Jonah 1:17-2:10

[0:00] Blessing boy. Morning. Morning. Morning. I can pull a bit and actually I was walking around the fellowship time.

[0:12] I could see some prayers in there. And I'm God's still God. I can still do that. He does still do that. I thank God for that.

[0:24] I know what Brother Bernard does as well. I appreciate the opportunity to stand again. We'll be in the Old Testament this morning.

[0:35] In the Book of Jonah. I know. It's easy to think about Jonah. And because we learned most of us, if we went to Bible school when we were younger, we had at least one lesson out of Jonah, if not an entire week worth of lessons.

[0:59] Out of Jonah, we thank the Jonah and all we think of is, man got swallowed up by a big fish. And that's all we think of. There is a whole lot of these four chapters in Jonah.

[1:13] And John say, hey man, I ain't gonna preach all four chapters. But the Book of Jonah is, there's a whole lot more to it than just, you know, God performed a miracle.

[1:26] He did. And we know what that miracle was. But there's more to it than just Jonah getting swallowed up by a big fish. In Jonah chapter one, we find that Jonah is the son of a prophet named Amitah.

[1:45] And this can also be found in 2 Kings chapter 14, where Jonah, son of Amitah, a prophet. So this confirms to us, thank you sir, this confirms to us that Jonah, being the son of a prophet, was a prophet himself.

[2:05] And why else would God have asked Jonah to go to Nineveh and to preach to those people. So we find all this in chapter one.

[2:16] And of course, Jonah, we know the story. He don't want to do it. He's fighting against God. He don't want to go preach to that bunch of heathen, Ninevites, a bunch of Gentiles, and uncircumcised people.

[2:29] This would have been Jonah's thought. He didn't want to go preach to a bunch of people that were not covenant people with God. He didn't want them to be spared. And not only that, but the Ninevites were known as a particularly brutal culture.

[2:46] These were some of the people, whenever you were going in to Nineveh, the roads that would lead into Nineveh, and there's archeological digs that confirmed this, these were some of the people that would take stakes and put them on the sides of the road with people's heads or entire bodies leading up to the city.

[3:06] This was the culture of the Ninevites, and they wanted people to know how dominant they were and how powerful they were and who exactly they were, that they were messing with when they were coming to the city of Nineveh.

[3:19] They were coming there with ill intentions. And this would have been another reason that Jonah didn't want to go preach to the Ninevites. But I believe his main reason was he didn't want that bunch of Gentiles to be spared.

[3:32] He didn't want them spared at all. And we know the story, he jumps on a ship going to Tarshish, instead of going the direction he wanted to go. We know that the Lord sent a storm.

[3:45] We know that the men that were on that ship with them, they come to Jonah, they say, we need you to pray that there's a bad storm going on. And Jonah knows exactly why this storm is going on.

[3:57] He knows that Almighty God is the one that sent this storm. And he tells those men, he says, throw me overboard, throw me out into the sea, and you'll be spared, you'll be fine if you just get rid of me.

[4:09] So they done exactly that. And that's where we're going to pick up reading this morning. That was Jonah chapter 1 in a very small nutshell. We're going to read the last verse of chapter 1, and read the entire chapter of Jonah chapter 2, which is only 10 verses long.

[4:27] Jonah chapter 1 verse 17 says, Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up John, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

[4:38] Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly, and said, I cried by reason of my affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou hurtest my voice, for thou had cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas, and the floods come past me about, all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.

[5:01] Then I said, I am cast out of thy side, yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. The waters come past me about, even to the soul. The depth close me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.

[5:16] I went down to the bottom of the mountains, the earth with her bars was about me forever. Yet thou hast brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God.

[5:30] When my soul painted within me, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came into thy holy temple. They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy, but I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving, I will pay that that I bow.

[5:49] The salvation is of the Lord, and the Lord speak unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land. And that wraps up chapter 2 of the book of Jonah.

[6:01] And as we briefly went through chapter 1, there are just a couple of minutes ago, we know the story that leads up to God preparing a great fish to swallow up the man, Jonah says, Now the Lord prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights, and we know this account is true.

