Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
There's a battle going on for the souls of me,
the page of war Avery. But I'm saying within the
arms of God, Dear Brad, She's the keeper of the
surge of Christ.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I'll a surreylender. I'll have surreyender. I'll not surrender.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
I know I'll be a godspel defender.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Ladies and gentlemen. Rick Brightenhall of the Gospel Defender Ministries,
this gospel message will encourage and equip those who have
hears to hear to be a Christian clothes with the
armor of a Gospel defenderyder.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
I'll hat surrey.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
All hot, surrey ridal with a godspeol.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
It is written in Matthew chapter four that as Jesus
was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he met four
fishermen who would become part of his band of apostles,
Peter and Andrew his brother, and James the son of Zebedee,
and John his brother. Jesus said to Peter and Andrew,
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follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
There is no reason for us to not believe. He
said the same thing to James and John. Follow me,
and I will make you fishers of men. These four
were not the first to be called to minister in
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this way. It is in the Old Testament Book of
Jonah that the word of the Lord came to him
to do the same thing. Though he was not a fisherman,
he was a prophet of the Lord. Nevertheless, he was
commissioned to go fishing for men men in Nineveh who
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were on track to be damned by God because of
their wickedness. Unlike Peter, Andrew, James, and John, Jonah didn't
want anything to do with fishing, especially fishing for souls
in Nineveh. He had no love for them and did
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all he could do to get out of this unpleasant task.
But he could not. As hard as he tried. He
attempted to pull the same trick as Adam and Eve
in the garden in Eden, hide from God. It didn't
work for Adam and Eve, and it didn't work for Jonah.
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God caught up with him to cut to the chase
no pun intended. God found him in the bottom of
a ship headed for the city of Tarsish, and using
pagan mariners who were navigating the ship, had him brought
up to the main deck. Jonah confessed his sin to
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those pagans when he should have confessed them to the
Lord who created him and who commissioned him to go
fishing in Nineveh. Jonah's story is the unfortunate story of
many people. They confessed their sins to the wrong person
rather than confess to the God who will judge them,
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and then follow up their confession by obeying the Gospel
terms for salvation, repentance, and immersion in water in the
name of Jesus Christ for the remission of their sins.
Rather than doing that which is written in holy writ,
they go to a man made cathedral where there is
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a man made booth with a man made curtain, and
whisper into the ears of a man made by God
their sins. Neither the cathedral, the booth, the curtain, or
the man dressed in religious garb can do one thing
to wash away the sins of the confessor. But this
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is what millions believe they must do, and so they
do it. Others kneel at a man made altar and
pray for the forgiveness of their sins. All this looks
religious to spectacle, but the truth is like the booth,
the curtain, and the religious looking man on the other
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side of the curtain. Prayers to receive salvation uttered at
church altars made by human hands, or nowhere to be
found in the Word of God. The way to receive
forgiveness of sins is clearly revealed on the pages of
the New Testament, but few believe it, and so they
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won't do it. The mariners did what they had to
do to avoid shipwreck. They threw Jonah overboard into the raging,
tempestuous sea. They were acting as ministers of Jehovah. Jonah's
God was behind all of this. The Lord had prepared
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a great fish to swallow Jonah, and that is where
he went into the fish's belly, not to punish Jonah,
but to discipline and save him. This was not God's
judgment of Jonah. It was his grace to Jonah. God
would not allow Jonah to sink seven leagues under the
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sea to die. Jonah was going to preach to the
Ninavites the salvation message of repentance, whether or not Jonah
wanted to be a part of it. The Ninovites were
going to be saved by God's mercy and grace, and
Jonah would be the one who delivered the message. It
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is ironic that God called Jonah to be a fisher
of men, and that God used a great fish he
had prepared to bring it to pass, but first to
get Jonah to submit to God's sovereignty. In this matter.
We note Jonah's confinement in the belly of the fish
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for three days and three nights. It's there and then
that Jonah found time to pray. We note verses three
and four. For you cast me into the deep, into
the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me,
all your billows and your waves passed over me. Then
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I said, I've been cast out of your sight. Yet
I will look again towards your holy temple. In chapter one,
Jonah refused to preach God's truth and innavites, but in
chapter two he confessed the truth while surrounded with the
floods and billows, while waves of water passed over him.
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It was the Lord who had cast him into the deep,
into the heart of the seas. Ladies and gentlemen, we
have among us multitudes of people who doubt that the
God described in the book he authored even exists. Many
deny his existence outright. Whatever Jonah truly thought of this
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God before he landed in the slop of the belly
of the great fish. We may not fully know, but
we do know that while in that slop, his mind
turned to the word of that God, where it is
written in Psalm forty two, verse seven, all your waves
and billows have gone over me. Metaphorically. Every one, at
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one time or another, goes through similar slop as did Jonah,
even saints of God. Sometimes this is no fault of
their own. Sometimes it is. There are times when circumstances
look hopeless. Jonah was in such despair he thought God
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Almighty had cast him from his sight. He said, I
have been cast out of your So what should a
person do at such times as this? For Jonah, he said,
I will look toward your holy Temple, the child of God.
