the bible says God had prepared a great fish and he swallowed up Jonah.
Now whether Jonah was actually dead inside the fish or alive inside the fish, I think he was alive inside the fish.
Some people think being an illustration of the death and burial and resurrection of christ, he might have been dead in the fishing when he came up, God brought him back to life again.
I let the theologians argue that point, but he had some time to think wherever he was because while he was in that fish, he sure changed his mind.
Now there’s two ways to meet the judgment of God.
One is to declare it unjust and plunge into deeper sin.
When God’s judgment comes, you can say, well, God is unjust and you get worse in your sins or you can submit to the judgment hand of God, repent of your sins and turn to God and he’ll forgive you one or the other because you see if you’re living for the devil, it’s not easy.
You’ve chosen the hard path. It’s rugged because you see when the devil begins to pay his wages, ma, the suffering, the agony, the guilt, the psychological problems, the home problems, the tensions and all the difficulties that you have trying to serve the devil.
Now the devil will whisper in your ear and tell you how wonderful it is and how glorious it is.
And at first he’s right, everything goes along.
But then you hit that hurricane because God will see to it that at some point you hit the hurricane, be sure your sins will find you out.
Whatever you say, you’re going to reap you can’t get by those laws of God. There there.
Now while he was in the belly of the fish, his self confidence was gone.
The bible teaches that we’re all dead in trespasses and in sins, every one of us has sinned against God.
We’ve broken his law and jesus christ died on the cross for our sins.
He shed his blood for our sins and jesus christ died to reconcile us to God because sin comes between you and God.
And when christ died he took your place took your sins on that cross.
And that’s what God is teaching us in this little book of Jonah. And that’s what the Lord jesus said.
It’s teaching the death, burial and resurrection of christ.
And as Jonah was three days in the belly of the fish.
So the son of man was three days in there.
Now sin cost jesus christ his life’s blood on the cross.
Now comes the declaration of Jonah, his proclamation, his preaching and the Lord spoke under the fish and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land, the second chapter in the 10th verse and the word of the Lord came under Jonah the second time, notice seven times in this little book, it says the Word of the Lord came upon him came to him and this was the second time the Word of the Lord came to him and gave him another chance.
And God said Jonah got to preach repentance.
So this time, instead of fleeing and running, he’d had his lesson, he arose and went to Ninevah according to the word of the law and he cried or he proclaimed in a loud voice, repent, repent, repent!
Repent up and down the streets of until nearly the whole population heard it and he got before the king and told him that he should repent because he said in 40 days Nineveh is going to be overthrown Now the message that he was preaching was not man made.
This was God speaking through his messenger, Jonas message gave no promise of mercy.
He didn’t stand up like I’m doing tonight and offering you mercy and forgiveness. He just preached repentance.
Yet the people of Ninevah, with that simple message ringing in their ears.
The people repented from the king on down.
The king proclaimed the fast, put on sackcloth and repented and this was probably the greatest evangelistic service in the history of the world.
120,000 people repented of their sins at one time and they were gentiles and he was jewish and God was offering to them are proclaiming to them repentance, you must repent now.
Repent means that you change your mind towards yourself and towards God and towards spiritual things.
And you’re willing to let God come into your life and change your pattern of living and your whole style of living.
That’s what repentance means. And the bible teaches that you must be willing to repent now.
Maybe you don’t know how to repent. Maybe you don’t have the strength to repent.
Maybe you can’t change your way of life, but God will help you in your repenting now.
None of them is the strongest city in the world.
And sometimes I think we’re trusting in our economic and military might which is eroding all the time.
It seems from what we read in here.
We have the highest standard of living the world has ever known.
And yet as a nation, we’re in danger of leaving God out.
And it’s a great spiritual renewal when it reaches even to the capital of the country.
None of us said the men of nine, jesus said, the men of none of us shall rise in judgment with this generation and condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah and behold a greater than Jonah is here.
I, the Lord, jesus christ, I am the way the truth and the life No man comes to the father.
But by me, but under my preaching you haven’t repented, he said, I send my messengers to Indianapolis and you haven’t repented yet.
How many times the gospel is proclaimed in indiana Every single day by television, by radio or in churches.
