0:00 The book of Jonah chapter one. We continue a study of the book of Jonah that began with pastor Mark, many months ago. We will begin at verse 17 of chapter one, and we will go through the rest of chapter two. Verse 17 of chapter one. And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
0:49 Just a little reminder of what took place in chapter one. God called Jonah to perform a mission. He commanded him, his Jewish prophet, to go and proclaim repentance to a pagan city of Nineveh. Jonah did not agree with God. Jonah had different opinion.
1:18 What did he do? He decided to flee from the face of the Lord. He went to Joppa, a city by the sea, and he took a boat, a ship that was going completely the opposite direction to Spain. Now, anyone of you knows what the meaning of the name Jonah? Any idea?
1:42 Just a footnote, by the way. In Hebrew, it's yona. Anytime you see a name in the bible that begins with j in the English, we have no j there's no j in Hebrew. The Hebrew would be yod, so Jonah would be yona. Jesus would be Yeshua.
2:00 Jeremiah would be. Okay? Would be. Do you know what the meaning of the word or Jonah? It means.
2:13 You know what does? It flies. You know what did Jonah do? He fled from the face of God. And if he has seven forty seven back then, I'm sure he would have flown instead of taking a boat.
2:36 Now God was very disappointed with his prophet, with his insubordinate man. What did he do? He sent a fierce storm that rocked the boat violently, and the sailors were so scared, so afraid, so they began to cry to God for help. Isn't it so common that God send storms to our lives when we drift away from him? He rocks our boats to wake us up.
3:17 Why? Because he loves us and we want us to get back into the heart of the father. It's quite strange that at this time, the pagan sailors began to cry to their gods for help. Yet Jonah remained silent. He would not pray.
3:36 Even when they begged him to pray to his god, he decided, I can't do that. In fact, how could we do it? He knew God very well. He knew the bible very well. He knew God would not answer his prayer.
3:49 Why? Because he's living in disobedience. He's rebelling against God so he would not pray. And he was unwilling yet to change, unwilling to repent. He confessed to the sailors that he was the cause of the storm.
4:10 He was able to do that, but he did not confess his sins to God. And he suggested the sailors, crazy suggestions. He told him, throw me. Throw me out. Throw me into the sea, and the storm will cease.
4:31 Some have interpreted this as as Jonah having compassion on the sailors. No. Jonah had no compassion on the sailors. His life proves just that. He had no compassion on them.
4:43 He had no compassion on the pagan Ninevites. Why should he have compassion on the sailors? In fact, by asking him to do that, you are just having the sailor kill you and commit a murder, just adding another sin to their many sins. These pagan sailors had more compassion, by the way, on Jonah than he had on them. They resisted first to do what he asked him to do, but later, in desperation, they had just to do it, and they threw him overboard.
5:20 At that moment, the storm ceased and everything was calm. Maybe someone is listening to me tonight and there is a fierce storm in their lives. Is there? Maybe God is really rocking your boat and you know exactly why. Why take a loss?
5:45 Why suffer the consequences? Maybe the storm is causing you a heartache, causing your relationship, your family. Well, I just turned why don't you just turn back to God now and say, Lord, I repent. Lord, I want to come back even now. Save yourself loss.
6:06 Save yourself hardships, heartaches, severe consequences. Just come back to God. Matthew Henry comments soberly on this story when he says, surely, these heathen mariners will rise up in judgment against many called Christians who neither offer prayers when in distress nor thanksgiving for signal deliverances. God prepared a fish. He did not create a fish for this purpose as some Jewish theologians say, but he prepared, he assigned a fish to swallow Jonah.
6:51 And the King James tells us, if you have the King James says, he prepared a whale. Now the Hebrew word here is is is dag gadol, which means really a large or a big fish. Now God would have chosen to do things differently. Couldn't he? He could have done, number one, he could have chosen he could have chosen another man for the mission.
7:20 Jonah has disobeyed. Jonah has decided to go different direction. I'm going to choose another man. God could have done that, but God does not give up quickly on us. Remember Moses in the old testament?
7:34 When God appeared to him there in the bush and God spoke to him and he showed him and he told him what he would do through him. And after almost two chapters of God speaking to him, at the end Moses says, send it with someone else. I'm not doing it. But God did not give up Moses. God could have chosen another man for this mission, but God did not.
7:56 But secretly, God could have choose a different method to save Jonah than to be swallowed by a fish. This is the most unlikely way to rescue someone. A fish would swallow you. Right? Why did God do that?
