Episode Transcript
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There's a battle going on for thesoul of me. He's the wary,
thevery But I'm saying, within thearms of God dearer bride, She's the
keeper of the surge the Church ofChrist. I'll have surrender, I'll have
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surayender, I'll have surrenyender. Idollo always be a godspeol defender, ladies
and gentlemen, Reck writ in bawof the Gospel Defender ministries God. This
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gospel message will encourage and equip thosewho have ears to hear to be a
Christian hold with the armor of agospel defender. I'll not survey, I'll
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not survey ridal lowy the a godspelladies and gentlemen. The Bible is the
only book ever written, printed,or published that is a book of truth
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from cover to cover. There arethings that have been said about the Bible
and continue to be said, thathave absolutely no truth to them, such
as it is an antiquated, outdatedbook of fiction and myths. It is
a book of contradictions. It isa book authored by delusional men. It
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is a book of scientific and historicalinaccuracies. There are people who take great
pleasure in stating these false claims,and others who take great comfort in hearing
them because it gets them off thehook as far as making any commitment to
God Almighty, their creator. Therewill be multitudes at the judgment seat of
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Christ shocked to learn they have beenduped and deluded by an anti religion intelligentsia
who touted they knew more about thisbook than those who have been converted by
it. It will be the oldstory of the blind leading the blind to
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the judgment bar of the eternal Judge. With this being said, we must
acknowledge that some Christians have heard certaindoctrines for so long that they too have
been duped into believing something that isnot true. For example, some in
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the Church that Jesus built have beentaught and have accepted the claim that a
certain section of Old Testament writings,known as the Books of Prophecy, can
be divided into two parts, onemajor prophets and two minor prophets. Because
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these seventeen books have been identified inthis way, some have concluded that since
the books written by the minor prophetsare minor and the books written by the
major prophets are major, there isnot a need to know much of anything
about the minor prophets. But Goddid not divide the prophets into the majors
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and miners like baseball. This issomething that someone did at some point in
time, but it wasn't God.There is nothing minor about the minor prophets.
Their books are shorter in length,but that doesn't make them insignificant or
unimportant, and certainly not part ofthe minor leagues. All this leads us
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to again join Jonah's journey in Jonah, Chapter one, verse five. It
is the second part of the accountconcerning Jonah's divine judgment. Then the mariners
were afraid, and every man criedout to his God and threw the cargo
that was in the ship into thesea to lighten the load. But Jonah
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had gone down into the lowest partsof the ship and lain down and was
fast asleep. There are three personsworthy of our attention in this one verse.
The first person is the scared marinersto get Jonah's attention, burly,
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harry chested mariners with bodies covered withtattoos of half naked mermaids, each identified
with the name of some woman withwhom they caroused in the various ports of
the Mediterranean Sea were afraid men tomacho to admit their need for the God
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who created the sea upon which theysailed, cried out to his own pagan
god for their personal deliverance from deathby drowning. Suddenly, God the Creator
became important. He became more thana curse word thrown around among them their
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buddies in a bar. The threatof death can do that. The nearness
of death can sober up a drunkardfaster than ten pots of steaming black coffee.
It can do the same thing withsomeone who thinks he is an atheist.
Lay on your deathbed, knowing thatthe old grim reaper is closing in,
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and see if your walk is asstrong as your talk. Men who
think Christianity and Jesus is for womenand children don't really believe that. They
are just too much of a cowardto leave their hell bound bar buddies or
fellow employees and follow Jesus. Ittakes real inner fortitude, good old guts
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to face up to what you reallyare, a helpless, hell bound mortal
who needs to repent of sin andchange one's direction in life. And many
men have done just that. Iknow I did, and I meet with
other macho alpha men every Lord's dayin the church that Jesus built, who
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have likewise I fellowship with men inthe body of Christ who once boasted about
the hell bound lives they lived,who now, having been saved by the
blood of Jesus Christ, are unashamedto repeat what Apostle Paul said in Galatians
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six, verse fourteen. God forbidthat I should boast except in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ, bywhom the world has been crucified to me
and I to the world. Asea story like the one in Jonah one
is recorded in the twenty seventh chapterof Acts. We do not have time
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here to rehearse that entire account,but suffice it to say that it was
a preacher who had once been ablasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent
man, who got two hundred seventysix passengers and crew on a sinking ship
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safely to land. The ship brokeup, but everyone was saved. That
preacher was Apostle Paul, and hetold the crew that it was his God
who saved them all. Paul's Godwas the same God who would save Jonah
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and these mariners. The mariners,in their fear, did something that is
unthinkable to most people. They threwoverboard the cargo that was in the ship
into the sea to lighten the load. The value of the cargo became insignificant.
