Good evening, everyone. Take your Bibles, please, if you will, and turn with me to the last verse of the first chapter of the book of Jonah. Verse 17 is where we will pick up our reading tonight. Someone may have wondered why I didn't preach about the last verse of chapter 1 last night, because, in my opinion, the chapter heading didn't fall in the right place. That's my opinion. I really believe that verse 17 of chapter 1 really fits with everything that happens in chapter two. It's interesting. We have four children. We haven't mentioned this to you. We have four children, all of which are missionaries, all of them serving with Baptism in Missions. But our second daughter and her husband work in Romania, and they are working among the gypsies near the city of Oradea. They are planting a church They just have purchased property to build a building. God's blessing there. But Luke, our son-in-law, just late last year, was preaching through the book of Jonah. And he happens to agree with his father-in-law on where it ought to stop. So he preached through verse 16, and he stopped with Jonah being thrown overboard. That was it. And when he finished his message and prayed, one of the Egyptian men said, you can't stop there. See, he had never heard the story in his life. And he said, what happens? And Luke calmly said, you've got to come back next week to find out. And he said, but he went back the next week, this fellow whose name is Tarzan was there waiting and couldn't hardly wait to get through the song service to find out what happened to Jonah. Well, you know the story, I believe, but what I want you to see in the story tonight about Jonah is what God did in his life. A lot of the story of Jonah is told in chapter 2 is kind of skimmed, but I would say to you that chapter 2 was really the turning point, and it's where Jonah really begins to change. I was thinking, as Kristen was singing right there, all for Jesus, all for Jesus. was not Jonah's hymn. Jonah's was, get me away from him because I don't like what he wants to do with my life. You remember yesterday morning we talked about Jonah being that patriotic prophet. He was given a mission. God even gave him the motive for the mission. He says, I want to show my mercy to those who do not know me, even though their sin has come up before me. But Jonah, being as patriotic as he was and not wanting the Ninevites to repent, because God had given that window of 40 days and he knew how gracious God was. He went the opposite direction. So last night we saw him as that perverse prophet, or that one going in the opposite direction in full-blown rebellion. And we saw him there on the ship, fast asleep in the midst of a storm. And I commented last night, I believe that today in the spiritual world, and especially in our country, we are in the midst of a spiritual storm. And we as believers cannot be asleep. And God with his children, if we truly are his, will do with us as he did with Jonah. He will be chased. We will be chided. We will be challenged, and if we're not careful, we'll be chastened. And that's where Jonah ended up as we left him last night, as he stood on board that ship and said, I am the reason for everything that's happened here. It's my fault. I'm running from God. Not one word of repentance, just a flat-out declaration. I'm not on speaking terms with God. They did, I said to you last night, I believe the sailors on that boat showed more compassion than he did. He had caused it. Yet, they did everything to bring the ship to safety and could not, and finally said to Jonah, what do we do? And he simply said, chuck me overboard. And that's where we left him last night. Now I wanna pick up the reading in verse 17 with you this evening, where it says, now the Lord, had prepared. That word prepared will occur several times in the next chapters. This is the first. Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly. I want to stop right there and we're going to pray. similarly to how Jonah prayed. Heavenly Father, we are thankful for your word. So very easy, as I said last evening, to look at the characters of the Bible and second-guess them. I certainly do not condone the sin of Jonah in any way, but it's so easy for us to be critical, yet so often our responses to your guiding in our life are very similar to these. And I believe it's why you've put them in Scripture, because we're so much like them. And your Word is there to help us to see not just Jonah, but to see ourselves in the mirror of your Word. And when we are not living as we should, that the Holy Spirit would take that illustration given on the pages of Scripture and cause us to examine our own lives. And I pray tonight in these verses that for me are probably the most difficult in this book. I pray that you would help me to explain them in such a matter that will draw us to a place where we come face to face with what Jonah faced on that particular day. So may you move in our hearts and we will thank you in Jesus name. Amen. Many of you have heard of the man named Augustine. He was a theologian. Augustine in his early days certainly wouldn't be called that. He was a bright individual. He was very intelligent. And he had been witnessed to. And he would pray like this. These are his own words. He said, Lord, I want you to forgive me of my sin, but not yet. And then time would go by, and then he would say, Lord, I want you to forgive me of all of my sin except this one. And finally, he came to that day when he said, Lord, I realize I need to be saved from all of my sin, and I need to become yours. And then it was that God was able to use him. I would say that prayer is the very thing that drives