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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Last week we finished up with Daniel, Daniel. And today we are on Jonah. We’re on Jonah studying about Jonah. So, we’re turning your Bible to the book of Jonah. Everybody’s heard about Jonah. And then that big old fish. Somebody asked them, say, you believe that story where, you know, that fish swallowed Jonah? It says sure do. Say, if the Bible says it, join the swallow of the whale, I believe it. Now that would take a little bit more faith maybe.

But it is a miracle. And it’s down as a miracle. It’s down as a sign. So hold your place here in Jonah and go all the way over there to the book of Matthew 12. Matthew 12. The religious hypocrites. They came to Jesus and they asked the question there in verse 38 of Matthew chapter 12, and he says, then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, say, and master it, we would see a sign from them. I guess he wanted to perform a little miracle for us, you know, a little magic trick.

But he answered, and he said to them, an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign. And there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. So does the Bible put the stamp of approval upon the story of Jonah and the great fish or Jonah in the whale?

Well, the Bible says it’s here and therefore we’re supposed to believe it. Believe that it is true. Some people have a problem just believing that God can still work a miracle. And you know there’s various miracles throughout time, but you never know when God’s going to do one. And I think I’ve lived long enough to see, I guess you could see how God moves and directs in your life and has guided things that you are not in control of.

I don’t like it when I’m not in control. I want to be able to control things. And God says, I’m sorry, this is out of your hands. You can’t do anything about it. And it’s a lot of things that happen like that. So you have to just trust the Lord. But it is in the Bible. Jesus did say that Jonah was a real character and that he really lived and something that happened to him was a sign. Now it doesn’t refer to all of the years before we read the book of Jonah.

It doesn’t happen about what happened after Jonah, but there’s something that was just one little brief story, one little time in his life. Think about this, Enoch lived 365 years. That’s a pretty long time to live. And the Bible says and he walked with God and he was not, for God took him. We don’t know what in the world he did for 364, but we know that one incident that happened in life. We may never remember all about Daniel, but we do know that he went into Alliance then.

It’s just a short period of time. Sometimes we want our whole life to be one exciting, well Indiana Jones adventure and it may not be there. There might just be little snippets here and little things there and as you recall over your life you don’t remember everything. You’ll recall every day, every event, but there’s certain things that highlights your life. And when God talks about in the book Hebrews in chapter 11, the Hall of Faith chapter, he didn’t refer to all their lives.

He mentioned a lot of people in one chapter and just refers to little snippets here and there. You know like Noah, the art, refer to that. refer to that, April and his sacrifice. That’s it. And Enoch, then he was gone. That’s it. And Moses and just a little bit, that was it. If you took your whole life and squashed it down, took out all of the wasted time, take out all the time you were sleeping, take away all the time that you ate, take away all the time that you just goofed off, and all the talking that you did didn’t amount to the hill of beans.

How much quality would you have left? 30 minutes. That’s probably about it. There’s probably not a lot of good quality when God just heaven is he gonna judge us by how well we slept. Think of all the times you didn’t you did nothing or all the time you sit there and you watch you know a ballgame or something. Take a lot all those times out of your life and how much did you actually live for God? And it’s amazing.

It might blow your mind. You know the Bible says one of these days we’re gonna give an account to God. You believe that? You’re gonna give an account to God. And the Bible even talks about every idle word. Idle word. Ooh, don’t like that. Look there in Jonah chapter 1. Now I’ve often broken down this whole book. The four little statements and it’s really pretty good. It’s maybe not the best, but it helps you to remember it because it’s so simple.

Chapter 1, Jonah ran from God. Wouldn’t you say that’s true? Chapter 2, Jonah ran to God. Wouldn’t you say that’s true? Chapter 3, Jonah ran with God. In chapter 4, he ran ahead of God. He was just one impatient dude. He was one impatient man. He was a Jew, but he wasn’t in love with the Gentiles. Now even though Nineveh was spared at this time, about a hundred years later God had to go in there and wipe them out.

So they got their just desserts in time. They’re what they call the re-reward. So you notice here in in the first chapter, Jonah ran from God. And when you run from God, it’s amazing how the devil can deceive you into thinking that you’re making things actually better for your life. That’s the deception. If I don’t do what God wants me to do, I’ve got better plans, better dreams, better goals, you know, better visions than what God has for me.

So they run from God. Well, if you want something that’s really The best would then run with God, not against God, because the one that can determine with the live or die, the one that can determine whether you draw your next breath is the Lord. Why would you want to make Him mad? Doesn’t make any sense does it? Especially when you realize God is God and God is on the throne. do right. Never try to justify sin. Always right is right, wrong is wrong.