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The only thing of any importance wassaving their own life. They concluded
something about life that few do.One's life does not consist in the abundance
of the things he possesses. Jesussaid that in Luke twelve, verse fifteen,
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and the mariners knew it was true. They didn't bring anything into this
world, and they surely weren't goingto take anything out if they died.
As each mariner threw the cargo overboard, they cried out to their false pagan
God. What they cried we arenot told, but it is not difficult
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to fill in the blanks. OhGod, save us, don't let us
die. A prayer like that isprayed by many, some on their death
beds. I don't hold out anyhope for a salvation prayer like that.
The only thing I know about howsalvation from sin is received is what is
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revealed in the inherant, infallible,inspired word of God. Going outside of
God's word is mere speculation that hopesfor the best. Praying for the forgiveness
of sin is foreign to God's word, although it is popular in the world
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of religious denominationalism. No one inthe New Testament was ever saved by praying
a sinner's prayer. Jesus never oncehinted that salvation could be received from God
in this manner. No apostle ofJesus Christ ever told anyone to pray to
Jesus asking for forgiveness and inviting Jesusinto their heart. The Bible is stone
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cold, dead silent regarding this schemeof salvation that is believed by the masses
because of the preaching of popular preachersof this day. Several cases of conversion
from sinner to saint are written inthe Book of Acts, and not one
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case records that salvation was ever receivedby anyone praying this imaginary prayer. Every
case of salvation in the Book ofActs was realized only when men and women
did what Apostle Peter said to doin Acts two, verse thirty eight.
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Repent. Let every one of yoube baptized in the name of Jesus Christ
for the remission of sins. Thesecond person worthy of our attention in this
fifth verse of Jonah one is thesleeping Jonah. It is written that Jonah
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had gone down into the lowest partsof the ship, had lain down,
and was fast asleep. The marinerswere afraid, and Jonah was asleep,
fast asleep. He had gone downto Joppa in verse three. He went
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down into a ship headed for Tarshishin the same verse, and now in
verse five, he had gone downinto the lowa's parts of the ship,
where he lain down. He wason a down, down, down,
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down trajectory, but he was notyet as far down as he eventually would
be. The fact that he couldfall fast asleep and not hear the slapping
of the ship's sails, the smashingof the ship's gears, the splashing of
the sea's waves on the side ofthe ship, nor the screaming of the
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mariners reveals just how far down Jonahhad gone. Until now, he had
been a restless rebel. But nowdown in the bottom of the ship,
away from God's call on his life, he became content. He was past
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feeling any sense of wrongdoing. Thiswas the sleep of a seared conscience.
This is the state of mind,or should I say the state of having
no mind, about which Apostle Paulspoke to the Christians in the church that
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Jesus built in Ephesus. You shouldno longer walk as the gentiles walk in
the futility of their mind, havingtheir understanding darkened, being alienated from the
life of God because of the ignorancethat is in them, because of the
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blindness of their heart, who,being past feeling, have given themselves over
to lewdness, to work all uncleannesswith greediness. To Timothy. Paul wrote
of having a conscience seared with ahot iron. Jonah's mind was darkened,
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he was alienated from God, hisheart was blind, and he was past
feeling while in his unsaved state ofsleep. This is a dangerous sleep to
have. To day, we aretold that no one should feel guilty about
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anything. Shake it off and geton with your life. That is one
of the biggest lies ever raised itsugly head from hell sinning against God,
and his word ought to make aperson who still has his right mind to
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feel as guilty as Apostle Peter feltwhen he denied the Lord three times.
He went out and wept bitterly bethankful. When your sin troubles you,
makes you uneasy, uncomfortable, andkeeps you awake at night, it is
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a sign that your conscience has notbeen seared with a hot iron. If
sin breaks your heart and bothers youmakes you toss and turn rather than enter
the sleep that Jonah had at thebottom of the ship, you have hope.
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It is only when your rebellion andsin against God no longer bothers you
that you need to start worrying.It is written in Romans chapter one that
those who have no room for Godin their hearts and minds, God gives
over to a reprobate, debased mindempty of God. People of this sort
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have a skull with nothing in itbut unrighteous air. Minds such as this
lead people to do the various kindsof ungodly behavior. In verses twenty nine
through thirty two, you can readthem for yourself, and when you do,
it will strike you unless you havea seared conscience, that these things
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pretty much describe the world in whichwe live today. But before some of
you amen this, let me bequick to remind you that it is not
only mindless sinners who sleep in thebottom of a sinking ship. The bottom
of the old Ship of Zion isalso inhabited by some Christians. If absenting
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yourself from the Lord's supper table onthe first day of the week doesn't bother
your conscience, If having no prayerlife doesn't bother your conscience, If never
reading or studying God's word on yourown doesn't bother your conscience, If withholding
your offerings from God's Kingdom's work doesn'tbother your conscience, you need to awake
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and arise from the dead. Thereare those who attend the Lord's Church whose
consciences are dead. They are easilyidentified by the way they speak and dress.
