Jonah's Journey - message # 03

Episode Transcript

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There's a battle going on for thesouls of me. He's the wythvery,
But I'm saying within the arms ofGod, Dear Brad, She's the keeper
of the saugee to Christ. I'lla Surreyender. I'll have Sorreyender. I'll

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have Surreyender. I know I'll alwaysbe a godspol defender, Ladies and gentlemen,
Rick Bright in Baw of the GospelDefender Ministries, the message you are
about to hear will encourage and equipthose who have ears to hear to be

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a Christian hold with the armor ofa Gospel defender. Soray, I'll have
Surveyder. I'll have survey ridal Lowa godspool, Ladies and gentlemen. There

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is more to the book of Jonahthan Jonah and a great Fish. It
is the account of God Almighty,who used Jonah to go fishing for godless
souls in a godless nation. Beforethe book ends, Jonah catches the most
important fish in God's created universe,humans lost in their sins and their Paganismah

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was called of God but fled fromGod, and as is true of any
person who is called of God,to resist the call to refuse the call.
To reject the call is to invitedisaster. Jonah heard God's call in

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verse three, but he arose toflee to Tarshish from the presence of the
Lord. He was like the prodigalson of Luke fifteen, who ran away
from his home and his father.Tarsius was about two thousand miles west of

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where he had received the call,and it was in the wrong direction.
Tarsius was toward the west, andNineveh was toward the east. Jonah was
not the first person who thought hecould run away from God and give with
it. Adam and Eve tried todo it in Genesis three. They ate

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from the forbidden tree of the knowledgeof good and evil, and before they
took their first swallow, their eyeswere opened when they heard the sound of
the Lord God walking in the garden. They hid themselves from the presence of
the Lord God, thinking they couldescape the consequences of their disobedience. But

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God knew where they were and confrontedthem with their sin. This story has
repeated itself countless times down through theages, and it will not end until
all humanity finally appears before the judgmentseat of Christ on the great Day of

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the universal judgment of the sheep andgoats, where they will receive the things
done in the body, according towhat they have done, whether good or
bad. No one will run away, hide from, or escape that judgment.
Why Jonah decided to flee to Tarshishrather than stay put where he was

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can only be speculated. Perhaps hisconscience got the best of him. His
conscience let him know that he couldhave no peace with his decision, and
so he had to run from wherehe had received. The call. To
reject the call of God was sin, and he knew it. James one

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Verse seventeen had not yet been written, but the truth of that scripture was
as applicable in the Old Testament asit was when James wrote it in the
New Testament. To him who knowsto do God good and does not do
it, to him, it issin. To obey the word of God

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is good. To not obey theword of God is sin. Every day
Christians must make the same choice asdid Jonah, obey God or run away
and try to hide. The Lord'sDay comes each week, and Christians must
decide whether to be in the assemblyof the Lord of the Church around his

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sacred and holy table, or dowhatever it is that disobedient Christians do on
that day. The Lord's Church maynot see their brethren run and hide,
but be well assured the Lord does, and it will be to the Lord
to whom they will have to answer. Jonah did what most people do when

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their conscience weighs down on them fornot doing God's will. Get out of
dodge city, get away from wherever, or whatever it is that convicts their
heart, soul, and spirit thatthey should do whatever it is that God
has told them to do. Thisis especially true when they are exposed to

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the preaching and teaching of God's word. This explains why many do not frequent
any assembly where the emphasis or focusis on God's word. If one doesn't
lack the idea of hell, beingin the assembly of God's Church is a
terrible place to be. If onedoesn't want to hear about sin and its

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consequences, being in the assembly ofGod's Church is a terrible place to be
if one has no interest in beinga follower of Jesus Christ. Being in
the assembly of God's Church is aterrible place to be. So Satan encourages
people to flee from the Church thatJesus built from God's word, and from

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any reminder that lives that refuse tofollow Christ are lives destined for eternal,
everlasting separation from God. Jonah aroseto flee to Tarshis from the presence of
the Lord, and he went downto Joppa. He went down, he

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surely did. He not only wentdown topographically, he went down spiritually.
Running from God always takes a persondown. Unless an unsaved soul repents of
his sin and is baptized in thename of Jesus Christ for the remission of

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sins. There is only one directionto go down. It may not appear
that way in this life. Whenthis life is over and all the foolishness
and nonsense of this world comes toa screeching halt, every person who had
no interest in and no time forJesus the Christ, the only begotten Son

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of God, his word, orhis church will go down for the count.
Fleeing from God always takes a persondown. When Jonah went down to
Joppa, it was the beginning ofhis downfall. It didn't appear that way
to him. When he got toJoppa, he found a ship going to