So you’ll notice when he says here in chapter 1, God had something he wanted Jonah to do. So in verse 2 he says, the rise go to Nineveh, that great sick and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before me. So he, God, saw the city of none of them saw their wickedness. He says, I got a message for them and I want you to go tell them that in about 40 days I’m going to wipe them out.

I’m going to wipe them out. So they were under the judgment of God. So God needed a man to deliver a message. Really that’s all we are. We’re just here as a messenger. We got a message. You don’t go into all of our own and tell you how great and wonderful you are. So this is why some people, well I don’t want to serve the Lord, I’m not worthy. As He is, the message is, is the message worth them hearing.

You’re just a cheap radio set. We just transfer a message, that’s all a radio does. It doesn’t produce it just forwards it and that’s what we do. But in verse 3, but Jonah rose up to flee on I’m Dittarsious. Get this from the presence of the Lord. And Which way did he go? Did he go up or down? He went down. Went down to Japa. He found his ship going to Tarsus. So he paid the fare thereof. So anytime you remember this, when you run from God, you’re going down and you’ve got a price to pay.

And you’re going to pay for rebelling against God. When God wants you to do something, just do it. Just do it. You say, well, I can’t afford to serve God. I can’t afford not to. I can’t afford not to. I can’t afford not to do the things that God wants me to do, because I know God. I know what it’ll do to me. You say, you shouldn’t live in fear. Well, I’m not living in fear as long as I serve Him.

When I serve Him, I know God has to bless me. God doesn’t have a choice. God has to bless my life. I know that. So I can believe that and trust that and just ride with the Lord. And it’s a wonderful, wonderful thing. So here in Jonah chapter one, Jonah runs from the Lord. He goes down, pays the fair, and the Bible says, and he went down into it to go with them unto tarshes from the presence of the Lord.

You’d be surprised what people do to get away from the presence of the Lord. Now when you and I trust Christ as our Savior, where does the Holy Spirit live inside of us? Where can I go to get away from the presence of the Lord when he lives inside to me? It’s like I’m running from myself. Well duh, it is me. How do I get away from me? Well I don’t want to be around me anymore. Well what a wicked life we live.

What a web we weave. Now notice what he says here. So he’s running from the Lord. He’s going down, not going up, going down, priced to pay, but in verse 4. But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea. Who sent the great wind? The Lord. Do you think God is in charge of the weather? God is in charge of the sea and the animals in the sea.

And you know that he prepared a great wind and he prepared a great fish. God can prepare a lot of things. And remember this, when you run from the Lord, the Bible says the Lord resist is the proud. It’s like trying to go through that brick wall over there. And God is resisting you. If you run from the Lord, is it possible that the Lord can prepare things to happen in your life because of your decisions? Have you ever noticed that people who want to run from the Lord, the devil always has somebody there to help him go in that direction?

Water seeks its own level. There’s always somebody who wants to help you in rebelling against God. But then God also has what we call the hedge of thorns. That’s where he puts a hedge of thorns about you. And that hedge of thorn is so that it pricks you they get back to the Lord. And there’s been times when I have actually prayed that God will put a hedge of thorns about an individual because I want their decisions to hurt them, not because I want them to be hurt, but that they’ll get back to the Lord because I know that’s the best thing for them.

But now notice, he says here in verse 4, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea so that the ship was like to be broken. Who did this, the Lord? Just a coincidence. That’s all it is. Just a coincidence. You know, just per adventure. He just happened. No plan, no design, no, there’s nobody in charge of this thing. No, No, there’s totally God on the throne. And we read and study things that happen from a human perspective, but it’s difficult for us to see from a divine perspective that God in heaven is looking down and He is working in the lives of people, but they don’t know it.

They can’t see. They just think it’s just something that happened when God may be working in your life. I believe that God gives every one of His children personalized attention. He knows exactly what you need. So he says here, in verse 5, then the Mariners were afraid and cried every man unto his God. Cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea to lighten it of them, but Jonah was gone. Where? What direction? Down again, down into the sides of the ship as he lay and was fast asleep.

He probably didn’t care if he lived or died. He probably didn’t care. You know what he said afterwards when they finally figured out, hey, where are you running from? And he says, you want this thing to stop. He said, just throw me overboard. I am your problem. That’s why sometime we say, well, we don’t want no Jonah on board because you know if you get too close to a person who’s rebelling against God, God may wind up chasing you because you’re too close to the person that God has to deal with.