They speak and they dress like theunsaved world that has no conscience.
The way people speak and dress doesmatter, in spite of what the modern
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day church that has been influenced bytoday's culture says. It is strange that
some in the church that Jesus builtwill dress up to attend the funeral of
a dead body that has no ideawhat the attendees look like, but dress
down to attend the memorial of aperson who was once dead but is now
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alive and sees everything. Jonah,a man of God called to go to
a lost city. Sleeping in thebottom of a sinking ship is a picture
of the twenty first century church.She sleeps while the world sinks deeper and
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deeper into sin. A sleeping Christianis a stumbling block to both saints and
sinners. It is no mistake torefer to revival meetings as revival meetings.
Some churches are so dead in theirsleep they need to be revived. The
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world will never be brought to itssenses until the Church is awakened from her
sleep and brought to her senses.We must leave Jonah snoring cutting seas down
in the lowest parts of the ship. The next time you and I meet,
he will be brought to a rudeway while he is down there.
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In the meantime, we pray thatthose in the church who are spiritually dozing
will repent, come out of theirspiritual sleep, and do what Jonah refused
to do. Answer the call ofGod to lift up their eyes and look
at the fields that are white forharvest, and enter his harvest before it
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is everlastingly too late. The thirdperson worthy of our attention in this fifth
verse is not named, but heis the object of God's attention. From
the beginning of this book. Thisthird person is the sinning Ninevite. While
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the Mariners are scared and while Jonahis sleeping, the Ninevites are, as
usual, sinning, oblivious to thegoodness of God that is at work to
save them. They are a pictureof the lost world. Apostle Paul wrote
to the church that Jesus built inThessalonika, chapter five and verses six and
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seven. Let us not sleep asothers do, but let us watch and
be sober. For those who sleepsleep at night, and those who get
drunk are drunk at night. Jonahslept, but so did the Ninavites.
For the most part, so doesthe world that is lost in sin and
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fast asleep at the wheel while travelingdown the broad way that leads to destruction.
Jesus said in Matthew seven, versethirteen, there are many who go
in by it, like Jonah atthe bottom of the ship. Millions,
yay billions, are fast asleep whileheaded for a godless hell. The mission
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of the church is to go outinto the highways and gather together all they
find, both bad and good,into the gospel net, where God and
his angels will sort them. Thegood will go into vessels, the bad
will be thrown away. The gatheringis the Church's business. The sorting is
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God's. Ladies and gentlemen, youhave a free will to choose to be
part of those who will be gatheredinto the old ship of Zion where there
is salvation, or be among thecastaways who will be cast into the furnace
of fire, where there will bewailing and gnashing of teeth. To be
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among those who will sail to thenew Jerusalem, you must do what Jesus
said in Mark sixteen, verse sixteen. He who believes and is baptized will
be saved. To be among thecastaways. You are not required to do
anything, not even believe. AsJesus said, he who does not believe
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will be condemned. There's a battlegoing on for the soul of me.
He's the war avery. But I'msaying, within the arms of God,
dear bride, she is the keeperof my soul. Jeers the Church of
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Christ. I'll not surreyender. I'llnot surreyender. I'll not surreyender. I
know I'll always be a God's bolder. Ladies and gentlemen, write and Boss
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speaking. You have just heard anotherGospel Defender Ministries radio broadcast brought to you
by the Church that Jesus built thatpreaches all of the Word to all of
the world. Jesus said in Marksixteen sixteen, he who believes and is
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baptized will be saved. So findsomeone today who will immerse you into Christ
today before it is everlastingly too late. Our mailing address is Gospel Defender Ministries,
Post Office Box five seven five Chillakothihi ll I cotche Chilla, Coathi,
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Ohio, ZIP four five six zeroone. You can also contact us
to the world wide Web at Gospelnash Defender dot org or by email at
a gosdef Agos d ef a gosdeathat roadrunner dot com. At your request,
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written transcript or an audio copy oftoday's message will be sent to you
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We need to hear from you assoon as possible, so please take
the time to contact us today nowuntil you and I meet again at this
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same time and at this same place. Our prayer is that you will be
steadfastly sent for the defense of theGospel God b