What Is The Gospel?

Alright, it's counting. That's right. If it's counting, we're good. It's a privilege to be here again with you. If you will, begin turning to 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15. That will be our text for the day. Forty years ago, I don't think I told this last time I was here. The Lord used an instrument, a tool, to build this building. It was my father.

And I was five years old whenever Brother Henry first came down to preach. And right before they opened, they were working on this baptistry, some of the plumbing would start leaking or something. And I'd seen Brother Henry preaching other places, and him and old Scott Richardson and some of the men, and it was loud. And I had little ears.

And they'd yell, and they'd hit that pulpit, and I hated it. I wanted out of here so bad. But I thought it was interesting, so I got me a five-gallon bucket, and I flipped it upside down right here. And I stood behind it, and I went and started, I don't know what I was saying. I was yelling, and I was hitting this pulpit, and Dad leaped. That's about the only time I ever saw him run. And he snatched me up and ensured my little bottom never did that again.

But things are different now than it was when I was five years old. I'm different. And then 23 years ago, I sat here with you, I was going to school here in Pikeville, and I sat here with you all for about a year under Brother Tom, and I enjoyed that time here. But I was different then, just like I was different when I was five. And now it's been 23 more years. I'm 45, and I'm different now than I was when I was 23 and when I was five. And things have changed. The Lord's taught me some different things, but I'm just not the exact same as I was then. I'm still me, but I'm not the same. But I'll tell you what is the same.

The gospel is. And so people, I've heard, you know, we're saying here the gospel's been here for 40 years. And you hear that a lot all over. People say, well, they're a gospel preacher down there, or the gospel's here, and we went and heard the gospel today. What is that? If I was gonna invite somebody to come and say, come hear the gospel with me. And they said, well, what's the gospel? What is it? Good question, isn't it?

An opponent of the gospel called me one time and said, you're just like all them other grace preachers. He said, every time you say something, you go, why? And he's making fun of my accent. And he said, why do y'all always ask why? I said, maybe they're trying to teach you something. They're getting you to think. What's the gospel? I have an opinion, you have an opinion, somebody else has an opinion. And opinion is a literal translation of the word heresy in the scriptures. What do I think? Why I think this? Why I feel that? What does God say? It is. That's what's important. What I say or what I think is not important. What God says is important.

And I want to know because it's either the gospel or it's not. A man either preaches the gospel or he does not preach the gospel. And it may sound close. But I wanted this text came to mind as soon as Brother Tom asked me to come preach and I hope the Lord blesses it. And we see what he says his gospel is. A lot of people have a lot of different answers to what the gospel, that's a definite article. Not a gospel, not one of them, the. There's only one, it's God's gospel. He said in Romans one, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God. This is God's gospel.

It starts with Him. He sustains it. He's the one that keeps it to the end. It's salvation. Gospel means good news. Some people have enough good news of their own. They don't have any need for other good news. If the Lord reveals to us what we are, that's bad news. We're in trouble. We need some good news.

But this is the gospel of God, the good news of God, which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now that's a whole lot shorter of what Paul's gonna tell us here in 1 Corinthians 15. A gospel message is all of God's holy scripture concerning his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's impossible to preach the gospel without preaching who Christ is and what he did and where he is now. That don't mean sometimes. Oh, that's the only message. That's it. Go find philosophy, watch a movie, go to a football game, do something else, make yourself happy. This here's the only message of the scriptures. That's it.

It says in 1 Corinthians 15 verse one, Moreover brethren, I declare unto you. I'm telling you this and it's either the truth or it ain't And he said Paul said another place woe unto me if I preach not the gospel No, it didn't say one of me if I don't preach You can get preach anything one to me if I don't preach the gospel and here's something that can go hand-in-hand with that Woe unto me if I don't believe it woe unto you if you don't receive it He says, here I'm going to declare unto you the gospel, this is it, the one, which I preached unto you. I've already told you once and I'm going to tell you again. He said in another place, this is safe for me to be repetitive. It ain't hurting you and it ain't hurting me. This is real basic. If you come to church, you need a calculator or you need a thesaurus, find you another church to go to. It's a simple basic.

He said, I'm going to tell you again. Which you've also received, you've already received this. And wherein ye stand, you gonna stand anywhere else? Nope. By which also you are saved. If you keep in memory that, what I preached unto you, how are we gonna keep it?

