Children—S. Allan
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Yeah, yeah.
You know, boys and girls, the Lord Jesus lost not only the girls, he loves the boys, doesn't he? He loves all of us. And I was wondering on the last two verses if we could all sing the the stanza and then we'll have the girls sing the first, yes, Jesus loves me. And then we'll have the voice thing. The second, yes, cheaters loves me. Then we'll all join in on the last two lines. OK, And we'll do that for the last two verses.
All right, verse 4.
J.
He does. Jesus loves me, everyone. Yes.
I trust him until the dark night. He will make me go on my heroes.
You know, when I sing these little hymns, boys and girls, I like to try and think of the Bible verse that the writer of the hymn was thinking of when he.
Wrote to him and I was wondering.
What verse in the Bible would tell me that Jesus loves me? How would I know that?
Can you can anyone here quote a verse that would tell me yes?
Very good. The Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Now I'm going to ask a harder question. Where is that verse found? Where is that verse found? The Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Who can tell me, shall I pick out somebody?
Kim, can you tell me where is that verse found? That might be hard.
Can you tell me?
Well, it's found, I guess, the person that gave me the verse. OK.
Right, Galatians 220. Very good. OK, who is another hymn for us? I gave out the first one. Now I'd like to hear someone else choose one.
How about can you give me a hymn you'd like to say? Have you got one on there you'd like to sing?
#45 #45 That's a good one. And you know, back where we come from, we like to do the actions for that one. Should we do the actions all right?
Two little.
One time it's just big and you can stroke it. One metal heart for him now in my universe.
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Now, it might be a little more difficult to decide what Bible verse they were thinking of when they wrote that hymn, but you know, it's very important. It isn't boys and girls to use our eyes and our ears and our lips and our hands and our feet for the Lord's glory. He's looking down, isn't He? And he can see it.
And we should remember that we should be walking to please him. Remember Paul, when he was first saved, he said, Lord, what will thou have me to do? So that's a nice little hymn. Why don't we try the next 146 glad TIDINGS? This is another one we like to sing. And have the girls sing their line and the boys sing their line. So shall we try it #46 Glad.
Can anyone tell me one verse, one word that would be the same as glad TIDINGS? Glad tidings? One word that would mean the same thing?
Who can tell me I shouldn't be looking just in the front row? Is anyone?
How about one of the James is back there? Can you tell me what another word would be for glad tidings?
Can you think of a word?
Well, one we often like to use is the word gospel, isn't it? We often have a last night we were very privileged to hear the gospel being preached here. And it's glad tidings, isn't it? It's the true and it's the wonderful news that the Lord Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And that's what this hymn is talking about. All right, who is another hymn for us?
Anyone.
OK, Mr. Wilson, 4141 All right #41 That's the favorite, I think, with a lot of children too. Around the throne of God in heaven will many children sing. You know, boys and girls, if you would be so wonderful, if every single person in this audience here this morning would be around the throne of God in heaven, I hope that every single person here knows the Lord Jesus as their personal Savior.
And then we'll be around the throne of God in heaven. OK #41 round.
1, 372.
Glory, glory, glory, glory, glory. Glory takes the God.
Champions.
Now watch things like some precious blood he calls and white and greens, thinking, glory, glory, glory, glory to God.
Now you'll notice that third verse asked the question. It says what brings them.
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To that world above, that heaven so bright and fair, where all is peace and joy and love, how come those children there, what's the answer to that question? What brings them to that world above? What's the answer to that question?
Who can tell me? Well, I think we have it, don't we? In the last verse?
Because the Savior shed His blood to purge away their sins. Boys and girls, have your sins been purged away in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus? Have you ever come to Him as a Sinner and acknowledge that?
You're that you're unsaved and that you have these sins and the need to be washed away. Have you ever acknowledged that you're a Sinner? Well, it tells us here that if we do, we'll be among that number that.
