The NXR Podcast - October 24, 2023


DAILY TRUTH - When The Pagans See More Clearly Than The Prophets

Hosted by
Joel Webbon Harrison Smith Antonio Griffith Dale Partridge Wewsley Todd Calvin Robinson
Mentioned
Jonah Nineveh David French Jordan Peterson Russell Moore Jesus Christ Nathan
DAILY TRUTH - What Sigmund Freud Missed About Christianity DAILY TRUTH - God Is Always Present… Even In Hell

Episode Stats


Length

13 minutes

Words per minute

152.52

Word count

2,063

Sentence count

101

Harmful content

Toxicity

4

sentences flagged

Hate speech

13

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In the midst of a storm, the sailors fear the Lord. They make vows and sacrifices to the Lord after the storm has been neutralized. They know that they have been sinning their whole life, and they know they will have to stand before a God who holds them accountable for their sin.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00 In less than a year, our podcast has gone from an average of 10,000 downloads a month
00:00:04 to 50,000 downloads. What made the difference? You leaving us a five-star review. The more
00:00:10 positive reviews, the more the algorithm picks us up, and more people are confronted by the law
00:00:16 and gospel of Jesus Christ. Help us press forward the crown rights of King Jesus by leaving us a
00:00:23 five-star review on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks. We see that the sailors
00:00:29 picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared
00:00:36 the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. This is significant.
00:00:43 The last thing we'll focus on. The men actually feared the calming of the sea the most. So they
00:00:51 fear the storm. Then they fear the God in the storm or over the storm with authority, Jonah's 0.51
00:00:58 God, the triune God. And then the storm ceases. And this would be the moment for the fear to cease 0.88
00:01:05 along with it. Typically, once the threat has been neutralized, then the terror would go away
00:01:11 along with it. But here in Jonah chapter one is where we find these sailors most afraid,
00:01:20 not least afraid. The men actually feared the calming of the sea and the ceasing of the tempest
00:01:25 most of all because it proved that Jonah's words were true. There is a God who created all things
00:01:34 and will hold each man accountable for his sin. Now, since the ship was a large vessel and bound
00:01:41 on a long voyage, the men had livestock on board, which they offered as a sacrifice. And in order
00:01:47 to further display their gratitude, the sailors made vows before the Lord. Now notice this.
00:01:55 They're afraid of the storm. They're extra afraid when they realize that the storm actually has a
00:02:01 deity behind it controlling the storm. And then they're even more afraid when that is confirmed
00:02:06 by the storm ceasing. Because now they're no longer have the storm as an immediate threat
00:02:12 to their physical bodies, but they know that everything Jonah's just said about this God is
00:02:17 true. And although this immediate storm in the physical sense has ceased, there is another storm
00:02:24 of brewing. There's a storm of judgment. And that one day they're going to have to stand before this
00:02:30 God who causes storms and has authority to cease and still the storms. And they've been pagans
00:02:37 their whole life, worshiping false gods instead of the true God. So the fear doesn't go away when
00:02:44 the storm ceases. If anything, it increases. And so what do they do? They make vows and sacrifices
00:02:53 to the Lord after the threat has been neutralized. Now think about this in terms of genuine repentance.
00:03:00 It's one thing when you're sick to cry out to the Lord for healing and mercy.
00:03:04 and let's say as a specific example let's say you're sick in a particular kind of way it's
00:03:11 the kind of sickness you brought upon yourself right maybe in a past life in rebellion in sin
00:03:20 and you are kneeling calling upon the gods kneeling before the porcelain throne
00:03:26 i'll never do it again making vows
00:03:29 right but it's one thing to cry out and make vows and ask for mercy in the midst of a storm in the
00:03:38 midst of pain in the midst of fear it's another though when everything's all done when you're
00:03:45 pleased for help have actually been granted and answered to then turn to god and say i make a vow
00:03:52 not i'm making a vow in this moment if you help me i'll never do this again but no you have helped