The Christians should do likewise. Through Jesus, who is our
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one mediator, we direct our hearts, minds, souls, spirits and
prayers to our heavenly Father. We look to God and
his eternal Word for the lost. That isn't a bad
place to look either. Look to the God of the
eternal Word. Matthew eleven, verse twenty eight is a good
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starting point. Come to me, all you who labor and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Come
to Christ, Come to his cross where his blood that
forgives all sin was shed, and then come under his blood.
Be washed in his blood. Do what Saul of Tarsus
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did in Acts twenty two, verse sixteen. Arise and be baptized,
and wash away your sins, calling on the name of
the Lord. Then we note verses five through eight of
his prayer. While in confinement, the waters surrounded me, even
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to my soul. The deep closed around me. Weeds were
wrapped around my head. I went down to the moorings
of the mountains, the earth with its bars closed behind
me forever. Yet you have brought up my life from
the pit, O, Lord, my God. When my soul fainted
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within me, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer went
up to you into your holy temple. Those who regard
worthless idols forsake, they're on mercy. Jonah was a down
syndrome baby, but he suffered this malady. As a prophet
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of God, he had a lot of downs. In verse
three of chapter one, he went down to Joppa. In
the same verse, he went down into a ship going
to Tarshish. In verse five of chapter one, he went
down into the lowest parts of the ship. In verse
fifteen of that chapter, he was thrown down into the sea.
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In verse seventeen of chapter one, he went down into
the belly of a great fish. In verse six of
chapter two, he went down to the moorings of the mountains.
He may not have been on drugs, but he was
on a constant downer. He was not down and out,
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He was down an inn, down an in a world
of hurt. Again, have you ever felt like Jonah in
a situation that seemed totally utterly helpless, totally futile, having
absolutely no escape. Welcome to the club. Even Apostle Paul
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was familiar with that feeling. To the Corinthian Church, he
wrote in Second Corinthians one, verses eight and nine, for
we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of
our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we
were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired
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even of life. Yes, we had the sentence of death
in ourselves. Jonas three days and three nights in the
belly of the fish is a picture of hell, a
place of total isolation where no one has any power
to escape. The one difference in the picture is there
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was water in the fish's belly, and for John it
was for only three days and three nights. Hell is
eternal draft. From Jonah's perspective, he would never ever again
see the earth, and so it will be in the
case of those who die lost in their sins. They
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will never ever see the new heavens and the New Earth,
the New Jerusalem. They will forever be isolated from all
of God's blessings, blessings they took for granted food, clothing, shelter, fellowship,
the beauty of God's creation, music, laughter, God's word, and
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his Church. There will be only weeping and gnashing of
teeth Again. Jonah turned to God's holy writ he prayed
the prayer David prayed in Psalm sixty nine. Save me, o, God,
for the waters have come up to my neck. I
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sink in deep mire where there is no standing. I
have come into deep waters where the floods overwhelm me.
I am weary with my crying. My throat is dry,
my eyes fail while I wait for my God. From
Jonah's viewpoint, the earth was shut and locked, so barred
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and bolded that he was cut off from any hope
of ever returning to it. There was only one person
and one place for him to turn, his God in
his holy temple. Ladies and gentlemen, when you fight against God,
even God's creation will flat back against you. The only
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thing Jonah could do was to look up by praying up.
My prayer went up to you into your holy temple.
Not until Jonah was cast out of God's sight in
verse four did Jonah begin to remember his Lord. His
faith sustained him while in the great fish's belly. I
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will look again towards your holy temple, he said. I
am not dead yet I still have a chance. Ladies
and gentlemen, He's your faith as great as Jonah's. He
knew that his Lord was a gracious and merciful God
who would forgive the Ninophtes when they heard God's message
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of repentance preached by him. We would to God that
the church believed as strongly as did Jonah. Perhaps there
would be more preaching of God's word. Jonah neither cursed
nor blamed God while he was in his own personal hell.
He remembered his Lord. He praised his Lord, he glorified
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his Lord. Everyone will remember their lord in hell the
rich man and Luke sixteen did. Unfortunately, it will be
too late. The misery of hell is that those who
go there will forever be cast from God's sight. His
eyes will not be turned toward the wicked. Some who
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have written about the events of Jonah too, say Jonah
did not have in mind the Heathen mariners when he said,
those who regard worthless idols forsake their own mercy. How
they know what was in Jonah's mind when he spoke
these words. I have no way of knowing, But I
do know who threw him overboard. In chapter one, men
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who were afraid and who cried out to his god,
Heathen men who worshiped many gods, imaginary gods. There is
a God, and he is not imaginary. He is the
one God revealed in Holy writ Men still have their
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imaginary gods. Their imaginary God will eventually save everyone before
it's all over. Their imaginary God promises to give health
and wealth to anyone who sends seed money to televangelists.
