Now the word of the Lord came
unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh,
that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness is come
up before me. But Jonah rose up to flee unto
Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa,
and he found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare
thereof, and went down into it, to go with him unto Tarshish,
from the presence of the Lord. But the Lord sent out a great
wind unto the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea,
so that the ship was like to be broken up. Then the mariners
were afraid, and cried every man unto his God, and cast forth
wares that were in the ship into the sea to lighten it of them.
But Jonah was going down to the sides of the ship, and he lay,
and he was fast asleep. So 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. And they said, Every one to his
fellow, Come and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose
cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot
fell upon Jonah. Then said they unto him, Tell
us, we pray thee, for whose cause is this evil upon us? What is
thine occupation? Which comest thou? What is thy
country? And of what people art thou?
And he said unto them, I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God
of heaven, which made the sea and the dry land. Then the men
were exceeding afraid and said unto him, 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 be calm unto us? For the sea wrought and was tempestuous. And he said unto them, Take me
up, cast me forth into the sea, So shall the sea be common to
you, for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.
Nevertheless the men rode hard to bring it to the land, but
they could not, for the sea wrought and was tempestuous against them.
Wherefore they cried unto the Lord, and said, We beseech thee,
O Lord, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man's
life. And lay not upon us innocent blood, for thou, O Lord, hast
done as it pleased thee. So they took up Jonah, and cast
him forth into the sea. And the sea ceased from her raging.
Then Damir feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto
the Lord, and made vows. Now the Lord had prepared a great
fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of
the fish three days and three nights. Then Jonah prayed unto
the Lord his God out of the fish's belly, and said, I cried by reason
of mine and friction. unto the Lord, and he heard me. Out of the belly of hell cried
I, and thou heardest my voice, for thou hast cast me into the
deep, into the midst of the seas, and the floods compassed me about,
all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. Then said I,
I am cast out of thy sight, yet I will look again toward thy
holy temple. The waters compassed about, even
to the soul. The depth closed me round about,
the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms
of the mountain, the earth with her bars was about me forever.
Yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God. When my soul fainted within me,
I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came unto thee, unto thy
holy temple. They that observe lying fanaties
forsake their own mercy, but I will sacrifice unto thee with
the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. And
the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited Jonah upon the
dry land. Our Father, in the precious name,
blessed name of Christ our Lord, how blessed we are, how blessed
we are to be able to meet with the people of God, to be able
to gather in a public place to worship and pray that you, Lord,
would set the table for us. Lord, you told us you have a
table prepared for us in glory. You prepared a table for us in
the presence of our enemies. And you've got a marriage supper,
you're going to call us all to one of these days. So Lord, prepare
us a table today. Put your blessed bread and grace
and mercy and love and power and pity and Christ our Lord
and His precious blood and righteousness, His finished work, His blessed
glory, set it all before us. He said before us that salvation
is of the Lord and only of the Lord, as we just read. Please enable me to honor you
today. May the saints of God be blessed and encouraged. May
they hear the gospel. May they be blessed to the Lord.
And Father, we want to remember those who are troubled, who are
going through a great fight of afflictions. We pray for Jim
and Debbie. Bruce and Joe, Rick and Helen,
pray for Seth and Kaylee and their dear family. Lord, we have
many gone to be with them today and give them traveling mercies
there and give them traveling mercies back. Lord, you have
blessed them so abundantly with love, care, and compassion. People so ready and willing to
do And Father, we pray for Greg and Trish and their daughter.
That you would, oh Lord, have mercy
upon her. God bless her, strengthen her.