missions. Yes, missionaries have to have support. You've heard Joe describe that this evening. Fundraising in missions is not a fun thing. I've been there. I've done that. It does take money to make missions work, but I believe the true work of missions is powered by prayer. We've heard that right here. He's asked us to pray for that ministry in China, and I hope you'll take up that challenge and pray for that great country. But prayer has moved missions for a long, long time. But I would say to you that prayer was so very important in the early church, and even before the early church had its beginning, as the Lord was working with his disciples and they heard him pray. It is not that there wasn't prayer before. Jonah was long before Jesus in the sense of his existence on this earth. But the disciples being around Jesus when they heard him pray understood something. They didn't really know how to pray right, so they say to him, Lord, teach us to pray. Now, I believe they probably were looking for a method. You know, we always want those exact words, those silver bullets. Tell me just exactly how to do that. And that may be what the disciples were looking for, but instead of giving them a method, He gave them a model. And if you study the Lord's Prayer as given to us in the Gospel of Luke, you will understand as you study that prayer, it's all centered around the motive. Every part of the Lord's Prayer is centered around the motive for which we pray. For example, give us this day our daily bread. What is our motive? We are dependent fully upon God for His provision. Forgive us our sins. What's the motive? We are sinners. We cannot save ourselves. So motive is so very important in our prayer. And as we look at Jonah's prayer tonight, you're going to see a motive behind that prayer as he calls out to God that literally is going to change his motive as he will finally go on to Nineveh. So that's where we're headed this evening, and I want you to follow along with me. It's all about perspective, if you will. It is about perspective. I heard a story a few years back. I don't even remember where I heard it, but it impacted me. There were some tourists and they were in France. They were walking along a sidewalk and this huge building was going up and they noticed several bricklayers that were working there. And they stopped, they were able to speak French. They asked the first bricklayer, what are you doing? To which he responded, I'm laying brick. I have 500 of them to do today. They went a little further down the sidewalk and they saw another man and they said to him, what are you doing? He said, I have the tremendous privilege to be erecting what will be one day one of the most beautiful art galleries in the world. Now they were both laying brick, but they each had a different perspective. And Jonah's perspective is about to be changed in a tremendous way as we look at these verses tonight. First of all, I want you to note with me the site, S-I-T-E, of Jonah's prayer. As we look at Jonah the praying prophet, the site. Now, I read those verses. It says that God prepared a fish. I believe that Jonah thought, when he was thrown overboard, that was going to be it. He had no idea there was going to be a fish out there. But God knew where Jonah was going to be at the right time, and he had that fish prepared to swallow Jonah at that point. And that's where Jonah will begin to pray. Now, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on the fish. You'll have to excuse my language. Only people who are ignorant, excuse me, I don't use that word a lot. I have it said a lot about me, but I don't use it about other people. Only people that are ignorant, non-understanding, maybe that's a better word, would think there are not fish large enough to swallow an individual. There are many. Just in 1912, I read a story of a fish that was 45 feet long, the width of its mouth was 38 inches, and it weighed 15 tons. It was caught. And when they opened that fish, they found another fish that it had swallowed that weighed 1,500 pounds. I've not met many people who weighed 1,500 pounds. So if it could do that, could it swallow a person? Yes. But here's my point. I bring that in because someone will give that argument. But in the book of Jonah, follow me now, the focus is not on the fish. We get so wrapped up in those things. The focus is on the man in the fish. That's who you're following in this book. Now, I want you to notice that verse 17 tells us that Jonah was on the inside of that fish three days and three nights. Now, there's been a debate for a long time, and maybe you are aware of it, maybe you are not, but there has been a debate among theologians for years about what happened to Jonah inside of that fish. Was he preserved for those three days? Or did Jonah actually, was he swallowed by the fish, and did he die, and did God resurrect him from the dead? You ever heard of that debate? Your pastor probably has, but there have been many who've discussed that. I would say to you that I'm probably in a minority. of people on this passage. I will explain the reason why I believe the way I do. But I personally believe that Jonah was swallowed by the fish. I believe that God could have preserved him alive in the fish. If he could preserve three men in a fire, and he could preserve Daniel in a lion's den, there's no question he could preserve Jonah in a fish. However, I am in that small minority. I believe Jonah actually died in the fish. And you will see as we go through the text, I believe, at least I hope you'll give me the latitude to explain to you why I believe that's true. The major reason I believe it is true is this. Over in the