More people go to church on sunday in America right now than all the sporting events put together every week?
Many times more. Yeah. And yet have we really repented of our sins?
The Ninja fights were famed for their godlessness, their violence, their bloodshed, their sexual immorality.
And this Pagan King said, who can tell if God might turn away from his fierce anger and that we perish not.
And these 40 days were days of Grace. They were nine of us, opportunity for repentance.
And it is always God’s practice to warn people before judgment in Noah’s day, he said, my spirit shall not always strive with men.
Yet his days shall be 120 years. Sodom and Gomorrah. He sent warnings to them. The judgment was coming.
And I believe that God is saying to us tonight as a nation repent.
It’s a warning God is saying to you as an individual repent While you have a chance, we don’t know how much longer we’ll be able to hold crusades like this.
We don’t know how much longer we’ll have the kind of freedom we have today.
If God is speaking to you, you come tonight. The bible says now is the accepted time.
Today is the day of salvation come and receive jesus christ into your heart while you can.
Your days are numbered. No, never heard but one preacher.
How many preachers do you listen to their bibles and stores that you could buy and get nine Eva had only a single warning.
How many hundreds have you already known? Never offered 40 days. You’ve already wasted five years.
10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 40 years of your life.
You haven’t come to jesus christ to receive him as your Lord and your savior.
Now, when all of that was over and the mighty revival took place and thousands of people had been converted and God had offered his mercy and grace and love to.
Ninevah, Jonah got mad at God again. He said, Lord let me die.
Every time something happened that went wrong, Jonah would say, Lord let me die. He got so discouraged.
He didn’t want to see none of us say.
He got up on the side of a hill and looked down over to see what God was going to do.
And when he saw that God was going to save money because she had repented.
He got upset and got discouraged.
And you know, the Bible teaches that a weak moment does not always prove a weak man or woman.
Elijah became discouraged. Peter became discouraged. Abraham Lincoln came to marry January 1, 1841. He was so frightened.
He didn’t even appear Overcome with Melancholy in was not responsible for his actions for 22 months.
According to Gilma speeds, account of Lincoln, I’m told Lincoln was not a weak man.
He just had a weak moment when he came to marriage.
I sympathize a little bit. Tonight I got married. I was so frightened.
I didn’t know what I was saying.
My wife and I had memorized our vows and I can’t remember to this day what I promised because I didn’t, I couldn’t remember what I memorized.
I just made them up as I went along. I think I promised to obey her.
Now God prepared a gourd to grow the Jonah to protect him from the sun and the burning wind and this gourd was God’s grace.
God was saying Jonah in spite of your sins, in spite of your failures and all. I love you.
I’m willing to forgive you too.
And God, in his very graciousness sent a worm along to chew the gore down during the night and to teach Jonah that very valuable lesson that we are to obey God rather than men.
And there are several basic teachings of this chapter.
First, God feels concerned for the people of the whole world and ask us to warn the people of the world of coming judgment.
Second, in the face of difficulty, we are inclined to evade responsibility.
Thirdly, God is powerful and can use the forces of nature for his own purposes and maybe that’s what’s happening in our world right now as we may be approaching the end of the age, as jesus predicted in Matthew 24.
Fourthly though, God will punish disobedience. He desires to show mercy. He wants to show mercy.
He wants to forgive so much so that he sent his son.
And then fifthly, the most un promising mission fields are often the most responsive.
I found that to be true cities where we thought people wouldn’t even listen to the gospel.
That’s where they listened. The most I’ve never had people sit on their seats or stand in their places as we saw in Poland and Hungary listen to the gospel and many parts of the world where they haven’t heard much gospel in recent years.
It seems to me that’s where the response is the greatest and above all, God yearns to deal with the human race and mercy and kindness.
God loves you. He gave his son to die on the cross for you and now what are you to do?
What is to be your response? If your sin is to be forgiven?
If you had to go to heaven, if you were to have eternal life, Three simple things.
First, repent of your sins, change your way of living, change your attitude.
That’s 1st, 2nd by faith received jesus christ and what he did on the cross for you.
And thirdly, be willing to obey him and follow him and serve him