Jennifer, Lord, God bless them. And as she goes to start treatments
this week, God bless her. May the treatments work to your
glory and her good and that family. who ask these things in our Lord
Jesus' name. Amen. I want you to go hold Jonah and
go to Matthew chapter 12. You keep Jonah now and go to
Matthew chapter 12. I want to show you something
about what our Lord said about Jonah. Matthew chapter 12. Our Lord said here in verse 38,
Matthew 12, 38. Then certain of the scribes and of
the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from
thee. But he answered and said unto
them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign,
and there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of the prophet
Jonas. For as Jonas was three days and
three nights in the whale's belly. You notice our Lord calls it
a whale here. So shall the Son of Man three
days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of
Nineveh shall rise up in judgment with this generation and shall
condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah and
behold it greater than Jonah's hip. Of all the books in the
Bible, and there are 66 of them, Jonah is regarded with the most
skepticism with the most ridicule even by so-called Bible scholars. I read something the other day
that they said that the book of Jonah didn't make any difference
whether it happened or not. Happened or not. It had to be
fiction. And he says it doesn't matter
spiritually whether a man believes it or don't. If a big fish swallowed
Jonah or not. He said no man's better for believing
it and no man's worse for believing it. Well, if Jonah's fiction
and Jonah didn't happen, what are you going to say about the
rest of the Bible? Is it fiction too? Huh? I'll tell you. Where's the honor
of God? Where's the truth of God at in
something like that? If men have trouble with the
miracle of Jonah, a supernatural miracle, they'll have trouble
with everything God says and done. Miracles and supernatural
are at the foundation of the Bible. When God said, let there
be light and there was light, that's a miracle. And when our Lord Jesus Christ
came from heaven and took the womb of a virgin, that's supernatural,
that's a miracle. And if you don't believe that,
you're not even, you couldn't even believe the Bible. That's
the foundation of our faith. Christ coming into this world
and taking on Himself a human nature. Taking on Himself a body. Huh? And what about His death
and His resurrection? And our Lord stands or falls
with the book of Jonah and the rest of the Bible. And our Lord
put his step on Jonah here and he called him the prophet Jonah. He called him a prophet. Huh? You fellas want a sign? He said
I'm going to tell you the only sign you're ever going to have.
What they were asking is give us some proof, give us some credentials. That you say who you say, that
you are who you say you are. He said, I tell you what, you
all remember Jonah, don't you? You read about Jonah, going down
into the belly of that fish. And when he got through, staying
down there three days and three nights, when he got through,
he found out that salvation was of the Lord. And he said, that's
the only sign you're going to get that I'm going to die. I'm
going to go down into the earth, and I'm going to come up again
just like Jonah did. And that's the only reason, if
you look at Jonah, you'll understand what's going to happen to me.
And I called him John of Jonah, and I tell you what, And he says
the people repented when Jonah got down to Nineveh. And our
Lord Jesus Christ said, I'll tell you there's greater than
Jonah right here in your presence. And I'll tell you what, where
in the world can our faith rest? If the Bible is not true and
ever been and I told Todd mentioned this to me the other day He said
I'm like I said, I believe the Bible so much that I'm like what
you said one time I never forget it if the Bible says that Jonah
swallowed the whale I don't believe that just as much as the whale
swallowed Jonah That's what the Bible said That's how much I
believe God's book If they've just been reversed You know either
it stands or falls to all that together If you take any part
of God's Bible and say it's not true Then you got to take all
of them say it's not true. We can't pick and choose what
we want to believe and don't believe and Anybody that can
pick and choose what they want to believe like the Jews did
like everybody else in this world did like their opinion of the
Bible matters or not and People say, I believe it and that settles
it. No, that settles it whether you believe it or not. It's settled. It's settled. And the book of
Jonah tells us that our Lord Jesus Christ is in His very person
and His wisdom of His Godhead. And I tell you, Christ said,
I'm going to be just like Jonah. And there's just four short chapters
in Jonah. And the gospel is clear as the
nose on your face. In the book of Jonah, just as
clear as a nose on your face. Huh? Oh my. And so let's go. Let's go back over to Jonah now.