00:03:58 me and I'm going to live another life. You have helped me and I'm going to be faithful to you.
00:04:07 That's what's happening with these sailors. These pagan sailors, they get it. They're making vows 0.97
00:04:14 and I think there's no other way to read this but bona fide, genuine salvation. They fear the Lord.
00:04:21 They now make vows to the Lord, not just to get out of the immediate threat. They've already gotten
00:04:26 And out of that, they're making vows for the future,
00:04:29 for the rest of their lives to live in fidelity to the Lord.
00:04:31 They make sacrifice to the Lord,
00:04:35 knowing that's an implicit acknowledgement
00:04:37 that they know they're sinners,
00:04:39 that they've sinned against the Lord in a host of ways,
00:04:41 but if nothing else, in their idolatry.
00:04:43 The fact that, you know, five minutes ago,
00:04:45 they were calling out to pagan gods. 0.70
00:04:47 So they're making sacrifices, seeking atonement,
00:04:51 making vows, renewing commitments.
00:04:54 meanwhile the Hebrew prophet is still in rebellion still Jonah chapter 2 is the only portion in all
00:05:06 four chapters where he appears to repent and I would argue that even then he doesn't Jonah chapter
00:05:12 2 is Jonah's prayer he cries out to the Lord but I don't believe it's actually the prayer from the
00:05:17 belly of the fish he talks about the waters going over his head I think that it's actually the
00:05:23 prayer that Jonah prays in the ocean or the sea as he's sinking in the waters. And even that is a
00:05:31 kind of prayer that's precisely the opposite of what the pagan Phoenicians pray. See, Jonah prays 1.00
00:05:37 as he's drowning that God would save him. And once God does, we pick back up with Jonah three and four
00:05:44 and he's got the same bad attitude again. Doesn't want to obey, wants Nineveh to be destroyed.
00:05:51 He's complaining about a plant.
00:05:54 God's like, you care about the plant?
00:05:56 Really, Jonah, the plant?
00:05:57 If you care about the plant,
00:05:59 what about 120,000 souls
00:06:01 that don't know the difference
00:06:02 between the right and left hand?
00:06:04 And I don't think that's moral ignorance.
00:06:06 I think God is literally speaking
00:06:07 that in Nineveh, there's 120,000 children so young
00:06:11 that even if you're mad at their moms and dads
00:06:14 for the violence in their hands,
00:06:15 their children haven't committed any violence towards Israel.
00:06:18 And there's also much cattle.
00:06:19 The cows didn't do anything wrong. This is how the story of Jonah ends, right? If you care about
00:06:24 the plant that I sent a worm to destroy, and it's not really just your own comfort, your own
00:06:29 idolatry, you just care for innocent living things. Well, you should probably care for the innocent
00:06:34 living 120,000 kids in Nineveh or care about the cattle in Nineveh, but you don't. Because at the
00:06:42 end of the day, you're not concerned about justice. You're not mad because I'm not being
00:06:48 just and punishing Nineveh because of their crimes. You're just, you're angry for yourself. 1.00
00:06:53 This has all been about your comfort, whether it's the plant causing shade, whether it's you
00:06:58 getting to make positive prophecies and them actually coming to pass and being liked by your
00:07:03 contemporaries, whether it's you having to travel to Nineveh, whether it's you in the belly of the
00:07:07 fish at every level. Jonah, the only thing you care about is not my glory. It's not my justice.
00:07:13 and it's not about innocent living creatures
00:07:15 like plants or cattles or kids.
00:07:17 What you care about is you.
00:07:20 Do you do well to be angry, Jonah?
00:07:25 And the rhetorical, implicit answer is no.
00:07:30 Now, I do believe that Jonah is in heaven
00:07:33 and that he did, in fact, repent
00:07:34 because somebody had to write the book.
00:07:37 And it's not contained in the book, his repentance.
00:07:40 but what is contained is remarkable everyone in the story of jonah repents except jonah
00:07:48 the phoenician sailors repent and i think it's real repentance nineveh repents we know that's
00:07:57 real repentance because jesus even says the men of nineveh on that day will rise up and judge
00:08:02 you speaking to israel ninevites will be your judges israel everyone repents in the story of
00:08:09 Jonah, except for Jonah. And Jonah, in many ways, we could say as a prophet, an Israelite prophet,