Is around the throne of God in heaven. Well, maybe we can sing also #47 that's another one that I enjoy. When he cometh, when he cometh to make up his jewels 47 when he.
Appreciate anything you heard. Well, I think you know the closest practice is beautiful and.
There's no I thought the time of life is crying around the garden.
Is given to me right? Just over his crown. Now I'm going to ask a very difficult question.
What verse was the writer of that hymn thinking about?
When he wrote that hymn, and that is a hard question, boys and girls, and I don't know if I'm going to ask you to tell me, but the answer to that question, or at least that's the verse that I think they were thinking of, is found in the book of Malachi. And I'll just read it. It's found in the third chapter and the 17th verse.
They shall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts.
In that day when I make up my jewels, and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serves him, so the Lord Jesus looks on each boy and girl, each man and woman here as one of his jewels that will make up his crown on that coming day. Well, maybe we should just look to the Lord Jesus now for a few moments and ask his blessing.
Now, boys and girls, I always find it very difficult to know what to speak on. I don't know if there's anyone else that has that difficulty here, but you know.
I come from Nova Scotia. I don't think there's very many people here from Nova Scotia.
I think besides my own family, there's only one other person and he gave out of him back there #41 Mr. Wilson. And you know, life in Nova Scotia is quite a bit different than it is here on the Prairie, isn't it, in Regina? And a couple of weeks ago I took my children down to a city in Nova Scotia called Halifax. And the reason why we went to Halifax was because they were having a race down there. Now, I'm not in the habit of going to races, I want to say.
But there are these tall ships.
Have you ever heard of tall ships? Very long, At least as long as some of them are as long as this gymnasium. And they have huge masks that go up maybe one hundred 150 feet. And they got large sails. And they're called tall ships. And they were having a race from New York City to Boston to Halifax and then to Amsterdam. You know where Amsterdam is. Can you tell me where Amsterdam is?
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That's a hard question, isn't it? But it's a way across the ocean in a country called Holland. And they came to Halifax and they were going to sail on across the ocean to Amsterdam. And, you know, I was fascinated by those ships because I remember when I was a child, I used to go to what was called Fisher Ave. Mission in Ottawa. And on the wall there there was a picture of a large, tall ship and it was called the Gospel Ship. I don't know if you've ever seen that picture. I'm sure some of those who are older here, Mr. Gray back there, I'm sure remember this picture that I'm talking about. And on every cell there were.
Gospel verses and it was called the Gospel Ship. And so I wanted to go down and see those ships and you know, I went down on this Monday morning and there must have been about 65 of them in the harbor at Halifax.
And they began sailing.
Past this pier where I was standing with my family, all 65 of these ships, and they all had their sails up. It was wonderful to see. And you know, when I was just thinking what I should speak on this morning, I thought, you know, I would like to tell a shift story. And I'm sure boys and girls, that you know, the ship story I'm going to tell you. But before I speak to you about that story, I want to say that in a certain sense, we are all sailing on a voyage.
That might seem sort of hard to understand, but you know, boys and girls, you were born into this world. We had a man here that had a birthday yesterday, didn't we?
And he has been sailing, you might say, on the voyage of life for quite a while, about as long as I have been. And some of you have not sailed along very far, but you're heading in that direction. These tall ships we were talking about, they were heading to Amsterdam. And I don't know if they're there yet because it must have taken a good month for them to cross the ocean and no ships. But anyway, we are sailing on a voyage. And where are we heading?
Where are we heading? That is the important question. We're heading either to heaven or we're heading towards a lost eternity in hell. Isn't that sad? I hope there's no one traveling on to a lost eternity in health. But we're traveling across the voyage of life, as you, as we could say. All right now, I thought I would tell a story, and I know that you know this story. Well, maybe you can tell me what are some good ship stories in the Bible?
Have you ever thought about what some of the shift stories are in the Bible?
Christy.
Very good. When the Lord said peace be still, you remember he was in the back of the boat and the disciples were very frightened because of this terrible storm. And the Lord stood up and he said peace be still. That's right. That's a nice shift story. Another one.