[6:25] Folks, there's debate in the theological realm, there's debate in denominations, whether or not the story of Jonah is an allegory I can assure you with the authority of the word of God, that this account is true, there is nothing made up in it.

[6:41] Jesus crossed himself, referenced Jonah, when he said, Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so shall the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth.

[6:52] Jesus Christ recognized that this was a true story, and if Jesus Christ recognized it as true, you and I can rest assured that this actually happened. There's people out there that will try and take this scripture of Jonah being swallowed by a fish or by a whale, and say that it was impossible for it to happen.

[7:13] Folks, my scripture, we read it in verse 17 of chapter 1, says that God prepared that fish to swallow Jonah, and if God prepared something to happen, I can assure you that God caused it to come to pass.

[7:28] If God prepared this fish to swallow Jonah, I can assure you that its gulet was big enough, its mouth was big enough, its stomach was big enough, not only to swallow this man, but that he might stay alive for three days and for three nights, that he could pray into God when the time came.

[7:49] God prepared this fish, and God is the one that made this come to be. Hallelujah. Amen. Then, in chapter 2, then Jonah prayed unto the Lord, his God, unto the fish's belly, and he says, then Jonah prayed unto the Lord, his God, out of the fish's belly.

[8:08] When is then, it is after this fish had done swallowed up Jonah. Hey folks, sometimes in our life this message is more for the church than it is for anybody else this morning, and I praise God for it, but sometimes in our life our life will come to shambles, our life will seem like it's going to be wrecked, or it has been wrecked, our life is full of gloom and doom, maybe it seems dark, maybe it seems like there's no way out, maybe it seems like the end of the way has finally come, but hey, even in those trials and even in those circumstances, even when the black bands of death have compassed us about, even when we're in the fish's belly, when we're thrown into the fiery furnace, no matter where we're thrown to, no matter what we're facing, we can still cry out to Almighty God, and he can still hear us, and he can still act on our behalf, hallelujah.

[9:08] This is the God that Jonah was running from. This is the God that he was running from. Why would he have run from Him? God called him to a duty. God called him to perform a service for him, for the glory of God, to the Ninevice.

[9:24] It wasn't a service for the Ninevice, it was to them, then for the glory of Almighty God. The God called him to a job to do, and Jonah ran from that job, knowing who the God of Scripture was, knowing who the Hebrew God was.

[9:41] In fact, in chapter one, when these men came to Jonah, he admitted to them. He said, I'm a Hebrew. I served the God that created the seas.

[9:52] I served the God that created the earth. I served the God that created you and created me. I served Jehovah God. Jonah was saying this in the midst of running from God.

[10:07] But he still recognized God for who he was. Too many times. That's Christians who get the same predicament that Jonah was in. Maybe not literally swallowed by a fish.

[10:19] But it'll certainly seem that way sometimes. And we'll turn our backs on God. We'll turn to one side when God is on the other. We will not face God.

[10:31] And then we'll ask the question, God, where are you now? Both we tend to forget the times that God has helped us. We forget the times that God has healed. We forget the times that the cabinet was empty.

[10:44] But somebody came to the house and dropped off some food. We forget the times that the bills were coming due. And Almighty God made a way for His people.

[10:56] We forget how many times God has helped us. Even in the midst of rebellion and in the midst of serving Him both. We forget God.

[11:08] We forget the times that He has helped us. We forget the times that He saved us. If we believe that God saved our souls, why do we not believe God can take care of us in the meeting?

[11:20] If we believe that God saved our souls as unworthy as we are, as sinful as we are, as wicked and as evil and as mean and as nasty as some of us have been in our unregenerated lives.

[11:34] If we believe God would come to where we were and save our souls, why do we not believe that He would sustain us until the very end? Especially when we have the Scripture that says Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.

[11:52] And Jesus said himself, I will give you, go with you always, even to the end of the world. Why do we let these things pass us by? Why do we put them in the back of our mind?

[12:04] Now, I want to know who God is. Jonah fled from God. No one getting well who God was. No one getting well that he was the Creator. No one getting well that he controlled the seeds, that he made the earth, that he could control all these things.