Let's go back over to Jonah. What we have in the book of Jonah
is the gospel of God's blessed, blessed grace. Blessed grace. First of all, you know, we call
it tulip. Call it five points of Calvinism,
call it the gospel, call it what you will. But we start out with
man's utter and absolute lostness and inability. Man's total depravity. And secondly, we believe, and
this is the second thing, is that salvation is by a substitute. Salvation is by what somebody
else did. And thirdly, the sovereignty
of God. God's sovereign all the way through
this book like he is from Genesis to Revelation. Sovereign in salvation. Salvation is of the Lord, Jonah
said. And not only is that, beloved,
he's sovereign in providence. God did everything that happened
in the book of Jonah. And you'll see that He's sovereign
over creation. Everything that happened in the
book of Jonah, from the storm till it stopped, was all of the
Lord. And then we got a glorious, glorious
picture of God's irresistible grace. I mean, God says, I'm
going to have you. And I mean, I'm going to have
you. And He brings Him to Himself. and makes him admit, if I'm saved
the Lord's got to do it. If I come up out of the belly
of hell, that's going to be the Lord's going to have to do it.
And then fifthly, the final preservation and perseverance of God's blessed
people. This is the first point in Jonah
chapter 1. Oh man's lost condition, his
reaction to God. Look what it says here now in
verse First three verses. Now the word of the Lord came
unto Jonah, the son of Amittai. Rise, go to Nineveh, that great
city, and cry against them, for their wickedness come up before
me. Now look what Jonah did. But Jonah rose up to flee unto
Tarshish. Now look what he says here. From
the presence of the Lord. Went down to Joppa and found
a ship going to Tarsus paid the fare thereof and went down into
it to go with him unto Tarsus. Listen to it again from the presence
of the Lord. That's man. That's man in of
himself in his natural natural state. They that are in the flesh
cannot please God. When Adam and Eve was created,
and when they fell, the first thing they did is they hid from
God. They went out from the presence
of the Lord. Cain, the scripture says, he went out. The first
time you mention that somebody went out from the presence of
the Lord, it was Cain who went out from the presence of the
Lord. The very essence of depravity, the very essence of sin, is that
men don't want to be in God's presence. They figure out some
way to get away from God. Not have any dealings with Him.
And Jonah disobeyed God. Jonah was self-willed. And let
me tell you something. And the safest place to get out
of the presence of God. Now I'm saying this and I believe
this with all my heart. The safest place to get away
from God and be out of His presence. Buy you a Bible and go join the
average Baptist church and God will not bother you. You know
why? Because He loves you and Jesus
died for you. And He ain't gonna bother you.
He'll leave you sitting there and the preacher ain't going
to bother you. He ain't going to upset you. He's going to give
you something to do. He's going to give you a work.
He's going to give you something. But I tell you what, when God
says, Jonah go down there, Jonah said, I ain't going. I'm not
going. I don't want to be in your presence
anymore. And if you can be in the presence
of God, Not fear him and not approach
him at all and in wonder and in reverence Then you're in trouble And oh, I'll tell you what Jonah
was so self-willed here And look what it says there in verse 3.
He found a ship He found a ship That mean he went down there
looking for some way to get out of the prayers the Lord he found
a ship and And you know there's all kinds of ships. Men are finding
ships all the time. They got all kinds of ships.
There's a good ship morality. I'm a good man. I'm a fine man.
I'm a moral man. I don't need to go to church.
I tell you what, if anybody goes to heaven, I will. And then there's
that old ship of free will. Oh, that great mighty powerful
free will That will that chose God at bay that will that makes
God have to wait on it that will that says I've got the power
I've got the ability and God can't do anything for me unless
I let him And then there's that one of baptism. Oh, listen, I
give you a baptism certificate That's why they always give a
person a baptism certificate when they baptize them so they
can put it on the wall See there's proof that I was baptized. Somebody
told me here a while back that was here said I was baptized
when I was nine or eight or nine years old. She's looking back
to that baptism. Oh my. And then I tell you what,
join a church. Oh my goodness, I want to find
a good church. And they'll go around and go
around and go here, yonder, and everywhere else until they find
one that just fits them just right. Like buying shoes. You
try on all the shoes until you find one. Oh, that feels good.