So that’s why it’s not wise for young teenagers to hang around teenagers that cause trouble because if they get in trouble, usually they get in trouble too, right? Because of who you associate with. That’s why somebody would say, well, you show me your company, you keep and I can tell an awful lot about you because you seek to hang around people that inwardly you’re just like and therefore you make your decisions and it’s very revealing. But now notice what he says here.

He says you’re in verse 6, so the ship master came to him and said to him, what means thou, O sleeper, arise, call upon thy God? That’s what we’re doing. If so be that God will think upon us that we perish not. No, they don’t want to die, but they know now that it’s out of their hands and so they’re crying out to God. Did God know that these people on board this boat would do this when he brought that great wind upon the sea, this great storm.

You see God can use a rebellious person to get other people to seek the Lord. You know what was interesting yesterday and usually this doesn’t happen. Me and Gary and there’s these two guys and so we gave them tracks. And so we waited a little while and kind of bathed them a little bit. So finally I asked this one guy, says, do you know where you’re going when you die? He said, well, I hope I’m going to heaven. What does that tell you?

He’s not sure. Because if they’re hoping, that means it depends on them. So if it depended upon the Lord and they really trust in Him, they can say, I know I have eternal life. So anyway, it helps you this turn at. We let it go for a while and just walked on. Finally, he walked up to me and he says, I’ve got a question for you. Now, I’ve never had anybody do this before. He comes to me and he says, do you know where you’re going when you die?

Now, he wasn’t trying to win me to the Lord. He just wanted to know what my answer would be. Because when he says, I hope, I says, I hate to hear that. I had a few remarks, but I didn’t let it drop. So he comes and asks me, because he wants to know, well, would you say I know positively beyond the shove it out? I have eternal life. I can’t go to hell if I tried. And so it was interesting.

And so later we got them out and explained the wallet illustration. They both trusted Christ that they’re Savior. He just thought he was so neat. But I’ve never had nobody reverse the question on me, but he did so that was good God can use you in time anywhere and God can even take a rebellious person and God can use them and He can do it so Look what we have here Down here in verse 7 he says and they said everyone to his fellow come and let us cast lots that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us.

So they cast slots and the lot fell upon Jonah. Now did God know they were going to do this? Before He ever brought the storm? Well of course God knew this. And verse 8 and they said unto Him, tell us we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us. What is thine occupation? Well, kind of where do you do? Where are you from? Who are you? And when she comes to God, what is thine country? And of what people are out.

He said to them, I am a Hebrew and I fear the Lord. Oh, R.D. caps Jehovah. The God of heaven which hath made the sea and the dry, what’s he doing now? He’s witnessing. He’s telling them who he is, but he’s witnessing. Then were the men exceedingly afraid and said to him, why hast thou done this? For the man knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord because he told them. Why did you do? Here’s people that don’t know the Lord want to know why didn’t you serve the Lord.

Why didn’t you do what he said do? Why did you run from God? Look what you brought upon us by your disobedience. Well, you know, there might be some people one of these days that wants to know why we didn’t do more. And what if he had no wit to Nineveh? Think of all the people that would have never heard the truth if he had not gone. And it spared the whole city. But here you have… All this information that’s packed in here, it ought to help a person to realize we do make a difference.

If I didn’t think I’d make a difference, I would want to serve the Lord. But it makes a difference. I’ve watched over the years, what if I hadn’t gone to Bible college? And what if, if, what if I hadn’t gone to Colorado? What if I hadn’t gone to Georgia? What if I didn’t come down here? Doesn’t make it, you know how many of they said they had trust the Lord of last Friday night?

61. I think it was 61 trust the Lord because they had a few more of the college kids. They came back and they went on and they had a great time. So what if we hadn’t started the college? What if we hadn’t had those kids? What if they didn’t go so winning? They were doing this before I came here. Were they? No, but they’re doing it now. Do you make a difference? Can you influence people. You say, well those 61 people it really doesn’t matter.

It matters to them. And whenever they die and they get to go to heaven when they die, they’ll be so glad that those kids went out there and met them at some shopping center and they trusted the Lord. They’ll be mighty glad. Your life does matter. You know they got this little slogan going out around now. Black lives matter. Every soul matters. Every person, every little baby in a mother’s womb matters. It’s a life it matters. So anyway, that’s another sermon.

I have to preach that another time. But now notice what he says here. In verse 11, then said they unto him, what shall we do unto thee? That the sea may be calm unto us, for the sea wrath and was and petuous. So he taught him what to do in verse 12 and he said to them, take me up and cast me forth into the sea. That means he’s going to go what direction? Down. See, he ran from the Lord from the presence of the Lord and he goes down, down, down and he has to pay for his rebellion.