People say, well, I received the gospel. Nowadays, we think of receiving like you receive a gift at Christmas. Well, if I like that, I'll keep it. I don't really like it, you can have it back or I'll re-gift it, right? If I pour water into that glass, that glass receives the water so it can get tipped over. Okay, I'll try again.

When I was a little child, I stood on that five-gallon bucket standing there and I received a butt-busting. What if I didn't like it? Mom would hold me by one arm and hit me with this one and we'd just run in circles. I'd run shorter, she'd hold me harder.

You received it, this is a good thing though, not a bad thing. It's here, I have it, can't get rid of it, because that's where I stand. For I delivered unto you, I'm sorry, by which also you're saved, verse two. If you keep in memory, how are we going to keep it? We are kept by the power of God. I'm holding on to him because he's holding on to me, just like a small child.

That which I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. I've seen people, and I hope I don't get hard hearted. I am, it's my stiff neck, but people come in and they get excited or some famous person will start saying things that sounds like what these scriptures say. And I give it time. Let's see if they stay to the end. See if something else comes up to be a bigger topic.

Well, we need to get into manliness, or we need to bring back the marriage, or something else comes up other than Christ. The simplicity of Christ. And if it's anything other than Him, it's vain. It says later on here, if the Lord's not risen, we're dead in sins. Do what you want. There's no hope. Everything else is vanity. Vanity of vanities.

Here's the gospel. I'm going to tell you. I'm going to declare it to you. The gospel. Verse 3, 4. I delivered unto you first of all. He's telling us again. Now, that which I also received. He's received it. He's experienced it. There's some people that sounds everything like they're saying the truth. Something's missing. They haven't experienced it. Paul's experience is he's received it. And though this is God's gospel, he also says, this is my gospel. He gave it to me. This is my gospel. He said, I received it. How? How that, every word matters. Here's the gospel. How that Christ died for our sins according to the scripture.

And that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. Now you go find me a hundred thousand people here in California, wherever you want to go. And most of them will say, well, there's a man named Christ. He came, he died, he buried, he rose again. And in the Christmas time, there's somebody selling bumper stickers. They're all over on the back of cars. He's risen. He's written. It's almost flippant. He's risen.

God turned his back on God and slew him as he gave up his own ghost willingly. This world went dark for three hours, and for three days he laid in a tomb, and now that sacrifice has been accepted. God's satisfied, there's that onement, and he's on his throne at the right hand of his father.

That's not flippant, is it? I preached the message four on number six, the Lord bless you, it means the Lord kneel you. which is wonderful. But I said, if you're ever around me and somebody sneezes, no, on the inside, I don't know what to do. Because I want to say, oh, bless you. I can't bless nobody. And I had a teacher up in New Jersey one time. He said, they kept shortening it, and he'd just go, bless. I learned gesundheit. Literal translation from German means healthiness. It's like a command. And so now any time somebody in my family sneezes, I just yell, healthiness.

He's risen according to the scriptures. Everybody agrees. It's a historical fact. A man named Jesus came and he died and he was buried and he risen again the third day. That's not the rub. Here's the problem all mankind has. How that was according to the scriptures. That seems so simple. Just a couple sentences. It means so much. Christ died Delivered for us. He died for our sins. That means we're sinners We need a substitute but he did it according to the scriptures and he was buried because he died and He rose again the third day Just as he said he would That ain't like a man. I can say I'll be here today, May 3rd. I was hoping I didn't get a flat. And if that transmission started making a funny noise, I said, oh, am I going to make it? I got three hours drive to get there. I hope I make it.

God says if he's going to be there, he's there. If he says it's going to rain, buy an umbrella. That ain't like man. And he declares the begin from the ending. He gives life. He kills. He makes alive. This is God we're dealing with. And he said in all these Old Testament, this is exactly what I'm going to do and who I'm going to do it for. And then he did it.

And we got the Gospels, the whole Old Testament's Christ is coming, that's the Gospel concealed. The New Testament's Gospel revealed, we've heard it said. The whole Old Testament, he's coming, here's what he's gonna do. The Gospels are written, saying here he is, he's doing it. And we got the Epistles saying he's coming again. And that's what his preachers say now.

Look at what he said, he's coming again. Christ is the message of the Old Testament. I knew a man one time, the Lord saved him, and he said, you mean to tell me that ark was Christ? And I said, by all means, you're going to have a good time. I got excited to tell him. That's what it's all about.