That's the way they are with religion and churches. And I
tell you what, and I tell you, get in religion of any kind.
And I tell you today, tomorrow, doing the best I can, there's
an old ship of no hail, and I tell you something about them. Every
one of those ships is a ship full of fools. And I tell you, look what it
says, and he paid the fare thereof. He paid his own way. That's what
everybody wants to do. They want to pay their own way.
Oh, listen, he paid the fare. How much is it going to cost
me? Oh, I don't know. Sign this card. Make a decision. I don't care what it cost me.
As long as I get things on my terms. So I paid the fare. The scripture said in Ecclesiastes
7.29, God made man upright. But he sought him out. Many inventions. And this is an invention. And
Jonah's life on that ship was nothing but a life of deceit,
self-will, his self-will and deceit toward God and toward
man. Then he said, you'd think, boy, he'd be in trouble about
that. No, no. Look what it says here in verse
5, last part of the verse. They had a great storm raise
up, but Jonah was going down into the sides of the ship, and
he laid, and he was fast asleep. He was asleep. He wasn't worried
about nothing. Huh? Oh, he wasn't troubled. He was fast asleep. David said,
Oh Lord, don't let me sleep to sleep to death. And oh my, then
he lied. Look what he said here in verse
7. They said, Everyone to his fellow,
come and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this
evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot
fell on Jonah. Then they said unto him, Tell
us, we pray thee, whose cause is this evil upon us? What do
you do? What's your work? Where are you
from? What's your country? What people
are you? He said unto them, I'm in Hebrew,
and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven and earth, which hath
made the sea and the dry land. But he didn't tell them. He didn't
tell them. And I tell you, here's the next thing that happens.
That's the first thing. Man, he got to get from the presence
of the Lord. He is so depraved. He is so depraved. Now let me tell you something
about depravity before I move on. Let me tell you something
about depravity. Depravity means a man is off, as bad off as he
is in the sight of God. Now depravity, there's people
that are depraved, and everybody's depraved. But here's the thing
about it, that doesn't mean a man can be as bad as he can be, but
he's as bad off in the sight of God as he can be. They'll
watch somebody do something real, real bad and say, boy, hey, he's
really depraved, ain't he? He's depraved, I'm not. Depravity
is your relationship with God, not your relationship with yourself
and somebody else. And then look what the next thing
happens. You've got to have salvation by substitute. Jonah here is
typical of our Lord both in his death and his resurrection. Now
I want you to notice these men on this ship are very, very,
very religious. They believed in prayer. In verse
6 it says, Arise, O sleeper, arise and call upon thy God.
If so be thy God will thank upon us that we perish not. Huh? He said in verse 5, look what
he says. In verse 5, Then the mariners
were afraid and cried to every man unto his God. Oh, everybody had a God. Everybody
on that ship had a God. Everybody get up and call on
their God. Who's your God? Listen, I don't
care who He is, call on Him. Call on Him. Oh, they had lots
of gods on that boat. And they started casting the
cargo overboard. And you know what that means? That's like a sinner. When he's
under conviction, you know what the first thing he starts doing?
When God sends a storm like they did this, they start throwing
sins overboard. Well, I'll quit this sin, I'll
quit that sin, I'll quit this other sin. And that's what preachers
are telling people. Now listen to me, I'm going to
tell you something right now. If anybody tells you you need
to turn from your sin to turn to Christ, you need to turn to
Christ because Christ has already put your sin away. If anybody tells you you've got
to turn from sin before you turn to Christ, they gave you a work
to do. You can't turn from your sin.
If you could turn from your sin, you'd turn from it today and
never do it again. Is that not right? So that's what I mean. I can't give
you anything to do. The only thing I'll tell you
to do is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you do,
I'll say God gave you the faith to do it with. And He gave you
the grace in order to give you faith. And I tell you that, they believed
in God, but that's the first thing. I did the same, I did
it myself. When I first got under conviction,
I started throwing sins overboard. I quit smoking. I said, boy,
that's a good thing. Because they ain't going to have
no, nobody's going to be smoking in heaven and the angels ain't
going to have good ashes on their bodies. People tell me that all the time.