8:15 Is it just to make their miracle so unique? It was a unique miracle, but it's not about the miracle to be more unique. But it is to foreshadow. I remember that. Highlight that.
8:28 It's to foreshadow the burial of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jonah in the belly of the fish is foreshadowing Christ in the tomb for three days and three nights. Matthew chapter 12 force 40, The words of our Lord Jesus Christ. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. This miracle is about Jesus.
9:07 Do you know that? This miracle the holy scripture is about Jesus. Have you ever thought about that? This miracle is about the Lord Jesus Christ, to fulfill prophecy about his burial for three days and three nights. That's why this miracle is so unique, because Jesus was buried and then he rose after three days was so unique.
9:34 Imagine. Imagine the darkness of the belly of the fish. Imagine the stench. Imagine the very limited oxygen there, yet Jonah survives. He's alive.
9:52 Yes. God's ways are very different than our ways. A predator becomes a savior. A devourer becomes a deliverer. Wow.
10:07 God ways are very different than ours. God saved Moses in a basket in the Nile. God saves Noah and his family in the ark, in the flood. And by the way, the word basket and ark in the Hebrew is exactly the same word, tivah. God saved Paul in a ship in the Adriatic Sea.
10:41 And now here we see God saves Noah in a belly of a fish in the Mediterranean Sea. God saves, and God's by the way, God saves in and he saves from. Do you know that? God saves in and God saves from. He saves in when we are in a difficult circumstance.
11:05 He saves us. When we are in a difficult situation, he saves us. He saves us in, and we often are aware when God saves us in, but often we are remaining blind when he saves us from from something about to happen. He redirects us. He delays us in order to protect us.
11:28 He's the God of goodness. Goodness to provide deliverance and goodness to prevent disasters. He's the God who saves in and the God who saves from. I suggest when you come to God in prayer, don't just thank him for the things he saves you in, but the thing you don't know about. Lord, thank you for delaying me.
11:54 Oh, sometimes we get so mad when we are delayed. Right? Especially it's because of our spouse. Oh, we are so angry. Thank God.
12:03 Maybe God has intended this to protect you for a from a calamity. He saves you from he is the God of prevention and the God of deliverance. He is sovereign over all creation. He even commanded a fish, remember, to hold a coin for Peter's tax. He orders the beast, he orders the fish, he orders the creation, and creation obey his voice.
12:38 Now there's a parallel here, and the Jews always since since, years back, have understood that there's a parallel between Jonah and Israel. As Jonah has rejected God's call to go to proclaim repentance with the gentile, so Israel has rejected God's call to be a light to the nations. In fact, the early church, Jewish in the beginning, almost for the first eight eight years after Pentecost, they remained in Jerusalem. They hesitated. They resisted go to to go to the gentiles and preach the gospel.
13:19 Even though the words of the Lord, the command of the Lord was very clear, to go where? Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the end of the earth. They remained in Jerusalem until something happened. A persecution arose. God shook their boat.
13:37 What happened? They scattered all over, and they began to preach the gospel, not just to Jews, but to gentiles only. What Israel has failed to do, the church completed. The the church has done, and the church continues to do up to this day and will continue to do until Christ return. And then we see Jonah decided to pray.
14:04 Verse one of chapter two. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish. When? Where? And to whom?
14:21 Then Jonah prayed. When? Not in the boat. When all the pagan sailors prayed, you think that great opportunity to pray and show them the true God, yet he did not pray. But now, in the belly of the fish, after three days and three nights, he's reflecting on his sin, on his flight from the Lord, on the raging sea, on the storm, on the fish.
14:53 I mean, when he was swallowed, he thought, I'm done. Yet, few hours passed, he's still alive. Now he realizes the grace and the mercy and the love of God. Now he began to pray. Now Jonah always knew God.
15:11 He knew that God was real, but but his hatred toward the Gentiles was stronger than his desire to obey God. Now as he sees the greatest of his sin, yet greater than his sins, God's mercy, he began to pray. Where? From the belly of the fish. The most unlikely place.
15:45 Now some feel the need, the urgency to pray. I need to pray. But they are not maybe familiar with the word of God that much, and they think, I need to go to a holy place. I need to go to church maybe to to pray. I wait until Sunday and then I pray.