According to the scriptures. What's the scriptures Paul's talking about? Well, he's writing the epistles right now. We didn't have the full canon of scripture. The gospels were being written. They only had the Old Testament. Genesis through Malachi, that's all they had.

That's what they're talking about. The Lord came after he had risen, he walked this earth, and he went to those two walking to the road to Emmaus. And they were sad, and they went on. The Lord was here, and now he's dead in the tomb. We've heard all these different reports, and everybody's saying everything. And he walked with them and listened to them. And he said, oh, fools. That's foolish and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. You're slow to believe God's word. That's my problem. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things?

They talked about that death he would accomplish. Every time we lose somebody, when somebody dies, we say they lost their life. That's the only man ever won a death. He accomplished it. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory? This glorifies Christ, that he died and he rose again according to the scriptures. And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them and all the scriptures the things concerning himself. How? According to the scriptures, exactly what he said. The Lord wrote things down.

Somebody asked me one time, I said, I think the Bible says this. I said, maybe you ought to read it. Go see what he says. Look it up. I heard it say this. It does not say that. The Lord doesn't say it. Here's what he says. I want to know what he says. So now do we see that the gospel is not what we're searching for. It's not what we're to hear. It's who. It's a person. I want to briefly touch on some of the scriptures here in the Old Testament. I won't have you turn to them. But how did he die? according to the scriptures. How? How?

Very first thing. In creation, there's beautiful pictures there on each day, but the first thing that came to my mind, Adam sinned in the garden. Eve ate, didn't do anything. He heeded his wife instead of God, and all of mankind, all of us, all of his descendants, everybody born of Adam, we failed. We fail in Adam, we fail in our conception, we fail in our birth, we fail in our mouths.

As soon as we can start talking, willingly, We fail, and the Lord said, you know, that seed of woman, his style will put enmity between thee, speaking to the serpent, and the woman. There's going to be war with you. And between thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise it too. What was that saying? Satan's thinking he's going to win, and he's going to pierce the Lord at Calvary. And Christ is going to crush his head in doing so. His death was proclaimed in that very statement.

And it says, without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. He came here, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles. That's us. Believed on in the world and received up in the glory. Then in the garden, God turned and gave a picture of Christ by making a covering for Adam. As soon as Adam sinned, they realized that was naked. They made coverings of themselves. Something they come up with.

It's going to wither. And the Lord went and slew a lamb and said to him and his wife, did the Lord God make coats of skin and clothing? I'm going to kill that lamb slain before the foundation of the world. He's going to die. And because of that death, you're going to be covered. You need a covering. This is Genesis. We've got a long ways to go to get to Malachi.

I won't hit all of them. Brother Henry said, I don't mind somebody looking at their watch, but if they take that watch and they shake it and listen to it, see, that kind of bothers me. What about Noah? I don't like Noah's ark, wording it that way. It's God's ark that he put Noah in. And he pitched it without and within. He shut the door and he sealed it. But we understand Noah's ark. We have to have words, don't we? Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And the Lord shut Noah up in that ark. And God's flood of justice came and killed everything outside of that ark.

That's the judgment we've earned. We've offended a holy God. That's who we've sinned against. That's trouble, eternal trouble. And the Lord said, I'm gonna make an ark. That's his son, Christ. And we're put in him and sealed in him. And everybody else dies. You know what? That wrath of God came, those in that ark died too. That's it. They died too, yet we live.

God's preached the gospel to Abraham. He said, in thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed. He didn't even have children, here he's pushing 100. And the Holy Spirit declares to the Apostle Paul, that seed's Christ. He said, now unto Abraham is his seed, and his seed where the promise is made. He hath not said unto seeds as of many, but as of one. And thy seed, which is Christ. That was the promise. That's who's coming. How's this according to the scriptures?

Abraham went up that mountain to sacrifice Isaac. God says, you take your only son. Ishmael, that was works. The Lord didn't recognize it at all. He said, you've got one son, Isaac, whom you love. Now go kill him. Isaac's a picture of Christ. He wasn't some six year old boy that this strong old man could use some man strength and bind him up. No, he was 20 something. He probably warped Abraham. But he willingly was bound and put on that wooden altar. That's a good picture of Christ's death, isn't it? What happens right then?