[12:20] Verse 2 again, then said I, he prayed unto the Lord in verse 1 of chapter 2 out of the fishes belly. Verse 2, and said, I cried by reason of my affliction to the Lord. Folks, if your affliction doesn't produce a cry unto God, there's something bad wrong. That's when we pray that most fervently is it not.

[12:42] That's when we pray that most fervently is it not. You let one of them youngins get sick sometimes. You see how fervent your prayer becomes. You let mama or daddy get sick. You let somebody get in their car crash.

[12:54] You let somebody go down with a heart attack or get a bad report from the doctor, a bad diagnosis. You let these afflictions get in the way of your life and you see how fervent your prayer becomes to God.

[13:09] It should be that fervent and that emotional and that everything of God every time we speak to the Father. We should meet. We should meet.

[13:22] Because of the affliction, he cried to the Lord, well praise God I would have too. I would have too. And he heard me and he heard me out of the belly of hell.

[13:34] And I heard my voice. The belly of hell cried out. And he heard my voice. Now there's some people that think that scripture as well as a couple of other verses that are in this same passage of scripture.

[13:48] And they will say that Jonah died while he was in the belly of the fish. Folks, you can read. You can read. You can come up with your own descendants. You can come up with whatever you want to come up with there.

[14:00] All I read is that Jonah was swallowed and then he prayed. I don't read nothing about much time going by there. I don't read anything along those lines. But it says, and then he prayed unto God.

[14:13] It says, out of the belly of hell cried out. And thou hurtest my voice. Folks, it don't matter what kind of hell you might feel like you're going through in your life. It don't matter what's come your way out of the belly of hell.

[14:27] God heard the man Jonah and out of the belly of hell, he can hear your cry. He can hear my cry. He can hear anything that we have to say to him, regardless of where we are.

[14:40] We can be driving down the road and speak to God. We can be in church and speak to God. We can lay in bed and speak to God. Or we can be in the very belly of hell and speak to our Father.

[14:55] And he will hear the cry of his children. He will hear our cry. Praise God. He says, now I heard a small boy. But thou hast cast me into the deep in the midst of the seas.

[15:10] Now, has cast me into the deep. God has cast me into the deep of the sea. Thou hast cast me into the deep in the midst of the seas. And the floods come past me about.

[15:22] All thy billows and thy way have passed over me. You God have put me here. You God have put me in this ocean. Folks, I can read word for word for you in chapter one, where those men picked up Jonah.

[15:38] And there are the ones that threw him in the water. Jonah doesn't recognize that those men are on that boat. They're sailing safely, just tarsus by this point. He says, I'm in the middle of your seas and your billows and your ways have come over top of me.

[15:55] Hey, Jonah recognized that he was in the shape that he was in. And he was in the predicament that he was in because of his own rebellion against God.

[16:06] Because of his own indecision against God. Because of what he would not do for God. That's why Jonah there.

[16:17] And Jonah recognized that. What kind of shape would the church be if we'd recognize it? Why am I in this shape? Why does this happen? I ain't saying it's always because of Satan.

[16:29] And I ain't saying it's always because of rebellion. You look at Peter over in the Gospels. When Jesus comes out there with the disciples, home to water, and Peter said, Lord, if that's you, then it's me who died come today.

[16:46] I wasn't up there. He said, Lord, if that's you, I want to come out there with you. And Lord said, come. Come on out here. Peter stepped out. We know the account, the ways became boisterous.

[17:00] Peter took his eyes off Christ, went down to the water. I guess we just read this eloquent prayer that Jonah prayed using a lot of the Psalms, using at least three of the Psalms that we find in scripture, in his prayer, a very eloquent prayer.

[17:15] Peter prayed that same prayer in three words. He said, Lord, save me! Lord, save me, folks, regardless of your circumstance, your situation, regardless of your diagnosis, your sickness, or anything else that's going on in your life.

[17:30] Hey, you can pray the same prayer that Peter prayed and he will deliver. He made up delivery completely here in this life. But there's a deliverance that has promised to me in the scriptures to be delivered from all pain, from all death, from all tears, from all sadness, from all sorrow, forever more.

[17:52] That's the deliverance that I am looking to. Thank you. God's got work for us here. Yeah, He'll deliver us. He's going to sustain us. He's going to take care of us. He's got other places for us to go to now.