Well, have you heard of the story of Paul sailing from, I think it was Caesar Reed of Philippi, and he went underneath the island of Cyprus and across the Mediterranean Sea to Malta or Malita and then on to Rome. Remember that story? Well, the one I wanted to tell about is found in the book of Jonah. You know that story, don't you? And you know, I think one of the most difficult things about reading about this, the story of Jonah is trying to find the book in the Bible.
And.
You know it, it's good to memorize boys and girls, the books, the Bible, and I don't know how many of you can do that, but I no doubt the gospel tend for many years in Nova Scotia, we used to learn the books of the Bible. So I like to say Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah. OK, so we're going to take a look then at Jonah chapter one and our time is running away very quickly. And so I'm not going to read the whole chapter here. I'm just going to talk about it.
We find here that it says the word of the Lord came unto Jonah.
And boys and girls, that's very important. The Lord delights to speak to us. It's not that today He comes and whispers in our ear, How does the Lord speak to us today? Can you tell me? How does the Lord speak to us today? Can you tell me?
He wants us to know His will. So how does he speak to us, Kim?
The Bible through this book, this book is God's word and that's where he speaks to us and we find here in the Jonah. However, I'm not quite sure how the Lord spoke to Jonah here, but it says the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son of a Mithi. I saying, arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before me.
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Now, this was a very difficult assignment for Jonah. The Lord said, Jonah, I want you to go to Nineveh. Now, boys and girls, you probably don't know much about Nineveh, but it was on the River Tigris, way over in the Middle East, and it was the biggest city in the world at that time. I don't know what the biggest city in the world today is, whether it's Mexico City or Tokyo or I'm not sure, but Jonah was to go to that largest city.
And he was to cry against it. In other words, he was to tell those people the judgment was coming. You know, last night in the gospel, meaning we had our brother speak to us about the solemnity. The judgment is going to fall on this world. And Jonah was to go to that city and he was to tell them there was going to be judgment. Supposing the Lord said to you, I want you to go to the city of Regina, and I want you to tell the people in that city.
The judgment is going to fall in that city.
Well, that's what Jonah was required to do. And it was a very large city. And you know something, he didn't want to do it. And you know, sometimes there are times in our lives and we don't want to do what the Lord asks us to do. And So what does Jonah do here? It says he rose up to flee unto Tarshish. In other words, he said, I can't go, I can't go. And so he got on a boat and he was going to sail towards Tarshish. Now it's now it says he fled.
You know, there's a very important and a very nice verse now, Mr. Wilson said the other night.
Oh, I wonder if anyone can answer this question. He said one of his favorite chapters in the Bible was in the book of the Psalms. Does anyone remember what Psalm it was that he liked particularly? Who was listening carefully? Christy.
No, I'm sure Mr. Wilson likes something. Oh, Mr. Camp here, 139 right. That's Mr. Wilson's favorite, Psalm 139. And there's a very good verse there that I don't think Jonah had read very often. He had the book of the Psalms then, And here's the verse. Whither shall I go from thy spirit, and whether shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there if I make my bed in hell.
Behold our there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall I hand lead me in other words.
We can't flee from the presence of the Lord Jonathan. If he got on that boat and went to Tarshish, that everything would be OK. But he forgot that he couldn't flee from the presence of the Lord. Boys and girls, here we are sitting in this room. The Lord is here. He hears what I'm saying. He knows what you're doing. I'm sorry. It says that all things are naked and open under the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
Well, he gets here in this boat and he starts fleeing from the presence of the Lord, and it says he went down to Joppa. You know, when we get away from the Lord, there's only one way to go. And which way is that? Down, down, down. You know what's been so sad? I have seen teenagers, I have seen older people that have gone away from the Lord and their life just goes down, down, down. Isn't that sad? Well, he went down and you know where he went? He went to this place called Joppa.