16:07 Maybe there when I come forward, when I when I sit before something, an altar, then God will hear my prayer. No. Where did you wanna pray? In the belly of the fish. In the bottom of the ocean.
16:26 So I tell you, if you are confused about that, you can pray wherever you are From the bottom of your own ocean, you pray, and God who hears in a church building, God hears in a car, God hears in your hiding place, God hears wherever you are. You pray. The prodigal son spent all his father's inheritance on wasteful, on on on sinful living. He returned back to his father empty and filthy. And when he returned back, what did he find?
16:58 Rebuke? Not one word of rebuke. Acceptance, reception, celebration. Kill the fatted calf. For my son was dead, but now is alive.
17:14 This is how it is the heart of the father. God wants to accept you. God will receive you. Doesn't matter how far you went, how deep in sin you you went through, God will receive you if you come back in repentance, even when you are in the bottom of your own ocean. You will always find a seat at Christ's table.
17:35 And the third thing we see here, to whom did Jonah pray? Sounds very simple, isn't it? Very simple. Whom to whom did Jonah pray? He prayed to Yahweh.
17:46 Yahweh. Yahweh is the name of God in the Old Testament. Praise God. Yahweh. It is so simple that Peter pray to so many others, don't they?
18:08 Peter does not help you. Paul would not help you. No saint will help you. Even the mother of the Lord Jesus, Mary, cannot help you. There's only one mediator.
18:24 There's only one intercessor who hears an answer. It is God. He prayed to God. And he says out, verse two, saying, I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.
18:46 Out of the belly of Sheol. Now Sheol, it's a Hebrew word. Sometime is translated hell, but more so it's translated the place of the dead. Just remember that Sheol is a Hebrew word that means the place of the dead. Jonah, as we have seen, could not pray while he was actively doing his own will.
19:16 He probably did not pray for a very long time. And I think most of us probably know this feeling, don't we? When we are in rebellion, when we are actively in sin, we can't pray, can we? Let's be honest. We can't pray.
19:39 Sin is a wall between us and God, and only repentance tears down that wall. Only repentance open the door back to the throne of grace. Only repentance. So let me ask you this question. When did you last time pray?
20:02 And if not, shall I assume something? I trust the Lord that he will speak to our hearts tonight, that we might truly seek him and abandon our disobedience and rebellion and get back to him, and he will guarantee he will receive you without a rebuke. He will receive you logically. He will kill the patted calf for you. He cried there from the belly of Sheol, and God heard him.
20:53 He thought it's over, but he's still alive. God is the god of the impossible. He remained alive, and that is what god does to his servants. Now in contrast, the Lord Jesus Christ died. He died literally, didn't he?
21:20 And he was buried in a tomb. But as Jonah's body, even though he did not die, but as Jonah's body was in the belly of the fish and did not decay, saw the Lord's body, dead body, never saw any corruption or any decay. Psalm 16 verse 10 tells us this word, for you will not abandon my soul. Hear the word, Oh, let your holy one see corruption. Again, this miracle is about Jesus.
22:06 About Jesus being in the tomb for three days and three nights, yet his body did not decay to fulfill Psalm 16 and Jonah's story. Now I was reminded of Saul of Tarsus, who is Paul, on his way to Damascus. The Lord confronted him. Remember that? He appeared to him and he was blinded for how long?
22:43 For three days. He went to Damascus and there, during these days, he was what he was doing? He was reflecting on his sin, on his persecution of the saints, of agreeing to the murder of Stephen, on all the thing on his hypocrisy, being such a religious man yet as far as it could be from the Lord. He was reflecting all of this, but also on how God is merciful and gracious. He appeared to him.
23:24 A persecutor of the church, a murderer. He was praying. He was praying. At that moment, the Lord appeared to an ordinary disciple. His name is Hananias.
23:38 I told him, go seek a man of Tarsus. His name is Saul. He is praying. He is praying. Go and pray for him, and his eyes will be opened.
23:58 In chapter then chapter nine of the book of Daniel, the angel Gabriel says to Daniel, at the beginning of your pleas of mercy, a word came out. Not after ten days, at the beginning of your pleas of mercy, a word came out. God hears. God answers prayers. We need to trust and believe that.
24:27 Jonah prayed. I called out to the Lord and he answered me. You heard my voice. He prayed in faith while still in the belly of the fish. He believed he has been heard.
24:43 This is a prayer of a man who knows God. Did he mess up? Yes. He did. Did he rebel against God?