Substitution. There's a ram. I have a ram. He thinks he's a dog. Sweet thing. He don't have horns, though. But there's a ram caught in a thicket. Right there on its horns. On its head was thorns. And the Lord said, I have provided myself That's what he told Abraham in the heart. And he went and he slew that lamb. And now a picture of us, Isaac, we live. Because of that substitutionary death that had to accomplish. He didn't do that for Ishmael. He didn't do that for everybody.

Lord said, this is my people. I said, there's a business in the town where I work and they got a bunch of signs up in the windows. Stand with Israel, stand with Israel. We established Israel in the 50s or something after World War II. That patch of land over there, that's not what God's talking about. They are not all Israel, which are Israel. That's my people. I have a people. I have every nation, tribe, kindred, tongue among this earth. They're mine. That offended me when I was a kid. And then I realized I was an alien. I was an enemy of the state. He's got a people.

Can I be one of those people? Can I be adopted into that family? God's going to save His people. He's going to call His name Jesus for... This is super simple. An 8th grader can understand this. A child can. For, call His name Jesus for He shall. He's going to. Save. Who? His people. From something. From their sins. Joseph. I've preached through Genesis, and I ain't found nothing negative about Joseph yet. Maybe I've overlooked it. He's just a good picture in everything.

But he was there, number two man in all of Egypt, and he said, hey, famine's coming. And buddy, they stocked up for seven years, didn't they? And then famine came. He's God's prophet, wasn't he? And if you was going to get corn and live, who, not what did you have to know, Not what systematic theology do you ascribe to. Who did you have to go to? Joseph. You're going to starve to death unless you go to Joseph. And then here his brothers came. According to the scriptures, he's merciful too. This isn't some strict regime that he... I'll get to that in a minute. I'll get ahead of myself. Ruth.

He willingly did it. His brothers came to him and said, we threw you in a pit, you're going to kill us. And he said, you meant it for evil, God meant it for good. Always had his eye on the Father. face set like a flint, and provision abounded. That Passover land, how according to the scriptures. The Lord said, you take everybody, every firstborn's dying in this land.

You go in your home, you take that blood and hiss it, and you put it on them doorposts. And he said, when I pass over, I see that blood, I'll pass over you. That firstborn still died. It's covering that blood, but they walked out. All the firstborn of Israel died too, because the Lord saw that blood.

Remember that rock in the desert? The people was going to kill Moses. They said, you brought us out here to die in this desert? They had watermelons and all kinds of things. In Egypt, we had it good there. And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, what shall I do unto this people?

They be ready to stone me. And the Lord said to Moses, go on before the people and take the the elders of Israel, and thy rod, and where they're supposed to river, take it thy hand and go. And I will stand before thee there upon a rock in Horeb. I'm going to stand upon a rock, and you smite that rock, and water's going to come out of it, that thy people may drink. And Moses did so on the side of the elders.

He said, what was different about that rock? It was just a rock like any other rock. It was uncomely. There wasn't nothing special about that rock. It looked like all the other rocks. Something was different. That's where God stood. And he said, smite it. You hit it. Strike that rock and living water. You're in a desert and you're thirsty. Water is going to come out. You can water your animals. You can water you. Water your children. Water is good to drink for everybody.

Later in Numbers 20, the Lord spake. to Moses, and Moses was upset. And he said, Lord, what am I going to do? And the Lord said, speak to the rock. That rock's been smitten. It's followed you through the deserts and gave you good water. He said, now it's dried up again. Go to the rock and talk to it. Don't kill it again. Don't smite it again. Talk to the rock. The law can't do it. What did Moses do? He smoked twice. He said, must we fetch water for you? Do I have to go get this message of grace again for you?

He's mad. I ain't saying it's right, but I'm saying I understand it. Ah, I get it. He's angry and frustrated. And he smoked that rock. The Lord provided water for Israel that day anyway. But he told Moses, he said, you're not going in that promised land. You're not leading the children in. Well, he was the picture of the law. They call it Moses' law. The law ain't going to do it. Doing good, doing bad ain't going to do it. Who's going to lead him into the promised land? Joshua. That's an Old Testament name for a New Testament name, isn't it? Jesus. That's the Savior, isn't it?

And had a faithful dog with him. That rock was smitten once because the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once. Once. That means it got the job done. You always heard grow up do it right the first time? Salvation was accomplished right the first time. We can't add nothing to it. Can't take anything from it.