book of Luke, when the Jews asked Jesus for a sign, Prove to us you are the Son of God. They wanted a miracle. He said, no miracle is about to be done. This will be the sign to you that's proof that I am God. Just as, now follow that, just as Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the tomb three days and three nights. Now, if the illustration is to hold true, and I didn't give the illustration, Jesus himself did. If Jonah was kept alive in the fish, that certainly would give support to many who hold to the swoon theory. That Jesus really wasn't dead, he was just in the tomb and came out. I believe Jonah died and I believe chapter 2 in his prayer will reveal why God let him die and that God then raised him from the dead and sent him on to Nineveh. You follow with me as I move through this. Here is the substance of Jonah's prayer. There are several elements in this prayer as we move through it where you'll begin to see a change. You know, everything that happens in our life, I believe anyway, has a purpose. I believe God is sovereign. He doesn't bring anything into our life, any person across our path, that isn't there for some reason. We may not recognize it, but it's there. Everything in Jonah's past life is going to be coming back to him in vivid color as he is in the belly of this fish. So here's the substance. Notice first with me in verses two through six what Jonah reaped. Let's read. And said, this is Jonah's prayer. I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me. Out of the belly of hell, cried I, and thou heardest my voice. For thou hast cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas, and the floods compassed me about. All thy billows and thy waves passed over me. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight, yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. The waters compassed me about, even to the soul. The depth closed me round about. The weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains. the earth with her bars was about me forever, yet thou hast brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God." Now, you remember when God said to Jonah, As we looked at it yesterday morning, the sin of Nineveh has come up before me and for their sin, I am going to judge them. I want you to go tell them that judgment is coming and they have 40 days to decide. I told you yesterday, the 40 days was the kicker for him. He didn't want them to repent. He wanted them to die in their sin. He wanted to get even. And we think that's pretty bad. But I want to ask you a question. Most of you were alive in this room in 2001 on September the 11th. When several men hijacked airplanes, flew them into buildings in our country. As a matter of fact, just last summer, Judy and I and all of our family, we were over in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. There's a memorial there of all of those who died on Flight 93. The only names of the individuals who died in that flight that are not on that memorial wall are the names of the hijackers. And I believe that's probably rightfully so. And there are many who would say they got what they had coming to them. As I stood there and I read all of that, and I thought about that, yes, they did. But I'm grateful to God that I don't have what's coming to me. I'm every much the sinner. of any of those individuals who hijacked any of those planes and what they did. Because in God's eyes, one sin against God makes me wicked. And I should never, as a believer, be happy or rejoice in the death of the wicked. I understand the imprecatory Psalms. I know David prayed some of them. But as I read the New Testament, the New Testament believer is to be an individual of grace and forgiveness. I am in no way condoning what those hijackers did. I hope you know me well enough by now to know that. But my heart ought to go out to those men. They did what they did because they did not know God. And I have to ask myself if anyone ever spoke to them about our Savior. Jonah was so thrilled that the Ninevites were finally going to get it. But I want you to look what he said in verse 2. I cried out of the belly of hell. It's the word Sheol in Hebrew. Its equivalent is Hades in the New Testament. You will remember in Luke chapter 16, we have the story told there of the rich man and Lazarus in Hades. And he sees all of the suffering that is taking place where that individual is. And I have to wonder in my mind, when Jonas says that, I think it's more than just, than it's just figurative language. Because he already said the belly of the fish and then he says, out of the belly of hell I cried. I think he was given the opportunity to go to see exactly what happens to an unsaved person when they die. That would be a shell shocker to him. And I wonder in my own heart if it might not help some of us to really grasp What it means, when an unsaved person dies, and they go to a place of eternal, that means never ending, torture, Jonah got to see what he was wishing upon those very Ninevites, except he was the one that was out of God's presence. If you look with me, it says in verse three, You had cast me into the deep. Notice how he said that? You cast me here. I thought it was the mariners who cast him overboard. You see, Jonah, real quickly now, begins to understand it's God chasing him. He said, you cast me into the deep in the midst of the seas, and the floods compassed me about. All thy billows and thy waves passed over me. Now look at verse 4. Then I said, what? I am cast out of thy sight. Do you remember from yesterday what it was that Jonah wanted so badly? He wanted to be out of sight from God. He didn't want to be in God's presence. But