[18:04] Yes, He'll deliver us. I brought up the fire-raised harnesses from the log. You think Shadrachmi Shadrachmi Shadrachmi Bendigo were looking forward to going to that furnace? I don't. I don't think they're looking forward to it.

[18:17] I don't think Jesus was looking forward to the cross. I don't think Daniel was looking forward to the wilderness being there. I don't think any of these things. But they had faith in Almighty God. They had faith in God.

[18:29] Shadrachmi Shadrachmi Bendigo, my goodness, what did they tell the King? They said, you go ahead, you heat up that furnace. That's all great and final. Well, our God is able to deliver us.

[18:41] He is able. But whether He does or whether He does not, we will not bow down to your image. We will not bow down to that which you want us to. We will not serve your idols. We will not bow down to you or anything else.

[18:54] In this Babylonian kingdom, they said, yes, God can deliver, but it's no guarantee that He will. As far as the physical realm goes, my goodness, spiritual deliverance.

[19:07] That's the one I'm looking forward to. I appreciate God's physical deliverances. He has for me, He has for you. We've heard a couple of testimonies about it this morning. About physical deliverances that God has performed in the lives of His people.

[19:21] And I look forward to the ultimate spiritual deliverance. I've been delivered once spiritually. I've been released out of the bondage of sin. Praise God. I've been brought up out of Egypt.

[19:33] And I'm in this world right now. And I'm making my way toward Cayman. I'm making my way toward that home that God has promised to those that love Him, those that obey Him, those that have trusted in Jesus Christ, and those that have repented of their sins.

[19:47] That's the ones that are going home after a while. And that's the ones that are promised that ultimate spiritual delivery. Hallelujah. Now I just cast my hand into the deep.

[19:59] And in the midst of the seas. And the floods can pass me about in the diabilas and the diways. That's the one that we don't recognize as where this has come from. Then I said, I am cast out of thy side.

[20:11] Yet I will look again toward the holy temple. How lost would we feel? Listen, Jonah was God's man. God helped me.

[20:22] You never have to say what Jonah said. Then I said, I'm cast out of thy side. He was cast overboard. The fish swallowed him up. Now the fish is on its way to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea where they were at.

[20:37] He says, I'm cast out of your side, God. He says, but, or yes, I will look again toward the holy temple. What difference does that make, folks? I praise God that I don't have to look toward Jerusalem when I pray.

[20:52] I praise the north-south-easter west. God can hear my prayer. What significance was this to Jonah when he said, yet will I look toward thy holy temple? Yet will I look there? Hey, folks, what was the temple there for?

[21:04] That's where God dwelled. That's where he knew that God was. This was a Hebrew man. And he had Hebrew roots. And he knew that Hebrew scriptures. And he knew that Almighty God had the tabernacle made that he could abide with his people through the wilderness.

[21:19] And he knew the drop of the temple was a heaven place where God could inhabit and dwell with his people here on earth. And he said, I will look toward the holy temple.

[21:31] He said, I'm not being cast out of your side. I might be buried under water. I might be in a fish. But praise God. I know you're still there, God. I know you're there in the temple.

[21:43] And I know you can hear my prayer. Hallelujah. He said, cast out of your side. Yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.

[21:55] The water is too past me about. Even to the soul. The depth closed me around about. The weeds were wrapped up about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains.

[22:07] You get low in that sea. You get low in that water. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains. The earth with her bars was about me forever. Yet I still brought up my life from corruption.

[22:20] Oh, Lord, my God. Yes, I still brought up my life from corruption. What is corruption? What's the corruption you're even talking about? That was in death. He said, I was as good as dead.

[22:33] I was down there at the bottom of the ocean. Those sailors tossed me overboard. They tossed me out of the sea. As far as they were concerned, I was dead. They may have been back to Tarsus by that point.

[22:44] They may have been spreading the rumor. Hey, there was this Haver man that was with us on the boat. The Chutes took us, blew up, and he told us to cast him overboard. He's out there in the middle of the Mediterranean now.

[22:55] He's as good as dead. There was a big fish that swallowed him up. He is dead to the world now. Jonah here says that Almighty God has raised up his life.