It's right. It's good. How do I know? He said so. Over and over and over again. How do I know that rock was Christ? He said so in the New Testament. That's why I'm so thankful the apostolic era is over and I don't have to perform miracles to get people to hear me. I'd be killing people and raising them up left and right. I'd make that one's foot feel better. I'd make that one's foot hurt. It'd be horrible.

I don't need it because this book says it. It's according to the scriptures. A man told me one time, I said, that's what this book says. He said, I don't care what it says. I said, let's just be honest. You told the truth, you don't care what God says. Moreover, brethren, I would not that you be ignorant. 1 Corinthians 10. How that our fathers were under that cloud, that cloud followed them all the way through the desert, it passed through the sea. They were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and the sea.

They all ate the same spiritual meat. They ate manna from heaven. Who's that bread of life from heaven? That whiteness. And did drink of the same spiritual drink, for they all drank of that spiritual rock that followed him. And that rock was Christ. That brazen serpent lifted up. There was no poison in that brass serpent, was there? The poison was made the thing that was killing them. He who knew no sin. was made sinner. We might be made to righteousness of God in Him. Everybody wants to fight that. He was made to. You ever hear anybody say, how am I the righteousness of God in Him? We're glorified in Him. A scapegoat and a strong man, he was both. That wood cast into the water, that was always a beautiful thing to me.

Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea and they went out into the wilderness of shore. Three days and they found no water. And when they came unto Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. That's what Naomi said. She called me Marah. The Lord's made me bitter. They couldn't drink them. And the people murmured against Moses. Here we go again. It's going after that preacher, isn't it? And they said, what shall we drink? And he cried to the Lord. The Lord showed him a tree. And he said, cast it into the waters.

And the waters were made sweet. Take that cross of Christ and you apply that, deal with the waters of justice. Now it's sweet. It's precious. He's just. The Lord, this isn't swept underneath the rug. God Almighty is just and He's justified His people. Where can that meet? Calvary, can't it? That's it. Mankind can't do that. God can. Salvation to the Lord.

That whole book of Esther. Her five main people, and if you ever go home and read it, King Ahasuerus, that's God the Father, His judgment, His holiness, His strictness of His law. Queen Vashti, that's the world, all mankind. She lost the way, was cast away from the king. Esther and Mordecai, they're both pictures of Christ. Esther's Christ and His deity as God Himself, and Mordecai is Christ the God-man, and His work on this earth. And then Haman, that's the enemy, that's the Prince of Darkness. It's, go read it, it's beautiful. The book of Boaz. Book of Ruth, what we call it. That's our kinsman redeemer.

That was the law had to be satisfied. If somebody was impoverished, we're Ruth, we're that Moabitess, we're the foreigner, the alien coming in, trespassing. And this one had to be related to us. That's gonna be hard to find. He was made flesh. And he had to be able to redeem us. The cattle on a thousand hills is thorns. His blood's what the value was. Who he was, it's who died is what's important. So he's been made flesh. He's been made like us. See the woman. He's able. Something else was required. He had to be willing. You can't twist his arm and say, your law says this, now you gotta do it. He had to want to. Christ wanted to. It saw that cross set before Him. And with joy, He endured it. With joy.

Scripture said, He will not fail nor be discouraged. Do you ever get discouraged? I get discouraged over a whole bunch of stuff every day. Something discourages me. That hour that He always talked about. My hour has not come. My hour has not come. There was an hour. All of eternity is centered on it. All his glory is focused on that one hour. It wasn't a surprise to him. He wasn't caught off guard. He wasn't frustrated. He wasn't disturbed. We could go on and on and on.

That's God's gospel. And he said, according to these scriptures, Italy's going to die. And it's as if the Romans had a playbook. They went through the scriptures and said, all right, now we've got to do this. Now cast lots on his garments. All right, hold on. What do we do next?

Only God can do that. It says in verse 3, 1 Corinthians 15, For I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried according to the Scriptures. Therein, I won't have you turn to it for time's sake. Isaiah 53, the whole chapter is just all of this laid out.

Who will believe our report? He was despised and rejected as a man. He grew up as a tender plant. Despised, he was wounded for our transgressions. What about us? All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way. Christ is the way. We went some other way. He's the gospel. He's the way. He was oppressed and afflicted and he opened not his mouth. He was brought like a lamb to the slaughter and his sheep before his shearers as dumb, he opened not his mouth. Why didn't he open his mouth?