They told, you know, Mary used to smoke and they told her, says,
listen, if you're still smoking when the Lord comes, your feet
won't get a half foot off the ground. Oh, how wicked man is. That's
getting out from the presence of the Lord. We got to have salvation
by a substitute. And these men ask good questions.
They said there in verse 11, Then they said unto him, What
shall we do unto thee, since the lot cast upon you, that the
sea may be calm unto us? What do we need to do to make
everything calm down around here, to stop this storm? For the sea
wrought was tempestuous. And he said unto them, Take me
up, and cast me forth into the sea, and the sea will be calm
to you. He said, Throw me overboard.
Throw me overboard, throw me into this raging sea and the
sea will calm down for you. For I know that for my sake this
great tempest is upon you. And for Christ's sake, for Christ's
sake, and because of Him, sin becomes exceedingly sinful to
us. Ain't that right? But look what
happens now. They ask good questions. Jonah
told them, said, throw me overboard and you'll be saved if you throw
me into the sea. But look what happens now. Nevertheless,
the men rode hard to bring it to the land and they could not.
Oh my. You see, they're doing their
best to save themselves. Jonah done told them how they
are going to be saved. They done told them how the storm
is going to stop. He done told them, said throw
me overboard. Christ done told us how salvation is going to
be. Christ done told us how he saves sinners. But all men, you
know Christ crucified is foolishness to them. and they even then after
they found out how to be saved through Jonah being thrown overboard
by a substitute they just kept on working they just kept on
rowing they just kept on going well how in the world are they
going to be saved then by Jonah dying for them Jonah dying for
them and okay so then verse 15 so they took up Jonah cast him
forth into the sea And the sea ceased from her raging. Oh my! Just immediately when Jonah was
thrown overboard, immediately a storm stopped. And immediately,
immediately, I'm telling you something, when Christ was on
that cross, I tell you what, salvation was accomplished. And
when Jonah was delivered up then and only then does the storm
cease and men are saved. Men are saved. Now look what
the scripture says now. Verse 17, Now the Lord had
prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the
belly of the fish three days and three nights. Jonah seeks
down into the belly of hell to save these men. Ain't that what
he said? He said in verse... Jonah prayed unto the Lord his
God out of the fish's belly. He went from the presence, now
he's calling on God. He said, I cried by reason of
my affliction and the Lord heard me. Out of the belly of hell
did I cry. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the scriptures
tells us that God would not suffer His Holy One to seek corruption. And He put Him down into hell
and brought Him up out of hell. Said, I will not suffer Thine
Holy One to seek control. And He brought me up out of the
belly of hell to save these people. That's why our Lord cried, My
God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? And I tell you this, the
only way in the world these people are going to be saved is through
Jonah. being thrown overboard. And the
only way you and I are saved is by the Lord Jesus Christ bearing
our sin. How can I be saved? How can I
be saved? How can God be just and save
a sinner like me? How can God be just and save
somebody like me that rode, bought, paid my own fare for years? I paid my own way for years. And how in the world could He
save somebody like me? Christ. Oh, throw me overboard. Christ said, crucify me. My hour
has come. The time has come. I've got to
die. And he died. We're wrapped down into the belly
of hell, the Scriptures tell us. And God said, He will not
suffer thine holy one to seek corruption and bring him up. And I tell you, beloved, and
when our Lord Jesus Christ spent those three days in the heart
of the earth, did He come up on the third morning? And that's
how He said, I'm just like Jonah. Now, I want you to notice something
here. Here's the third point, God's sovereignty in this work
of salvation. Jonah learned this down there
in verse 9. Jonah learned this, the sovereignty
of God in salvation. And I will sacrifice unto thee
with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. Jonah
acknowledged God's providence and His justice. He said there
in verse 3, Thou didst cast me into the deep. You put me in
the midst of the seas. You caused the floods to come
upon me and all thy billows to pass over me. You did it. And
then look what he said in verse 4. He said, I am cast out of
your sight. You cast me out of your sight.