now he's in a position that he's in now, he realizes what it means to be out of way from God. And if you will look, as we continue in this passage, He says, the waters compassed me about, even to the soul. The idea there is, I was hemmed in even to my soul. The next verses, as you read in verse six, I was at the bottoms of the mountains. The earth with her bars were about me forever. Language that's saying I was locked in with no escape. How often Do you think of individuals that you know that are without Christ that will one day be in that position? Totally apart from God, no way to be with him now, locked in, door shut, bolt put, never again. He felt that in his own soul. I think possibly Jonah thought, I've crossed the line. I'm totally out of God's presence. And it, for a minute though, in verse four, there's this glimmer, so slight, but this glimmer of hope. He said, I'm cast out of thy sight, yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. The very mercy that Jonah didn't want shown to the Ninevites is the very thing he wants more than anything else right now at that moment. It's interesting as I was studying through these verses, there are at least four different quotes of Psalms in Jonah's prayer, four of them. You think Bible memorization isn't important? In this crisis moment in his life, it was the scripture, the word of God that came back to Jonah's mind, and he said, I didn't want to be in the presence of the Lord, but you know what? I know the presence of the Lord dwells in the temple back to Jerusalem. And as bad as things are, I will at least look back, but then he goes back plunging down again as he talks about being there forever. But I want you to look at verse 7. You've seen what Jonah has reaped. He reaped what he wanted for someone else, but now look at what Jonah remembered. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord. He remembered Jehovah. the God of the covenant, the one who said to Abraham, or excuse me, to Moses, I am the eternal one. Jonah, in this mess, the biggest mess he's ever been in in his life, remembered God. If you think again with me of that story that's related in the book of Luke, of the rich man and Lazarus, he remembered God as well. There'll be a lot of memory of God with those who die, but for them it will be too late. But Jonah remembered the Lord, and he says, Aren't you glad that when we pray, we don't have to be in the temple to get to the temple? We can pray from anywhere we might be. And in Jonah's case, in the belly of the whale, or excuse me, fish, be careful there, in the belly of the fish, and also, I believe, as he cried from the depths of the place of departed spirits. He thought it was it, but he said, I cried to the Lord, and you heard my prayer. Notice what Jonah realized in verse eight. This is the lesson learned. He relates the prayer, but he says, this is what I've learned in this whole thing. They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. The vanity of life, his own self-will of being a channel of mercy, following his own vanity, his own path, He was now a candidate for the judgment of God. I'm not talking about the loss of salvation for Jonah. He was a prophet of God. But what I'm saying is he's taken himself out of a place where instead of being a channel of mercy, he's a target of God's chastening. And I don't know about you. I don't want to ever be in that place. I don't want to be in a place where God has to chasten me and take me through things just to get my attention, just to teach me a lesson that I could have gotten if I had simply listened in the beginning. And Jonah realized that salvation was only going to come from God alone. He said, I had abandoned mercy with following my vanity. But I've come to understand that what every individual needs is the mercy of God on his life. And in verse 9, I want you to notice with me the surrender in Jonah's prayer. He said, but I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving. Do you notice the sacrifice that's mentioned there? In the Old Testament, when did individuals bring a sacrifice? when they had come to the realization that they had sinned. And they brought the sacrifice to the altar and the priest offered it there as a memorial of a recognition of sin and a turning of sin and the asking of forgiveness for that sin. Jonah says, I am going to bring the sacrifice with a voice of thanksgiving. I think Jonah probably was thankful that the Lord had heard him and that the Lord was going to deliver him. Watch what he said. I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. And I've got to give Jonah credit. He hasn't had much up to now. But there's two things for which I will give Jonah credit. Number one, I give him credit for realizing that he needed to pray to God. On the ship, he was reluctant to pray. In the belly of the fish, he was ready to pray. And the other thing I will say about Jonah that I really appreciate about him, he said, I've made a vow and I will keep that vow. I've thought a lot about that. You know, Ecclesiastes 5.5 talks about vowing. And it says, it's better not to vow than it is to make a vow and not to keep it. We'd be better off not promising God anything. That's better than making a vow and not keeping it. Jonah will keep his vow. I wonder how many of us at some point in our life have said, Lord, if you'll get me out of this or if you will do this, then I will do this for you. I love the ministry of Christian camps. Judy's father, my father-in-law in Peru, was very instrumental in the beginning of a camp ministry there. And there have been hundreds of Peruvian men and women who have gone through that camp, who today are Christian