00:08:17 he represents the church. And more particularly, not just the church, that would be like Israel,
00:08:22 but Jonah being a prophet of Israel, pastors. And that's the last relevant overlap that I see in
00:08:31 our day and age. That right now, by the grace of God, because of judgment being poured out,
00:08:39 there are a lot of people and a lot of them unsuspected some surprise conversion stories
00:08:45 you might say there are a lot of people repenting
00:08:49 there are a lot of people i believe by the grace of god who are being converted and born again
00:08:55 they're seeing god's judgment they're seeing the error of our ways they're seeing the wickedness
00:09:02 behind the veil is being revealed and there are people who are waking up and coming to christ
00:09:09 He's recognizing, wait a second, we've got to repent.
00:09:11 We've got to call upon the Lord.
00:09:14 But there's one character in our current story,
00:09:17 like the story of Jonah, who still doesn't seem to get it.
00:09:22 Evangelical pastors.
00:09:25 Just like the prophet of Israel.
00:09:29 Still just doesn't know what time it is.
00:09:31 i mean you've got bona fide racist repenting and coming into the kingdom of heaven before
00:09:41 evangelical pastors
00:09:42 and then you've got a bunch of other people who are called racist but actually aren't
00:09:50 aka pretty much everyone in america
00:09:52 but the one group of people who seem to be so stubborn and will not relent
00:09:59 sadly are the prophets the people who should know exactly what time it is they've been given a
00:10:08 message namely this book to preach and to preach faithfully you don't get to ad-lib
00:10:12 and yet continually and consistently there's a refusal God says go to Nineveh they'll go to
00:10:20 Tarshish God says hey I'm doing a work of revival repentance among people on the right go to Nineveh
00:10:29 go to the right we'll be friends with the left we want the high seats
00:10:34 right go over there there's a bunch of people in flyover country you know the country bumpkins
00:10:43 you've made fun of for the last 30 years they're getting saved go over there but why do that when
00:10:49 Russell Moore and David French go hang out with the Atlantic in the New York Times
00:10:53 now that's the moment that we're in
00:10:58 jonah's the one guy who doesn't get it and notice the biggest way to miss the story
00:11:07 is that jonah doesn't get it not because he's afraid for his life jonah refuses deliberately
00:11:14 will not allow himself to get it because he's afraid of god's mercy saving the kinds of people
00:11:22 he spent his whole career despising.
00:11:26 When you're a minister, a prophet of the Lord,
00:11:29 who spent your whole life, your whole preaching career, 1.00
00:11:32 hating on the Assyrians as those bad, dirty people. 1.00
00:11:39 Right? Fly over country, blue collar country, bumpkins, white people. 1.00
00:11:45 Rural people, uneducated people. 0.97
00:11:49 you spent your whole career talking down, punching down on that type of person. 1.00
00:11:56 And then God says, I want you to go and preach to that city, to that people. I actually plan
00:12:02 to save them. And yeah, there are sins that they've committed, but I'm going to relent
00:12:07 and send a disaster and send mercy instead. And you're like, wait, the Phoenicians though, 1.00
00:12:12 I think they, that's a better crop right there. I think there's more potential for 1.00
00:12:16 revival among the Phoenicians. And God just laughs, I'll save them too.
00:12:22 But the one person you should probably be worried about, evangelical pastor, Jonah of our generation,
00:12:28 the one person you should be concerned about God saving is you.
00:12:32 You. As Nathan said to David, you are the man.
00:12:37 and judgment is here and it begins with the house of god and it begins first and foremost
00:12:46 within the house of god with ministers of god there are people we've despised we've looked down
00:12:54 on right like the priest who would walk by somebody who's laying in the street who's
00:13:00 been mugged by robbers but it's the samaritan that actually stops and helps
00:13:03 the fact that god's been using jordan peterson is an indictment to the church
00:13:10 no more jonah pastors no more jonah prophets
00:13:19 we need men who will preach god's word faithfully and that will know the times like the sons of
00:13:27 Issachar and be willing to go to whatever people the Lord sends them to.