He bore our guilt in His body, not on His body, in His body on that tree. And He died. God killed God because of that. The justice, He looked to our sin on His Son and killed Him. And then He said, well, He gave up a ghost, which was it? Yes. He is God. He willingly did it. And he made his grave with the wicked. He was buried according to the scriptures. And with the rich in his death. Joseph of Arimathea, there's like a hundred pounds of aloe. That ain't in a little jar. They had a wheelbarrow full of that stuff to anoint the Lord. And gave him the best tomb nobody had ever been in. A rich man's tomb.

How did that happen? God said it in Isaiah 53. And then it come to pass. He said, I shall and they will. What's that? A sovereign, holy God that does exactly what He wants and lives up to His name. That's the rub. According to His word, that's what He does, because He's omnipotent. He has all the power. He's omniscient. He knows everything. He's omnipresent. He's everywhere at once. You can't get away from Him. He's God. Our God is God. Not a God, be God. And I think when I was a kid, they used this word more often, potentate. It means the authority, not anything. There's just one authority. He's the potentate. That's who he is.

Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. You with wicked hands. This is the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God that had Christ on that cross. And Peter said, yeah, but you with wicked hands is what did it. God bruised him. The means was the wicked people is us and I've heard people say well if I was there in that day I wouldn't let him kill Christ. You're a fool.

You don't know yourself, and you don't know that this he must suffer for his glory for our good He shall see the travail of his soul shall be satisfied for by the knowledge by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many For he shall bear their iniquities, and if he's born they're born He ain't he ain't gonna lose one He's a successful Savior, not a failure.

Therefore he divides him a portion of the grape. That's what the Ethiopian eunuch was reading when the Spirit came to Philip and said, hey, go talk to this Ethiopian eunuch. He was reading Isaiah 53. And the place of the Scripture which you read was this. He led as a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb before his shears was dumb, so he opened not his mouth. Here Peter was run up to the side of that chariot listening and heard him reading this.

And Philip said, hey brother, you know what you're talking about? You know the scriptures, do you understand them? And he said, how can I, unless a man tell me, unless he teach me? The yoke answered, Philip said, I pray thee, of whom is the prophet speaking, himself or another man? And Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him, Jesus, the gospel.

Some way to live your life better and have money to bank and raise your kids. A person. He rose again the third day according to the scriptures. Jonah is where he declared that. Those religious folks said, give us a sign. Pharisee said, we would see a sign from thee. And he answered, an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign. For there shall no sign be given of it but the sign of the prophet Jonas.

For as Jonas 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. That's what Jonah was. You start at verse 17 of Jonah 1 and read through chapter 2. It says, The Lord has prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. And then he starts praying. Boy, it sounds just like Psalm 22. It does.

He said, Everything's forsaken their own mercies, and I'm so alone, and I'm down here in the ribs of this big fish. And he said, but I will sacrifice unto thee the voice of thanksgiving. In all that, in all that aloneness, he praised the Father, and honored the Father, and glorified him. I will pay that which I have vowed, salvations of the Lord. And the Lord spake to the fish, and it vomited Jonah upon the dry land.

That's it. Mission accomplished. In other words, it's finished. It's finished. That ain't a cartoon book, is it? For little kids, it's a big ol' whale and it's fancy. Donny Bill has, somebody asked Donny that. Said, do you believe that that fish really swallowed Jonah? He said, if Lord said Jonah swallowed that whale, I'd believe it.

I don't know how that works. I can't go into the great details of why it was three days. Well, what about that? And there was a Sabbath. People argue over everything. I just want to see him. That's all that matters. I just need to be found in Him. That's it. I'm gonna die. I like to get along well while I'm on this earth, best I can. I like air conditioning. I do. I like comfy seats to sit in sometimes. I like food. I don't need none of them things. This life's a vapor.

And that fast, I'll be standing in front of the God of heaven and earth. And I'll either be found in His Son or I won't. And I beg Him. Lord, this is the gospel. You came, you lived perfectly under that law that you gave, born under the law, and you died for a people. And I believe you. I believe you're able, if you're willing, to save. And people that don't believe he's able, they have no interest. They don't. But just as you said you would, I believe you. I pray you do too. The Lord be with you all. Thank you for having me. I'm thankful for the Lord working in you to support this work and it be here. I'm happy for you. Thankful to God for you.

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