So now it’s affecting other people’s lives. So what are these doing? Throw me overboard. Can you believe that? Just throw me over to, is this one pathetic individual who is, he’d rather die than take the gospel to somebody. And we often say Jesus Christ would rather die than live without us. But we would rather die so that we don’t have to reach somebody. Sometimes we might get pretty pathetic. You can get caught up in a thousand things and a thousand causes, but we ought to be busy about trying to get many people as we can to trust the Lord.

That’s still what it’s all about. So you look down here in verse 13, nevertheless the men rode hard to bring it to the land. They didn’t want to do that, but they could not, for the sea wrought and was to peshrous against them, were for they cried unto the Lord.” Now L-O-R-D means Jehovah. See, they prayed unto their gods, now they’re praying to the true and living God that made heaven and earth, as Jonah told them about. So now they’re talking to the Lord.

We beseech the O Lord, let us not perish for this man’s life and and laid not upon us innocent blood, for thou, O Lord, have done as it pleased that you did this because it pleases you to chastise his child. Did you know that whenever you trust the Lord and your God’s child, you can live any way you please. But God is free to bring whatever consequences he want in your life, and that pleases God to chasten you because God still wants the best for you.

God doesn’t cast you away. He still wants the best, even for his rebellious children, God still works in their life because he wants to get people to come back to him and he works in their life. Now notice it. He says in verse 15, so they took up Jonah, cast him forth into the sea and the sea cease from her raging. Now we finally got peace. Jonah’s gone. End of the story, right? It’s the end of the story. Jonah is now, he’s gurgling up water, he’s underneath, he’s gone.

But you know, God did something else. That was miraculous when you get right down to it. So in verse 16, then the men feared the Lord, exceedingly and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord and made vows. You talk about some people here in the gospel, getting right, crying out to God, and now making sacrifices and making vows. This is all the result of a rebellious man. What could he have done if he had an No billion man. Now look in verse 17.

Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. As Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Now remember we had just been over there in the book of Matthew in chapter 12 verse 38, 39 where he talks about these people who had came to him, the Pharisees and says, give us a sign. And so he says, an evil and a daughter’s generation seeketh after a son. but there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah.

For his Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale of the great fish, even so must the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. So Jesus put his stamp of approval upon this story. And yet this is one of the stories that most people try to prove this is not real. This never happened. It’s just a story. It’s a made up story because you can’t get swallowed up a big old fish and they try to say how small his throat is and he can’t get through there and all that.

Listen, if God prepared a fish to swallow a man, do you think God would take into consideration how big that fish would have to be? I’ve had people say, well I don’t believe the Bible because I don’t see how God got all of those people and all of those animals in that little old work. I say, well, how many animals were there? Well I don’t So you don’t believe the Bible because you don’t know how God got all those animals in that little art.

But you don’t know how many animals were? Well, how big was the art? Well, I don’t know. So you don’t believe the Bible because you don’t know how God got all those animals and you don’t know how many they were. Into that little art, but you don’t know how big it was. I said, doesn’t that sound a little stupid to you? You see, you can believe truth or you can deny it. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

the earth. Believe that? I believe that. And if you can believe that, you can believe everything else God says. So He makes a statement here. Three days and three nights. I’m not interested in whether or not it was Jonah in the belly of the fish. Did he die? Or he was just there, you know, fighting for air. And here’s the stomach and he’s in there and we draw all over his head and he’s trying to stay alive and all this stomach acid in there eating at him.

If God put him in there, I believe God can keep him there. Or as some say, well, he went down into hell. Okay, well, if he went down into hell. But wherever he was, God brought him out in three days. And that’s the point. It was like a picture of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Hello, this is Peter Amato with Bibleline, and we hope that you’ve enjoyed today’s program. We’re so thankful your support of Bibleline, and we would like to offer you a free gift.

During this month, for a gift in any amount, we’re going to send you Dr. Arnold’s teaching series on the Book of Colossians. Paul writes to a concerned pastor about false teachings that are entering his church. more teaching that one could find additional and greater knowledge outside of Jesus Christ, which is not true. Paul teaches that Christ is the head and we are complete in him. This teaching series is certain to help you in your spiritual growth, so email, call or write to us today to receive your CD series on the Book of Colossians.

Our mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634, and don’t forget to include your mailing address as well. God bless you and thank you again for supporting Bibleline. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And now, a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound, and we will be changed.

caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.