And you know what Joppa means? Joppa means pleasant. Pleasant.
And I'm sure it was probably a nice day and everything was going his way. And he thought, boy, this is going to be good. I don't want to go to that city, Nineveh, but I'm going to go down here to this pleasant place called Jaffa. And so he said, it says here he found a ship going to Tarshish. You know, I've wondered sometimes why he wanted to go to Tarsus. But, you know, there's a verse in Second Chronicles that tells us a little bit about Tarsus. I'm just going to read it. It's found in the Second Chronicle, Second Chronicles 9.
And it says this about this city.
For the King's ships went to Tarsus with the servants of Hurum every three years. Once came the ships of Tarshish, bringing gold and silver and ivory and apes and Peacocks. Have you ever seen a Peacock? Ever seen a Peacock? They're beautiful. I remember sometimes going to this wildlife park and these male Peacocks would strut along and they would open their.
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Tails like a huge fan. Beautiful.
And, you know, people used to like to have these Peacocks in their garden. Well, Tarsus was the place these Peacocks came from. And apes, monkeys and ivory and gold and silver. I wonder sometimes if Jonah thought that's the place I want to go, where there's all this these wonderful things. And, you know, sometimes we get away from the presence of the Lord, boys and girls. We like to go our own way. And we're attracted by the things in this world. But we had in the meetings just yesterday.
That were not to love the world, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
Well, Jonah, here he went down.
To Joppa, and it says he paid the fare thereof. Boys and girls. That's a very important lesson for us to learn. If we go our own way. It might seem pleasant at first, but there's a price to pay. There's a price to pay. There's a verse in the Bible that says this is found in Romans 6. The wages of sin or the pay of sin is death. Death.
And boys and girls, if we go our own way, there's going to be a high price to pay. The devil dangles lots of things in front of us, but he doesn't tell us there's a very high price to pay. But you know, the verse says the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. What God wants to give you, what the Lord Jesus wants to give you, and he gave his life that you might have. It is eternal life. He wants to give you that light.
That comes from himself, that is from himself. Well, Jonah here he gets down, he goes to Tarsus from the presence of the Lord. But you know, as I said before, he couldn't escape from the presence of the Lord, and he got on that ship and he went out into the sea. And guess what happened? What happened after he goes in that sea? Yes.
Right. They're got they're got a big storm. That's right. And you know why there was a big storm? Why was there a big storm?
That's right. And who made the storm?
That's right, I'm going to read a verse in Psalm 107 that will tell us just what this little girl is telling. What's your name? What's your name?
Pardon me, Camille. OK, well, let's just look at Psalm 107. This is what it says.
And I'm going to read from the 25th verse. He commandeth, that's God. He commandeth and raises the stormy wind.
Which lifts up the waves thereof. They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths. Their soul is melted because of trouble. And boys and girls, I don't think there's anything that would be more scary than to be in a boat like Jonah. I would take it. The boat that he was in wasn't like one of those huge tall ships that I was talking about, but probably a smaller ship that might have been from here to the wall long. And he was going along and all of a sudden the wind began to blow and the waves went up and the boat went up like this. And then I went down.
Way down like this and it got very scary and the way he started rolling over the tops of the sides of the ship and it was very frightening.
But you know where Jonah was when all this was happening? Guess where he was? It tells us, it says Jonah had gone down. Oh, there's that word again. Down, down into the sides of the ship. And he lay and was fast asleep.
Can you imagine sleeping in a storm like that?
I don't think I would have been sleeping. You know, I've been on pretty rough storms. I remember going over to Newfoundland on the ship at Christmas time and it was rough. When you're walking down the halls, you've been walking like this because the ship was just going up and down. It was quite frightening. It was a smaller ship and it was frightening. But Jonah here, he was down there in the hold of that ship and he was sound asleep. And you know, boys and girls, when we get away from the Lord.