But do you know what he said? He said, I'm going to do, you
know what I'm going to do? I'm still going to look up to you.
I'm still going to look to you. I'm still going to look to you.
Jonah was completely at the disposal of God Almighty. He learned that
it would not be his choice, but God's choice. He learned that
salvation was of God's will, not his will. He learned that
if he saved, it will be on purpose. Not according to chance, his
will, or anything he ever did. And the sailors even acknowledged
the sovereignty of God in dealing with them. He said, God did this,
the Lord did this. The Lord did this. And four times
it says here in Jonah that God prepared something. Four times.
Talking about God's sovereignty. Sovereignty over the fish. Sovereign
over the sea. Sovereign over the dry land.
Sovereign over this whale. Look what happens now. Four times
it says the Lord prepared something. First of all, the Lord prepared
a great fish. What are you preparing for? For
one thing, to swallow Jonah. Jonah! He hit that water in this big
ol' well, come up, got it. He was just waiting there with
his mouth open. Huh? And when I tell you when
Jonah hit that water, that mouth closed over him. Oh, then look what it says here
now, in chapter 4, verse 6. Here's three things the Lord
prepared. Four things that the Lord prepared. The Lord God prepared
a gourd. They had come up over Jonah.
Then verse 7, God prepared a worm to destroy the gourd. And then
it says in verse 8, when the sun did arise, that God prepared
a vehement east wind. The sun being upon the head of
Jonah. So the Lord did four things.
He prepared them for things. And I tell you one thing, God's
got to prepare things. He's got to prepare things. And
when Jonah finally cried out, cried out and saw and submitted
to salvations of the Lord. When are you going to do that?
When are you going to do that? When are some of you here going
to do that? Really realize the salvations of the Lord. Quit
holding on to something back there. Quit holding on to an
experience. Quit holding on to something
you said, something you've done. Listen, Christ has already died. Christ has already been buried.
Christ has already risen. Salvation is finished. It's done.
It's accomplished. And when Jonah says that, salvation
is of the Lord. Look what happens next in verse
10 of chapter 2. The Lord prepared that fish to
swallow him, then the Lord spake unto the fish. Oh boy. I tell you, if you ever
hear a fish talk to the fish, come on fish, come on, get on
this hook. There must not be no fish around here today. Oh,
the Lord spake to that fish. I tell you, and you know what
happened, we know what that fish did? It came right up to the
land, and look what it says, and it vomited Jonah up on the
dry land. Oh my, not only does God save,
but He puts men in the position of wanting to be saved. He put
him in the place where he wanted to be saved. He not only heals, but He makes
them sit to where they want to be healed. I tell you, you know,
God will put you in a position where you want to be saved more
than anything else. And I'm as much wanting to be
saved now as I've ever wanted to be saved. I want to be saved as much as
I've ever wanted to be saved. And I know you understand that.
You that are believers, you understand that. I really, really want to
be saved. It's not that I'm even afraid
of going to hell. You know why I want to be saved?
Because I want to know Christ and go be with Christ. Who loved
me and gave himself for me. Here's the fourth thing now.
Salvation by the irresistible word and power of God. Now, oh
my! Like I said there, the Lord spake
in verse 10, the Lord spake unto the fish and it vomited Jonah
on the dry land. God is the God of all creation.
His power is omnipotent. Huh? The Lord spake. God does everything by His Word.
The Scripture said, He spake and it was done. He commanded
and it stood fast. He spoke. He spoke. God speaks. That's all. He always works by
what He says. Always works by what He says.