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Tarsish it was no coincidence that aship was there, ready to set sail
for a place two thousand miles inthe opposite direction from Nineveh. Satan has
a ship with its sails unfurled andready to go wherever its passengers want to

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go, as long as it isnot into the presence of the Lord God.
Satan always has a ship ready totake souls as far from God as
they want to go. His shipsare always attractive and welcoming man by men
who, like their passengers, wantnothing to do with the Word of God

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or the God who created them.The various seas of religion have denominational ships
moored at every port and doc preparedto take people as far from the Gospel
of Jesus Christ as they want togo. The cry goes out all aboard,

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and multitudes walk the gang planks tosail out into the deep, treacherous
waters of false doctrine. It isstrange, indeed, that the Gospel call
goes out from the old ship ofZion with Jesus Christ, the Captain of
our salvation, at the helm,and few there are who have any interest

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aboard her for passage to the NewJerusalem, where there will be no more
death, nor sorrow, nor crying, no more pain. There is only
one ship that will carry a soulto the throne room of God. It
is the old ship of Zion,steered by obedience and laden with the gift

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of eternal life. Ships steered bydisobedience and ignorance will never take anyone to
the shores of safety. They takeevery soul aboard to the deepest and darkest
realm of hell. Everyone on thisglobe is headed for one of the two
cities in this first chapter of JonahNineveh the city of Obedience, or Tarsish,

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the city of disobedience. Deacon Philipof Acts chapter eight faced that choice
of cities when an angel of theLord spoke to him in verse twenty six,
saying, a rise and go towardthe south along the road which goes
down from Jerusalem to Gazam. Hadhe not obeyed that message, the Eunuch

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of Ethiopia would not have heard Jesuspreach to him. That led him to
be immersed in water for his salvation. Saul of Tersus faced that choice of
cities in Acts nine, verse six, when the Lord said to him,
a rise and go into the cityof Damascus, and you will be told

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what you must do. Had henot obeyed that message, he would not
have become an apostle of Christ,a chosen vessel of the Lord, after
he was baptized to wash away hissins. If Apostle Peter had not obeyed
the message of a holy angel togo to the home of Cornelius in the

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city of Csarea, he and hishousehold would not have heard the saving gospel
message of Jesus and then be baptizedin the name of the Lord for their
salvation. The salvation of the eunuchSaul of Tarsus and Cornelius and his household

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depended on the obedience of those whoheard the call of God. Jesus is
the author of eternal salvation, butonly for those who obey him. Denominational
ships blare over their bullhorns that thereis nothing anyone must do to receive salvation.

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With Hebrews five, verse nine,blast loud and clear that salvation is
received only by obeying the author ofeternal salvation. Millions of people have gone
out into deep black eternity, thinkingthey are headed for eternal life because they

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have believed something but have not obeyedanything. The writer of Hebrews taught that
obedience saves, and so did ApostlePeter when he wrote in on Peter one,
verse twenty two, you have purifiedyour souls in obeying the truth.

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The writer of Second Thessalonians one verseseight and nine taught the same thing.
When the Lord Jesus is revealed fromheaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire,
taking vengeance on those who do notknow God and on those who do
not obey the gods of our LordJesus Christ, these shall be punished with

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everlasting destruction from the presence of theLord and from the glory of his power
when he comes. Obedience obedience,obedience, One who truly believes will be
obedient to the terms of salvation establishedby God. Belief alone, without obedience

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has never and will never save anyone. Anyone who does not believe this has
never read James two, verse nineteen. Rather than Jonah boarding the ship of
obedience, he boarded a ship ofdisobedience. It is written in Jonah one,
verse three that Jonah found a shipgoing to Tarsish, so he paid

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the fare. He certainly did.Satan and his army of God haters and
Christ rejectors will not only provide whatevership you choose to sail, they will
also provide the means to board it. Money, people, and opportunities that

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will make it possible to run fromGod will cross the paths of those who
want nothing to do with God.Sailing this ship would cost Jonah a lot.
Sin rebellion resistance against God is expensive. The cost is always more than

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what was expected in the beginning.A divine principle is stated in Galatians six,
verses seven and eight. Do notbe deceived. God is not mocked.
For whatever a man souls, thathe will also reap. For he
who sows to his flesh, willof the flesh, reap corruption. But

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he who sows to the spirit,will of the spirit, reap everlasting life.
So sin reap sorrow. Ask theperson addicted to drugs, pornography,
sexual escapage, alcohol, how alittle pill, a little pique, a