[23:06] He has raised him from corruption. He wouldn't let him die. Hey, if you're here lost today, I will tell you now. The Bible teaches you are dead in your trespasses and your sin.

[23:18] It doesn't say you're sick. It doesn't say you're in need. It doesn't say you're weary. It doesn't say you're tired. The Bible says you are dead.

[23:29] And the one that the Bible also says is the way, the truth, and the life is the only one that can make you life of that saved man. He's the only one that can rescue you. He was the only one that can rescue Jonah here.

[23:42] He's the only one that can save Jonah from the corruption of death. That same God, that same God that saved this man, this true account that we read in the Scriptures.

[23:54] The same God is the same one that rescued my soul from hell one day. This is the same God that saved my soul from hell that I deserve. It's the same God that came to where I was in my sin and my rebellion against God.

[24:09] He came to me, he saved my soul, and he has kept me ever since. Praise God. Amen. That's what God does, first Peter. With my soul fainting within me, I remember the Lord.

[24:25] With my soul fainting, my goodness, we've been talking about the tempest, the man being tossed over the board. We've been talking about him being in a fish's belly. We've been talking about him looking toward the holy temple of God.

[24:38] We've been talking about all these things. He says, when my soul fated within me, I remember the Lord. How many times does that happen to you, Christian? How many times does that happen to you, Christian David, Christian brother, Christian sister?

[24:52] As soon as you take that, you can't take not one drop more of this life, not one drop more of this world. As soon as you take you've taken all of that bitter cup that you can have when your soul is fainting within you.

[25:05] Hey, that's when the Holy Ghost of God will stir something in your heart. He will stir something in your mind and you will remember the Lord, your God, that saved your soul from hell.

[25:19] And you'll remember, I can call on God. When nobody else is around, and they're testified about this more than twice, when nobody else is around, I can remember the Lord.

[25:32] When all is going wrong in my life, I can remember the Lord and I can call upon the Lord. And He will hear my cry.

[25:45] He saved me from corruption, praise God. He says, He remembers the Lord and my prayer came into the end of that holy temple. Once again, Jonah, we're going to recognize that as being where God was.

[26:00] Where He was, Jonah would have been familiar with Solomon saying that the heaven of the heavens cannot contain Him. He would have been familiar with just how big God was.

[26:12] He would have understood that because it's all over the Old Testament how big God is. But, He still recognized the temple as being where God was at this time.

[26:24] He said, I'm not prayer came into that holy temple. They that observe lying vanities, forsake their own mercies. This is a strange line that almost seems like it's just thrown in there in the middle of this very eloquent, very elegant prayer that Jonah is making unto God.

[26:45] A very, very odd line. They that observe lying vanities, forsake their own mercies. What would have prompted Jonah to his end there, he's at the bottom of the sea inside the belly of a fish.

[26:59] And he's been praying to God and he knows that God has heard his prayer. And he just got through saying, you saved me from corruption, God. And he says, they that observe lying vanities, they forsake their own mercies.

[27:11] Hey, Jonah has confidence in God. He has assurance in God that God is going to deliver him out of this situation. But he says they that observe lying vanities, forsake their own mercies.

[27:24] Hey, he's taken back to the men on the ship. Those that had multiple gods, those that did not worship the Hebrew God, Jehovah God, such as Jonah did. He said they that observe lying vanities.

[27:37] He's talking about idol worship. He's talking about those who are idolaters and they worship statues. They worship false deities. They worship everything except for Jehovah God.

[27:48] He says they forsake their own mercy. They forsake their own loving kindness that is shown toward them. They forsake salvation that is shown toward them.

[27:59] It is no different nowadays that people forsake their own mercy. They forsake the mercy that God has extended. My Bible teaches Jesus died for all.

[28:12] He died for everyone. That's what my Bible says, that's what I'm going to stick with. They forsake that mercy and it is their own mercy. They are forsaking it.

[28:23] It is theirs for the taking. And they looked across and they lived. They looked across and they believed the gospel and they repented their ways. That mercy is theirs that they're forsaking it.

[28:34] I think Jonah was reflecting back to what he had come from when he was still above water. When he just kind of threw that line and they're seemingly out of nowhere.