And we start going our own way. Often we're spiritually asleep. And the Lord sometimes has to bring difficulties into our life to make us wake up. Wake up. And so we find here that he was down there in the bottom of the of the ship. And you know, he's going to quote a verse from Romans 13, it says it is high time to wake out of sleep. And for Jonah here, it was high time that he waked out of sleep. And So what happened?
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It says 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 have been praying to their gods.
Of course, when they prayed to their gods, all they were doing was praying to an idol. That's all. You know, it's sad when people worship idols, isn't it? Eh? I was talking to a Christian girl and she lives over in Thailand, and she told me, she said, you know, there was an idol in our backyard. We were only renting the house. There was an idol in our backyard and the head fell off it, she said. And the people were so upset because the head fell off this idol that they had to have.
A ceremony that lasted two or three, two or three hours to make sure that the spirit from the idol didn't go over into somebody else's house.
And she said, you know, it was so sad. Well, you know, there are many people that pray to idols, but all they're doing is praying to pieces of wood and stone, aren't they? And there are demons behind it perhaps. But they weren't these men. They weren't praying to the Lord. And they went down to join. And they said, Jonah, wake up, wake up. Call on your God. We're going to all drown here.
And so it says here.
It says in verse seven, and they said everyone to his fellow, come, let us cast lots that we may know for whose caused this evil is upon us. You know, these men seem to sense that this trouble had come because there was somebody on the boat.
That had offended God, and it says the lot fell on Jonah.
And so they came to him. And what did they say? Tell us, we pray thee, for whose caused this evil is upon us. What is thine occupation? So these men, they said to Jonah, what is your occupation? And girls and boys, that's a very important question to ask ourselves. What is our occupation? What do we do in our free time?
You know, we talked the other day about what? Playing computer games. You know, I think that's something we really have to be careful about. It's a time waster for one thing, and the Lord has worked for us to do, and we have to be careful. And so they said to Jonah, what is your occupation, boys and girls, what's your occupation? What do you desire to do to please the Lord or to be like Jonah and going in the opposite direction?
Well, he said to him, what is your occupation? Whence cometh thou? Where did you come from? And then they ask, what is your country? What country did you come from? You know, some people might say to me, where do you come from? And I might say, well, I come from Nova Scotia. But you know, there's a better answer than that. Supposing somebody came to you and said, where do you, where are you going or where are you? Where did you come from? Maybe I'll ask this question that says, what is your country?
What would be a good answer to give them? What is your country?
You could say Nova Scotia, you could say Washington or wherever it happened to be Saskatchewan. But you know, a good answer would be I am a Christian, I know the Lord Jesus, Heaven is my home. Wouldn't that be a good answer? And that would be an opportunity to speak to someone about the Lord Jesus because, you know, we're not really, we are citizens I suppose of Canada or the United States, but really our citizenship is in heaven. And so they say to him here, what is your country and of what people art thou?
Whose people are your people? Well, boys and girls, I want to tell you it's good to remember that we're part of God's family if we know the Lord as our Savior, aren't we? And we're all brothers and sisters in Christ. Well, these are very important questions that were asked. And So what does Jonah say? He says I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which has made the sea and the dry land. Isn't that a wonderful answer?
I fear the Lord. Old girls and boys, do you fear the Lord? It says the fear of the Lord.
Is the beginning of wisdom, and the Lord Jesus wants us to grow up.
To fear him, it doesn't mean that we're to be afraid of him. It's just that we are to not want to do anything that would just please him. Well, here was Jonah. What a foolish thing for him to be saying. I fear the Lord and at the same time running away from him. If he feared the Lord, why was he running away from? But you know, the men instantly understood what the problem was. This man has fled from the Lord. That's why we have this big storm.
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And so they say to them, They say, 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 become unto us? For the sea rotten was tempestuous. And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea.
Well, the men didn't want to do that. They tried everything to stop the water from coming into the boat. They threw out the cargo. Nothing seemed to work. And so finally, what do they do? They took Jonah, I'm sure. One man took him by the legs, another man took him by the hands, and they threw him over the board, overboard.