And the Lord spake. God's Word and power brought
Jonah to the end of himself. He said, Cast me overboard. Then
He said, God is just to destroy me and put me down here. But God's word and power caused
that well to spit him out over dry land. Huh? Oh my. Now I'm going to tell you. Now
if you was in an average church today, you know what they would
have said? First of all, they would have started out, Jonah
is a backslid preacher. That's the first thing you would
have found out about Jonah. He's backslid. He's just backslid. But like
Barnard said, you know, when God calls a preacher to preach,
he gonna put him where he wants to preach more than anything
else. He'll put him in a situation where he ain't got no say in
the matter, just like salvation. And I tell you what, if you'd
have been in the average church, spit him out. Listen, he spit
him out about four or five foot from the dry land. He said, now
Jonah, I've done everything I can do for you. The rest is up to
you. You gotta make it the rest of
the way yourself. swim swim swim Jonah swim hard I'll put you out on where your
feet can touch the no no you know what he says no put him
on dry land you know why I told you put him on dry land Because
our Lord Jesus Christ, as Jonah was put on the dry land, His
resurrection from the dead, His resurrection from hell, His resurrection
so these folks could be saved. And our Lord Jesus Christ, we
stand on resurrection ground just like these people did here.
He wouldn't put him forth to anyone else. He didn't put him
out there to save himself. Our Lazarus didn't, Christ didn't
give Lazarus an opportunity to save himself. He said, Lazarus
come forth and he that was dead came forth. Zacchaeus come down
and Zacchaeus came down. Bartimaeus come here and Bartimaeus
come here. Well, spit out Jonah. Where do
you want me to spit him at? Put him out there on the dry
land. And I'll tell you what, I believe he landed on his feet
and went You know, they didn't throw him
out. He was walling around on the beach. You know, wherever
he was. He hit on his teeth and he said,
I got to go to Nineveh and I got to get there quick. Oh my, God's Word and power caused
the Ninevites to repent. That's another story. And then
Jonah learned this quickly. We're talking about the preservation
and perseverance of God's people. Let me show you. He preserved
Jonah in the storm. He preserved Jonah in the sea.
He preserved Jonah in the whale's belly. He preserved Jonah in
his preaching. God is going to preserve his
people. But Jonah, I tell you what, Jonah went through their
preaching and it made Jonah upset. Why did he get upset? Oh, Jonah was angry. Look what
he says there in verse 2, chapter 4. 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 thee
unto tortures, for I knew that you were gracious, merciful,
slow to anger, and of great kindness and repentance to thee of the
evil. So now I come over here and done all this preaching,
knowing they're going to call me a false prophet, because I
told them that they was all wicked, and you was going to destroy
them. But then you turned around and you showed them grace, and
you showed them mercy. And all that upset Jonah. Well,
it upset Jonah. Well, God prepared a gourd over
his head. Then he got a worm and ate that
gourd. It left that son beaten down on him. He said, Jonah,
does it do you well to be angry? He said that in verse 9 of chapter
4. And I'm done. God said to Jonah, does thou
well to be angry? Art thou greatly angry? for the
gourd, because I tore that gourd down, the east wind beating on
you now. 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 made it grow, which came up in
the night and perished in the night. And should I not spare
Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six-score thousands
of people, persons that cannot discern between their right hand
or left hand, and also much cattle." Now who in the world is people
that don't know their right from their left? Babies. Children. Little children. So
there were six, how many did he say? Six thousand babies there
he said and I spared him I spared him oh the gospel nothing like
it hardly nothing like it nothing like it our father we bow our heart here
in your presence to thank you for your abundant grace and mercy
given us in Christ thank you for your gospel thank you for
your word I pray you bless it only you could bless it like
you did for Jonah. What you did for Jonah you have
to do for all of us. And oh Lord I pray that today
you gave a hearing ear. You know it left my voice, left
my heart. It's gone out there into the
air. And Lord it's in your hands. You can do with it as seemeth
good in your eyes and in your sight. So we leave it there. We leave it there. It's in your
hands. Do with the gospel what seems good in your sight. We
bless you and praise you in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.