[28:45] But it fits perfectly when you take it in their respect. But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that that I bow.

[28:56] Salvation is of the Lord. He recognized where salvation was coming from. And once again, he already had assurance. He had assurance that this was going to be the case that God would deliver him.

[29:08] He says, I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving. In other words, hey Lord, I don't have a sacrifice down here in this fish's belly with me right now. He was looking forward to the time that God would deliver him from the situation that he was in.

[29:22] Hey folks, we can do that now. You praise God through your storms. You praise God through your hard times. You praise God through the disease. You praise God through all of these things.

[29:33] Hey, there's an account of a king called Jehoshaphat. And he had to seek the Lord because the enemy was coming. And the Lord gave assurance that the enemy would be delivered unto him and Judah.

[29:45] And what happened? Jehoshaphat calls for a praise to be given unto God. He calls for fasting. He calls for praying. And he calls for praising God.

[29:57] And the battle hadn't even happened yet. But yet they were praising God for the victory that was coming. And the victory that we had promised folks.

[30:08] We've got victory. It's done been won. It's done been won. Yet we got some battles we got to fight down here. The war has been won by Jesus Christ. The Bible says, I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive forevermore.

[30:21] Amen. And hold the keys of hell and of death. He is victorious over hell. He is victorious over death. The war has already been won. Yes, we've got some battles as good soldiers of Jesus Christ down here.

[30:33] He knew that we would fight those battles. But we've got a general. We've got a leader that is in control. But they removed that the enemy makes. He knows the before and that he will not let his people perish.

[30:47] Hallelujah. Amen. Hallelujah. That will sacrifice unto the Lord. What's the thing to do? Because he had assurance of deliverance.

[30:58] He was a soldier. How many times have we praised God while we were fighting the battle? While we were fighting the battle. Think about David. We don't know David's best name as a town. A baby who was born out of the culture's relationship.

[31:11] A baby dies. The whole time the baby is sick. David's countenance is sad. He's moping around. I would have to. Don't give me wrong. I'm saying he was wrong in doing that.

[31:23] But when the baby died. What happened to David? He rose up. He washed himself off. He got dressed. And he went to the house of God to give worship.

[31:36] When the battle was over, when there was nothing else he could do. David said, he cannot come to me, but I can go to him. He understood.

[31:47] He had assurance of that. He was praising God right after a child passed away. My goodness, could I do that? Could I do that?

[31:58] I don't know. I hope I never have to find out. The folks, that was a battle that was going on. And after all was said and done, he washed himself off, he clothed himself, and he went up to the house of God to worship.

[32:12] He didn't let it get in the way. He didn't say, I ain't going to church this Sunday or this Sabbath or whatever the case was or is. We can fast forward to higher times. My goodness, a drop of rain comes out of the sky.

[32:24] And most people say, I can't go to church now. But now it's raining outside. Well, they're calling for rain tomorrow. I can't go to church today. My goodness, the excuses that we come up with to not go to the house of God and worship the one that brought salvation.

[32:40] Shame on us. Shame on us. We ought to be doing like Jonah. Offering up a sacrifice with a voice of thanksgiving. And soon we're going to bring lambs and goats in here and sacrifice them on the altar.

[32:54] Praise God. The perfect lambs doesn't sacrifice. There will be no other sacrifice. The Bible says, neither by the blood of ghosts, nor the blood of bulls, but by the blood of Jesus Christ. He is the only one that can be there between God and man.

[33:07] He is the only one that could be the perpetuation for your sin and for mine. And His is the only sacrifice that God the Father will accept.

[33:18] He won't accept anything that I do. I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. The Lord has taken the fish and have vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.

[33:30] It took God to make that fish. It took God to prepare that fish, to swallow Jonah. And it took God to pump that fish, to vomit him out on the dry land.

[33:42] Before she breathed in the second verse of chapter 2 that we read. Jonah already had assurance. He already had assurance from God. He was going to be fine.

[33:54] In chapter 2, we just read 10 verses. In verse 2 of chapter 2, we read 10 verses of chapter 2. But that early on, he had assurance from God that all would be well.