And he went right down into the water. But what happened to him? I know you know the answer. What happened to him?
He started going down the water, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, all the way down and all of a sudden what came along? It says here that the Lord prepared a great fish a verse.
17 And yes, the last verse. Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish 3 days and three nights.
You know, some people find that story hard to believe, but you know, it's in God's Word and I have no doubt it actually happened.
You know, I remember Mr. Bauman saying one time in a gospel meeting in Chicago, he was trying to define what faith is. And you know what faith is, God says it, I believe it, and that settles it.
I think that's right. The way you said it, Mr. Bowen. God says it, I believe it, and that settles it. And so when God tells us that Moses, that Jonah was swallowed by this fish, it might have been a whale, I believe it. But you know, the Lord has allowed something like that to actually happen. I heard one time boys and girls of some whalers who were out trying to find some whales and a man fell overboard and they thought, oh, he's drowned, we can't find him.
And then they caught this whale and they brought it up onto the onto the ship.
And they noticed in the loyal stomach there was a movement, a bump. So they opened up the whale and guess what was inside? The man who had fallen overboard and he was still alive. Now they tell us that his face was all sort of shriveled from the the acids in his stomach, but he was alive. So the Lord has actually allowed that to happen to a person fairly recently, which just proves.
The truth of this story?
And I know our time is just about up, but you know, it tells us here that Jonah was in the belly of the fish 3 days and three nights. Now, you know, there's one thing that we shouldn't forget, boys and girls, when we read these stories, and that is that there's something the Lord is telling us about his son, the Lord Jesus. And even though Jonah had gone a long piece away from the Lord and he had been thrown into the sea and swallowed by the fish, what does that speak of? The fact that he was in the whale's belly or the fish's belly 3 days and three nights?
Well, I'm going to read a verse in Matthew chapter 12.
That tells us, and I think this is very beautiful, even though Jonah had failed so miserably.
There was a special teaching in what had happened to Jonah. Notice Matthew 12 and verse 40.
For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be 3 days and three nights in the heart of the earth. So just like Jonah was in that whale 3 days and three nights, the Lord Jesus, when he was crucified and was taken down from the cross, he was in the earth.
For three days and three nights. We could say a lot more about that. It's very interesting. But you know what we've often enjoyed, and I'm going to say to those who are a little bit older, boys and girls, that in the second chapter there's a lot of we hear what Jonah was thinking when he was in the whale's belly, knows what he says. Verse 3 Thou hast cast me into the deep in the midst of the Seas and the floods compassed me about all thy billows and thy waves have passed over me.
You know, as Jonah said those things, he was prophetically Speaking of the Lord Jesus and sometimes in the breaking of bread, and boys and girls were going to have the breaking of bread, Lord willing, just after this meeting. And we're going to remember the Lord in his death. Sometimes we read these verses, don't we? Because they remind us of what it was like for the Lord Jesus to go into death for us and to take that awful judgment at the hands of God.
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Well, there's only one more thing I want to say, and then I'm going to close at the very end after Jonah had had this terrible experience.
Notice what it says in the ninth verse. But Jonah is speaking. I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of Thanksgiving. I will pay that which I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. As soon as Jonas said salvation is of the Lord, what happens first hand? And the Lord speak unto the fish. And it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land. As soon as Jonah acknowledged that salvation was of the Lord, the fish vomited him out, and he was preserved.
And boys and girls, that's a very important lesson to learn, isn't it? As soon as we acknowledge that the Lord is the only one that can deliver us, then he delights to come in and answer our prayers. And Jonah, here, he was saved, wasn't he? And then we find in the next chapter, and we don't have time, that the Lord said to him again, Jonah, arise, go to Nineveh. And what did he do? He obeyed. Now I wish we had time to go on with that, but we don't, and I think our time is up, so we better just pray, OK?
Bless God and.