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little party, or a little sipresulted in much more than for that which
they bargained arect life. Before youremind me that you have taken a little
pill, had a little peak,attended a little party, or sipped a
little sip, and your life hasnot been wrecked. Let me remind you

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that God is not mocked. Godis not finished by his grace. You
have survived all of this and perhapseven more. But the day of reckoning
is coming. It is during thislife that God allows us time to come
to repentance and to be baptized inthe name of Jesus Christ for the remission

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of our sins. What is thefair of sin? Ask Adam he took
a bite, and it cost himparadise. Ask Judas, he grabbed a
few coins, and it cost himhis apostleship and his life. Ask Simon
the sorcerer, it cost him hisreputation. Almost every day we either read

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or hear of men and women whohave reached high positions of leadership and responsibility,
only to fall from their lofty positions, embarrassing themselves and their families.
Preachers lose their ministries, financial wizardsend up in prison, Titians are exposed.

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What is the fair of sin?Romans six, verse twenty three says,
the wages of sin is death.Ladies and gentlemen, the most expensive
trip you will ever take is atrip away from God and his word.
Jonah went down to Joppa and thenwent down into the ship, and would

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pay a hefty fare for doing so. Once a person begins the kind of
downward trek taken by Jonah, thereis no stopping until he gets to the
bottom of the barrel, or,in the case of Jonah, the bottom
of the ship, because he wasdetermined to get away from God. Imagine

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that a man who had received thefavorable attention of God Almighty, and who
had been given the war wonderful opportunityto preach God's word didn't want it for
the second time in three verses,it has written that he ran from the
presence of the Lord. He goton board a ship to take a cruise,

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not knowing he was cruising for abruising. He asked, He asked
to get aboard, and he gotaboard. He sailed away from God and
his problems, or so he thought. The Book of Jonah is a small
but powerful book that illustrates the loveof God for the human race. But

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it is also a book that illustratesthat God does not ignore disobedience. As
great as his love is, sois his wrath. Or as Apostle Paul
wrote in Romans eleven verses twenty two, and following consider the goodness and severity

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of God. It is true thatGod is a God of love, but
it is also true that he isa God of severity who exercises divine judgment
when necessary. Jonah learned this truthnot long after he got on board and

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headed for Tarsish. We are nottold how long it was after he boarded
the ship, but at some pointthe Lord sent out a great wind on
the sea, and there was amighty tempest on the sea, so that
the ship was about to be brokenup. Then the mariners were afraid,

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and every man cried out to hisGod and through the cargo that was in
the ship into the sea to lightenthe load. But Jonah had gone down
into the lowest parts of the ship, had lain down and was fast asleep.
Jonah ran and God ran after him. God sent a storm to get

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Jonah's attention. Jonah was finished withGod, but God was not finished with
Jonah. The Lord can even usethe forces of nature as well as preachers
of his word to call men torepentance. We have no way of actually

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knowing, but we wonder how manyso called natural disasters are not natural at
all. They are supernatural to bringpeople to their senses. There is more
to life than possessing possessions. Whenfaced with life and death, amassing more

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wealth and possessions become insignificant. Spiritualtruths such as Mark eight verses thirty six
and thirty seven start to kick in. For what will it profit a man
if he gains the whole world andloses his own soul? Or what will
a man give an exchange for hissoul? The Lord sent out a great

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wind on the sea, creating amighty tempest. The great wind was a
supernatural wind created by a supernatural Godthat had enough force behind it that the
ship was about to be broken up, tossed around like a bobber with Jonah
and the mariners on it. Exceptfor the grace of God, the wind

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would have been an instrument of death. Instead, it was used by God
as an instrument of salvation to savenot only Jonah but also the thousands of
Ninophotes to whom he had been commissionedto go and preach the saving message of
repentance. Every gospel message is lockedthat wind, and that it can either

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save or condemn. Obey it andyou will be saved. Ignore it,
and you will be condemned. Aword to the wise is sufficient. Or
as Jesus, the Son of Godput it, he who has an ear,
let him hear what the spirit says. There's a bidle going on for

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the soul of me, the peaceof for thevery But I'm saved within the
arms of God, dear bride,the ever muscle jeers the Church of Christ.
I'll have Surreyender, I'll have Surreyender. I'll have Surrenyender. I don't

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wow be a Godspolfender, Ladies andgentlemen, reck bright in boss speaking,
You have just heard another Gospel DefenderMinistry's radio broadcast, brought to you by
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world. Jesus said in Mark sixteensixteen, he who believes and is baptized
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before it is everlastingly too late.Our mailing address is Gospel Defender Ministries,

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now until you and I meet againat this same time and at the same
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