[34:07] We've got 66 books here. Even some of the darkest books that are in Scripture, we still have salvation somewhere in those pages.

[34:22] We still have the promise of redemption in those pages granted. Over in the Old Testament most times, that salvation was pictured in the Jews. The folks that goes on over in the New Testament, those pictures are fact for us.

[34:36] The church, those that have been bought by the blood of Jesus Christ. Those pictures are applied to us just as it applied to the Jews in the Old Testament. I'm saying that the promises to the Jews are transferred to the church.

[34:51] I'm saying that salvation, as Jonah said, is of the Lord. And if a Jew gets saved, it gets saved the way me and you tell me. Salvation is of the Lord, and the Lord is salvation.

[35:06] I want to point out, and I didn't do it while I was preaching. I'm about done preaching. In Acts chapter 10, you read about M. A. Peter. You read about M. A. Peter, you read about M. A. Cornelius, the Gentile.

[35:21] What was Peter's problem with going to Cornelius? Cornelius was a Gentile. Peter was a Jew.

[35:32] He was in the same boat as the general. Jonah didn't want to go to Nineveh. He had walked that much of Gentiles and he said, you read them, the last couple of verses.

[35:43] The book of Jonah is 120,000 people in that city of Nineveh. And Jonah didn't want to get saved. Peter didn't want to go to one man's house, Cornelius.

[35:55] The Gentile. Acts 10 is where you see the picture of a sprag coming down out of the heavens. And all it was all matter of food and all matter of meat.

[36:06] And God said, slay and eat. Peter's problem was he didn't want to go preach to a Gentile. The same thing that Jonah was guilty of. The same exact thing.

[36:17] I want you to think for one second, though. That as Peter was convicted by God for not wanting to go preach to a Gentile. Don't you think for one second that Peter, being a Jew himself, and being somewhat familiar with the scriptures, didn't think of Jonah?

[36:33] Where did this originate? Where did this whole town originate from? Jonah. There's another place called Job now. Where was Peter? He was in a place called Job.

[36:44] It was the exact same town, the exact same reasons, the exact same scenario from the Old Testament and the New Testament. And the same thing went on. I don't want to preach to a Gentile.

[36:56] God showed both of them in different means. He showed Jonah by letting him get swallowed up by a fish. He showed Peter in a vision of the sprag coming down out of the heavens that was doing with this food that Peter said, that I'll never go in my mouth. That I'll never touch my lips.

[37:14] I will not defile myself with this stuff that the Gentiles eat. Oh, sir. The trial you go through may not be the same as the one that I go through.

[37:25] Our trials would be different. Sometimes God uses the same thing, though, in different ways. As far as the church goes, my goodness, you look at something as simple and as popular in the scripture as the Red Sea.

[37:38] You look at the Israelites on one side of the Red Sea, and Pharaoh and the Egyptian armies coming in from behind them. And they're screaming out to Moses and saying, you brought us out here just so that we would be slaughtered by this bunch of Egyptians here.

[37:51] And God parts the Red Sea and the Israelites. They go through the Red Sea and they get across to the other side. Hey, but when I've read the scriptures, the Red Sea was a wall on the rock, and it was a wall on the lip of those Israelites.

[38:04] But that same Red Sea became a grave for Pharaoh and his army, the same water as soon as a wall between death for the Israelites. It became death for someone else.

[38:18] God can use the same means for different purposes. That's right. For different purposes. God might use your trial. And 10 years from now, you might be able to testify about that trial.

[38:33] To someone else that's going through the same thing, and maybe coming up to a different outcome. But you can use God in your testimony, the same situation, same circumstances. Maybe the same disease, the same illness, the same person that died in the family, whatever the case is, whether it be the patriarch or the family or the patriarch, or a brother or sister.

[38:55] God can use whatever trial you're going through to help someone else, and he can also use it to hurt someone else. Either way, God will get glory out of it.

[39:06] God got glory out of drowning the entire Egyptian army. I think we don't like to hear that, but it's the truth. God got glory out of that. God gets glory out of it all.

[39:17] All glory belongs under God anyway. You might as well give it to Him while you're here, because it is. And if you don't give it to Him, He'll take it from you under His name. It is, and it will be.

[39:28] God bless you.