WHAT MEANEST THOU O SLEEPER?

JONAH 1:6

A. SETTING OF OUR TEXT
  1. God asked Jonah to go to Nineveh and warn that city against the terrible sins the people were guilty of:
  2. But Jonah, not liking this assignment, went to Joppa, boarded a ship that was to sail to Tarshish:
  3. The Lord disrupted this flight by sending a great storm which threatened the lives of the voyagers:
  4. The mariners, in fear of their lives, prayed to their gods; while Jonah, the Lord's runaway messenger, was sound asleep in the bottom of the boat:
  5. The shipmaster sought him out, woke him up and asked him, "What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that he will think of us, that we perish not."
B. LET US ANALYZE THE SEARCHING QUESTION OF THE SHIPMASTER
  1. How can you, Sir, sleep in such a time as this?
    1. When the sea is raging.
    2. When our lives are in great danger.
    3. When everyone else on the ship is praying?
  2. "Thou sleeper":
    1. Do you not know that when the saints sleep the devil works overtime to destroy them!
    2. There is no temptation so weak but it is strong enough to foil a Christian that is napping in security! EXAMPLES -
      1. Samson asleep - while Delilah cut his locks, the secret of his physical powers - Judg. 16:19
      2. Noah was asleep, and his graceless son has fit time to discover his father's nakedness - Gen. 19:22
  3. It is most unreasonable to sleep in time of danger:
    1. The birds and the beasts know danger by instinct and flee to save their lives.
    2. Can we do less?
C. WHAT A LESSON FOR GOD'S SLEEPERS IN THE CHURCH OF GOD
  1. The question of our opening text comes from an idol worshipper:
    1. It is addressed to a messenger of truth!
    2. It reveals that this shipmaster expected much more from a professed believer of truth.
  2. Those idol worshippers had faith in the prayer of Jonah; that if he besought his God, their lives would be spared:
  3. Brethren, suppose a person having less light than we have would put this question to us; what would our answer be?
  4. We know that the delay of the coming of the Lord has made some among us sleepy:
    1. Think of the parable of the ten virgins - Matt. 25:1-12
    2. Recall what Paul gives as one reason why some of the believers fall asleep - 1 Cor. 11:30
    3. We are nearing the final great test that will come to God's people; will we have made the needed preparation to stand?
    4. Let us heed the solemn admonition of the Apostle Paul, "The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lust thereof." - Rom. 13:12- 14
  5. Think of it, dear brethren, the harm caused by God's people being asleep when they should be wide awake preaching Present Truth!
  6. What would we have done had we been in Jonah's place?
    1. Just what we are doing today!
    2. If we are asleep in such a time as this, we would have the same that Jonah did.


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