Their imaginary God gives everyone a second chance after they die.
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Their imaginary God welcomes any and all into the eternal
Kingdom of God. Having never been born again of water
and the spirit. Their imaginary God ignores, overlooks, and excuses sin.
Their imaginary God is different from the God of the Bible.
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Their gods are imaginary creations of their own minds of imagination.
They are like the fabricated gods of old, constructed by
uninspired hands and philosophies of men who are ignorant of
and reject God's supernatural revelation. They have these kinds of
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God because believing their nonsense soothes and soths consciences that
have been seared with a hot iron from hell, irreverent,
unbelieving consciences that reject the authoritative word of God. Those
who reject the only God there ever has been, or
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ever will be, are described in Romans chapter one. They
suppress the truth of God's word. They refuse to glorify
him as God, and are unthankful. Their foolish hearts are darkened.
They profess to be wise, but become fools. They change
the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made
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like corruptible man, and birds and four footed animals and
creeping things. And because of all this God gives them
over to a debased mind to do and to believe
whatever they please. As Jonah said in verse eight, they
forsake their own mercy, they forsake their creator, and they
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reject their savior, Jesus the Christ. If anyone should know
about this, it was Jonah because of his prayer in
the belly of the Great Fish. We are not surprised
at Jonah's commitment, consecration, and covenant he made in verse nine.
But I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving.
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I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of
the Lord. The light bulb lit up in the darkness
inside the belly of the Great Fish. Jonah could be
saved from being food for the Great Fish, even while
in his underwater tomb, only by the Lord. Although it
was Peter who said acte four, twelve decades after Jonah's experience,
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it was also true in Jonah's case and for yours
as well. There is no salvation in any other for
there is no other name under heaven, and in the
case of Jonah underwater given among men by which we
must be saved. While in the fish's belly, Jonah made
a covenant promise to God if God would deliver him
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from the hell he was in. He would give God
the sacrifice of his voice of thanksgiving. He would pay
his vow to God. He would use his preaching voice
to persuade the people of Nineveh to come to God
in repentance. In hell, there will be people who will
be willing to vow anything and everything they have to
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be released, but they will have no possessions to vow.
Christians who neglected their salvation will vow to read and
study the Bible every day, attend the assemblies of the Church,
which whenever she assembles, give every dime they have to
the cause of Christ, and tell others about Christ. But
it will be too late. Life on earth will have ended,
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and death in hell will have just begun. In Jonah's predicament,
he still had his life to give to God, and
he offered it. He committed and consecrated himself to carry
out God's commission. In this second chapter of Jonah, we
have seen Jonah's cry, Jonah's confinement, and Jonah's commitment, consecration
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and covenant. It is in the final verse that we
are told of the fish's compliance. So the Lord spoke
to the fish and it vomited Jonah on the dry land.
God needed to speak only once of the fish, and
the fish gladly obliged. This fish was anxious to obey,
having swallowed some bad food, a disobedient, backsliding prophet of God,
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doggy paddling in his bad it had endured an upset
stomach for three days and three nights, and gladly vomited
him back to the place from where he had come,
the dry land of some beach of Joppa, where he
had boarded a ship for Tarsis. As a penitent and
broken hearted servant of God, Jonah had to pray but once,
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for deliverance from his sin and the discipline he received
because of it. But remember it was a three days
and three nights prayer. Our first message left Jonah asleep
in the bottom of a boat. Our last message left
Jonah in the belly of a great fish. This message
leaves him as a repentant, consecrated, revived, committed profit of God,
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gasping for his breath, laying on a beach in Joppa,
ready to carry out the commission he had received from God.
All of this is history. If you happen to be breathing,
life is not history yet. But who knows it may
be before this time tomorrow. So don't die and go
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into the belly of hell with your sins when you
don't have to Behold now is the day of salvation.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Shares a battle going on for the soul of me.
He's the forthyverdy. But I am saying, within the arms
of God, dear bride, she's the keeper of the sort
cheers the Church of Christ.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
I'll not surrender. I'll have Surreyender. I'll not Surreyyender. I
know I'll.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Always be a God.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
Ladies and gentlemen, write in Boss speaking, you have just
heard another Gospel Defender Ministries radio broadcast brought to you
by the Church that Jesus built and preaches all of
the Word to all of the world. Jesus said in
Mark sixteen, verse sixteen. He who believes and is baptized
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will be saved. So find someone 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 JELLICOTHI c H I L l I
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Cotche Jellicothe, Ohio ZIP four five six zero one. You
can also contact us to the world Wide Web at
gospels defender dot org, or by email at a gosdef
(25:14):
a g osd ef a gosdef at roadrunner dot com.
At your request, a written transcript or an audio copy
of today's message will be sent to you free of charge,
with no obligation from you, now or in the future.
(25:35):
We need to hear from you as soon as possible,
so please take the time to contact us today now
until you and I meet again at this same time
and at this same place. Our prayer is that you
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will be steadfastly sent for the defense of the Gospel.
A God