24:53 Yes. He did. But he returned. You see, even the strongest believers can fall into sin. Yet when they come back to God, God will always receive them.
25:08 Then he says in verse three, for you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me. All your waves and your bellows passed over me, for you cast me into the deep. Who did cast him into the seas? Chapter one verse 15, it was the sailors, didn't they? The sailors took him and cast him.
25:42 But he says, for you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas. Was Jonah accusing God, blaming God for something he did not do? No. He was not. He does not.
25:57 He was telling what's really true. He knew the scripture very well. He knows God very well. By the way, here, where prosperity preaching goes so wrong as in so much in their own teaching. They teach that God gives, but he never takes away.
26:21 Maybe you have heard it. This is what they teach. This is so wrong. This is not what Job said, by the way, when he went through what he went through. Job did not say, the Lord gave and Satan has taken away.
26:37 Did he say that? He said he said, the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Jonah knew God. Jonah knew the scripture that God gives and God takes away.
26:54 He is sovereign in all things. Peter, in her first in his first sermon in chapter two of the book of Acts, he says these words. This Jesus delivered up according to the definitive plan and foreknowledge of God. He was delivered according to the plan, the definitive plan, and foreknowledge of God. You crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
27:22 God used human agents, but it was God's plan and God's foreknowledge. So, yes, God was behind throwing Jonah in the sea. Jonah knew that, and he admitted that. You cast me into the deep. You are sovereign.
27:42 You are God. You are in control. Verse four, then I said, I'm driven away from your sight, yet I shall again look upon your holy temple. At first, in the belly of the fish, Jonah thought it's all over. I mean, how could it be otherwise?
28:18 Right? It's very legitimate conclusion. He is swallowed by the fish. Okay. I'm alive for next ten minutes.
28:28 Then an hour passes, few hours, a day at two, alive. He know it's all over, but now he knows God is not done with him. It's not over. There's still a mission for him. There's still a job for him to do.
28:46 We often give up quickly on people, don't we? I mean, I'm guilty of that. In fact, the greatest apostle, Paul, gave up quickly on John Mark. Do you remember the story? On his first machinery journey, he and Barnabas, they decided to talk to take John Mark with them, And he went with them, but then a little bit later, John Mark decided to go back home.
29:19 He deserted them. I guess he missed his mom back in Jerusalem. So he did not complete the mission. When they were planning the second journey, mission journey, Barnabas suggested to take with them who? John Mark.
29:37 How did Paul respond? No way. I'm not taking him with me. He deserted us. I'm not I'm giving up on him.
29:43 I'm not giving him another chance. Now aren't you glad that God is not Paul? He give us not just a second chance, a third, a 10, a 100. All of us have experienced that. He give us benefit.
29:57 He does not give it quickly on us. He's not quick to abandon us like we do with people. He's patient. He's loving. He's waiting and waiting and waiting to give us another another another chance.
30:15 But when are we going to respond and come back? When? There might a time come that there was no more opportunities. As long as there are opportunities come back to God. Then he said, I shall again look upon your holy temple.
30:34 I shall again look upon your holy temple. Now Jews, when they pray, they pray toward the temple. I don't I don't think necessarily Jonah is talking about that because I don't I don't think he knows the direction at all being in the belly or the face. But I think he means to personally be there in Jerusalem in that per in in in the temple of God and and pray. I shall again he's praying in faith.
31:11 I shall again look upon your holy temple. Be in person there in the temple in Jerusalem and pray. Verse five. The waters closed over me to take my life. The deep surrounded me.
31:31 Weeds were wrapped about my head. Now Jonah just he's describing the events, what took place. His being in the water. His being in the sea. His descent to the lower part of the ocean.
31:51 Verse six. At the root of the mountains, I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever. Yet, you brought up my life from the pit. Oh, Lord, my God. At the root of the mountains, I went down.
32:16 There's a word here in Hebrew, yarati. Yarad, went down. And this word is mentioned four times in the book of Jonah. Went down, yarad. And really, this word implies not just going down physically, but implies often spiritual decline.
32:44 Yarati, I went down. I went down. I went down. I went down. First, we see that in chapter one verse three, he went down Yarad Yarati to Joppa.
32:56 The same verse, Yarad, again down to the ship. Ayarati went down to the ship. Look at verse five. Went down, Yarati, to the inner part of the ship, and now, Yarati went down into the sea. Each Yarati, each wind down is a step further away from the Lord.