leaders in that country. Praise the Lord for them. But neither her dad nor I would be fools to think that every vow that was made at a campfire at that camp has been fulfilled. And there may have been a time in your life when you promised the Lord that you would do something and you didn't do it. At least Jonah, recognizing what God has done, says, Lord, you deserve this much from me. I vow to do it and I will. And then notice, verse 10, as we wrap up this evening, the salvation in Jonah's prayer. As God, as Jonah called out to God, it says, and the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land. Aren't you glad that God is true to His promise that when we call upon Him, He will answer us? I don't know. Kind of quiet. I am. I'm grateful that when I call out to God, he answers my prayer. I see it over and over and over again. I don't know what I would do without prayer. And we now see Jonah come to his senses, and he's going to keep that vow, and God now puts him pointed in the right direction. Where did Jonah end up back on dry land? You'll have to come back tomorrow night, and I'll tell you that. Here's my question for you tonight. What I want us to leave here with this evening is the somber realization of what happens to people when they die without knowing Christ. Jonah says, I was out of your presence. My soul, it was overwhelmed. The earth had locked me in. I thought I was going to be there forever. It might just be that the church in America has forgotten how real hell really is. I believe if we really could grasp how bad hell was, or is, would change the way we interact with other individuals. When Jonas saw it, it would change him forever. Would he be perfect? No. He had lessons to learn, which we will look at on Wednesday, but it certainly changed his outlook on death. And my question is, what is it going to take in our lives for us to understand the importance of knowing God's mercy? I can say this to you. Every one of us is here this evening because of the mercy of God. If God was not merciful, we would have all died long ago. But he is long-suffering. He is patient, just as he showed with his servant Jonah. And he wants that mercy to be extended to others. But the method that he has chosen to do that is through us. That's why those of us who are here this week as missionaries, it's why we go where we go. Places that are difficult, yes. But I would say to you that none of us have faced anything like Jonah would face in walking into a city of more than a million people and telling them judgment was coming. But he had gotten a glimpse of the mercy of God. And so he will walk in, and he will give that message. And I pray that we will be as faithful in keeping our vows as he will. But as I said, my greatest prayer, that which will change us forever, is to get a glimpse of what eternity is like without God. Pray with me, would you please? Heavenly Father, What a terrible thing Jonah had to go through. And yet he did. And when he was in that place, totally separated from you, the thing that he thought that he wanted, he realized to be out of your presence was a very precarious place to be. Lord, his soul was totally compassed about He felt locked in as if there was no way of escape. But then he remembered, there is a God in heaven that is merciful. And if one will simply call out to that God of heaven, he will respond. I am grateful for that, Lord. I remember the day that I did that. I know there are people in this room who right now are thinking of that day when they did that. but there are people around this world who have never heard that message to know that there's a God who answers prayer. And I pray that you would give us a vision of what their eternity will be without Christ, and may that be our motivation to reach out to them, that coworker, that neighbor, maybe that family member who needs to know our Savior. Our heads are bowed, our eyes are closed, and no one is looking around. Of all the messages in the book of Jonah, this is the most difficult one. It's so very, very somber. But it may be tonight that God is speaking to someone's heart, and you'd say, Steve, I realize as I've listened to the message this evening that my heart has grown somewhat cold. It's been a long time since I thought of What happens to an unsaved person? My thought has been, well, they're without the Lord, but I really haven't contemplated seriously. Not only are they without the Lord, they're without hope for the rest of eternity. God has spoken to me this evening about my coldness, and I don't want to be that way. And I want God to stir me as he stirred Jonah. I want God to remind me that He is a God of mercy, that there are individuals around me who I need to be a witness to. Maybe you'd be honest with the Lord and you'd slip up your hand and you'd say, you know, Steve, I think I've really lost sight of just how bad the punishment is for those who are without Christ. and I'm lifting my hand, asking God to renew in my mind and my heart that eternity, and that it will make me a better witness for him. Is there someone tonight you say pray for me? Thank you, thank you, thank you. Lord, you've seen the hands that were raised. I know you spoke to my heart as I studied this passage of scripture. So often we can know all of the theology and not really make it Go out to the application. I've been reminded of people to whom I need to be a better witness. I pray that you'll help me. For these who've raised their hands and maybe some who didn't, I pray that you would help them. May instead of us being the obstacles of God's mercy to others, may we be those channels of mercy that you want us to be. I pray in Jesus' name.