33:28 Decline. Spiritual decline. More distance from the Lord. More distance from the Lord and more distance from the Lord. Is there a lesson for us here?
33:44 Are you taking a step away from the Lord? Who are you right now positionally in Christ? How far? How near? If I ask you this question to ask yourself, ask your heart how near I am to the heart of the Lord or maybe how far I am.
34:07 Step away. Two steps, three steps. Let me tell you, leads quickly to the ship. Leads quickly to the ship. And when you are in the ship, it's very hard to get out.
34:32 So I want to ask you this question. Are you on your way to Joppa? Are you in your way to Joppa? Are you compromising in one area? And you are thinking, oh, it's just a little bit.
34:51 I want to enjoy a little bit. I wanna taste a little bit of what this world offers. Don't read Joppa. Because when you are in Joppa, you are going to board the ship. I'm gonna tell you, you're going to board the ship, and there you're going to be you're going to start sinking and sinking and sinking, and only divine intervention will get you out.
35:24 But if you are in the boat, still divine intervention is available. I'm telling you, God is not going to send you a fish to swallow you and save you, but God going to send you the ark, who is the Lord Jesus Christ, and carry you on and save you. So wherever you are, come back to Jesus. Don't compromise at all. You brought my you brought up my life from the pit.
35:57 What God has done to Jonah, he will do for each one of us. Let's look at verse seven. When my life was fainting away, I remember the Lord. And my prayer came to you into your holy temple. You see, again, Jonah mentions the holy temple for a second time.
36:29 God is holy, and his dwelling place is holy and must be holy. Just remind you, King Solomon built a temple in Jerusalem for God, didn't he? He built a temple to be God's earthly dwelling on earth. In first in first Kings chapter eight, verse twelve and thirteen, during the dedication of the temple, Solomon prayed this prayer. I want just to be part of it as we talk about God's holy temple.
37:22 Verse twelve and thirteen. Then Solomon said, the Lord has said that he would dwell in thick darkness. I have indeed built you an exalted house, a place for you to dwell forever, an earthly dwelling place for God. Let's continue to verse 27 of the same chapter. But will God indeed dwell on earth?
37:57 Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you. He's God. How much less this house that I have built few square square meters. How can that how can this be possible? Verse 30.
38:15 And listen to the plea of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. I said earlier, the Jews, even up to this day, they pray toward a temple, hoping God will answer their prayers. And listen in heaven your, what, dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive. Again, in verse 30, verse 39, verse 43, verse 45, verse 49, Solomon keeps saying the same thing, hear from heaven your dwelling place. Solomon understand.
39:06 He understands very well that God's dwelling place is where? Is in heaven, yet I made this little temple for you on earth just to to show your presence. And here, what Jonah is saying, he's saying it's your holy temple in heaven. He's not talking about temple in Jerusalem. No.
39:33 No. You hear from your holy temple that is in heaven because that is your actual dwelling place. Hear from heaven your dwelling place. Now there's no building in Jerusalem nor well nowhere else that God wills. What does he dwell?
39:57 In vessels like us. Right? In us as believers. We are his temple. And as God is holy, his temple must be holy and must remain holy.
40:11 Just remember that when you leave from this place. As God is holy, his temple must be holy and remain always holy. Verse eight. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of a steadfast love. Jonah, as a Jew, probably had very little exposure to Gentiles, to pagans.
40:45 Even today, I don't know if you know that, that religious Jews, the perilous one don't speak, don't salute, don't shake hands, don't enter the house of a Gentile. Jonah, I believe, had very little exposure to Gentiles, but he knew they were idol worshipers. And on that ship, he witnessed their pagan worship firsthand when they prayed to their gods. Now he says, those who pursue idol idols forsakes God's mercy. The the gentiles worship Baal.
41:24 They worshiped, many other gods. They worship that Dragon Dagon, Molech, Nebo. They made images, of of these gods of of wood and stone and silver and gold and and worship them. And and and again, Jonah says, who pay regard to vain idols, these are all vain idols, forsake their hope of steadfast love. Now I'm sure we are much more sophisticated than them.
41:55 Right? We don't worship statues. We don't worship those. Right? But we worship we we met other gods, don't we?
42:05 Didn't we? What about maybe money, fame, sports. That's a big one. Right? What about Hollywood?
42:20 Wicked Hollywood. I think it's shame that some Christian, professing Christian, know more about celebrities than the scripture. You brag about watching Hollywood movies every week or more often. I'm not saying to give you a guilt trip. But the question is, do you love Hollywood movies more than the Bible?
42:54 So we need gods, idols. And what Jonah does say, he says, those who pay regard to vain idol these are vain idols. They are vain. They have no eternal reward. Forsake their hope of steadfast love.
43:18 Now ask yourself ask yourself, am I consumed? And that's the word I want to, highlight today. Not if you watch or if you do, but are you consumed by these vanities that the world offer? Are you consumed with them? They have no eternal reward.
43:47 Why are you consumed with them? Now he says, those who pursue such idols forfeit gods, and that's the Hebrew word. Important word. None of us know it. Hesed.
44:03 Hesed. That's the word here. They forfeit God's. It's a word that it's quite hard to translate. The word in the Hebrew could mean loving kindness, mercy, grace, loyal love.
44:22 He says those who pursue these vanities, forsake, forfeit God's hesed, God's loving kindness, God's mercy, God's grace, God's loving God's love. They forsake it. In Exodus chapter 34, there is a very big word there, Chesed mentioned, and that's, often quoted verse six and verse seven as we, about to close this message. Let us read that Exodus 34 verse six. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord, our God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger and and abounding in steadfast love is translated in English and some translation, abounding in loving devotion, abundant in goodness, abounding in faithfulness, abounding in loving kindness, rich in faithful love, all that means.
45:36 Who wants to forfeit this? Who want to forfeit this? Who want to exchange this with the vanities of the world offers. Verse seven. Again, the word mission again.
45:53 Keeping hesed, loving kindness for thousands. So instead again, maintaining loving devotion, keeping mercy for thousands, keeping loyal love. In fact, in Psalm one forty four two, David calls God my hesed. He calls God my hesed. He's my goodness and the giver of all goodness.
46:35 Jonah is concluding by saying, run after idols and you create your own hell. You forsake God's multicolored grace, abundant love. Don't run after these vanities. Verse nine. But I, with the voice of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you.
47:04 But I. I hope that all of us tonight with Jonah can say that. But I, but we as a church, but I, with the voice of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. This could mean one of two things. Number one, it could mean when I'm delivered, when I'm out on a dry land, I'm going to make sure I'm going to go up to Jerusalem.
47:25 I'm going to go to a temple. I'm going to offer a sacrifice with thanksgiving. But more so now, when I am here in the belly of the fish, I can offer a sacrifice of praise to you. Hebrews thirteen fifteen, through him. The writer of the Hebrews tells us, through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to god that is the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.
48:02 These are sacrifice that God loves and God accepts and God waits from his people to give. And then he says, what I have vowed, I will pay. Jonah recommits himself to his calling, and he ends with these words, salvation belongs to the Lord. It's not of work. It's not of effort.
48:29 It's not of man. It's not of flesh. Salvation belongs to the Lord. You've been saved. Right?
48:39 Who saved you? The lord. It's by grace you have been saved. Not of any work you have done are works. Vain.
48:55 Gods, by grace, saved you, and the one who saved you will preserve you to the end. And verse 10, and the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon a dry land. The one who created heaven and earth commands again the fish, and the fish who swallowed Jonah at the first command, spitted out Jonah at God's second command. And a repentant sinner is restored, is now back on dry land to fulfill God's mission. Let's pray.
49:52 God, we know you are a faithful god, a loving, a merciful, abounding in love. There's no limit to your love, to your grace, and mercy. You don't abandon us. You don't leave us. You don't forsake us when we mess up.
50:18 And, Lord, we admit all of us have messed up. All of us have sinned. All of us have rebelled against you at times. But we thank you that you always receive a repentant sinner. You always receive those who return back to you calling on your name.
50:39 Lord, we call on your name even now. Lord, we pray we pray that you bless your people. Lord, we pray that if there is anyone among us on his way to Joppa, But even now, Lord, you speak to their hearts. Speak to their hearts, Lord, that they may return back to your loving arms. I pray, God, that the world will not be able to draw them, but you draw them near your heart even now, Lord.
51:21 And if they are so far and as far as a ship, we will pray that you will intervene divinely and save them by your grace. We pray, dear god, that we will bring repentance to hearts and restoration. Lord, we thank you. We praise you for your love for this wonderful book and for the lesson you have taught us tonight. In Jesus name we pray.
51:44 Amen. Let's stand up to worship the lord.
