Jonah chapter 2 and verse number 9. The Bible says, But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. Father, we thank you for the Word of God, and now as we look to the Scriptures and consider what you have to say to us this evening, I pray that you would open our mind, give us understanding and wisdom, Lord, give us illumination to be able to receive the spiritual things, that heavenly manna, Lord, that only you can give. And I pray that we might receive with gladness the Word of God, whatever the needs are that are present here tonight. In everyone's heart, I pray that you would minister to those needs. And I pray, Lord, that you would help us, Lord, to grow and, Lord, to be in fellowship with you and go out this week and be faithful to declare the gospel to those around us, both by our words and in the lifestyle that we live. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. The title of my message tonight is A Shouting Spell in the Belly of Hell. You ever had a shouting spell in the belly of hell? I have. I've been in some Baptist churches I felt like were the belly of hell. I've been in some church business meetings, Brother Charles, that I felt like might have just been akin to the belly of hell. Well, that's what Jonah's doing. Verse 9, he says, I will sacrifice unto thee, unto the Lord, with the voice of thanksgiving. Pray tell, Jonah, what you got to be thankful for? He's still in the well's belly. I don't know if you catch that by the context. But he said the Lord has remembered him. The Lord has heard him. Can I say to us tonight, just at the outset, whether our problems are ever fixed or not, God's still worthy of our praising Him. and giving him thanksgiving. This word thanksgiving, it's an interesting word. It's a word that is often translated in our King James Bible as praise. I don't know if you'll have it or not, but praise today is not what praise was in the Old Testament. One man said praise in the Old Testament was to get down on your knees, lift the palms up and out, and with a loud voice, praise the Lord. When's the last time you've done that? Oh, preacher, they'd think we were Pentecostal down here if we did something like that. I'd rather be more concerned of what God thinks about us than what the world thinks about us. Thanksgiving here, it's often used of a choir or a celebration, a procession of celebration. This is what David was doing when he came before the ark, when the ark came back in to Israel. Thanksgiving. shouting, praising God, getting happy in the things of the Lord. Now, it's one thing just to get happy over nothing. It's one thing to just shout for the sake of shouting and working something up, but it's altogether another thing for you to get a glimpse of who God is, and as a result of that knowledge, that illumination from God's Word, it affects you in such a way that you give thanks and praise unto God. I know you're not foreign to it because last year in the Bible conference, the Lord blessed in some of the services and some of us got a little happy. I've seen it where folk have been able to, because of the truth of God's Word that has been faithfully preached and declared, come to a place where they're able to, with their voice, with not only just their heart, but with their voice, their vocal cords, express thanksgiving unto God. And that's what here Jonah is vowing to do. He says, I will sacrifice with the voice of thanksgiving. That word sacrifice is a word that just simply means to literally sacrifice an animal upon the altar. That's the vivid picture that's set forth in that term, but he doesn't just stop with the term sacrifice. He goes on to say, I'll sacrifice with the voice. In other words, I'll put my voice upon the altar of bringing thanks and praise unto God for what He has done for me. The Bible tells us that in verse number 2, that he cried by reason of his affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me out of the belly of hell, cried I, and thou heard'st my voice. Shouting spell! Where? Where is he? He's in hell. That's what he says. Now I'd say being in the belly of a fish in the belly of a whale would be just about as close as you could get to being in hell without being in hell. And there are times in the Christian life when you and I can get just about as close to being in hell in THIS life outside of actually being in hell. And aren't you glad in those moments in our life God gives us SOMETHING to shout about? Something to be thankful for. Notice in our text it says in verse 2 that he cried by reason of his affliction, of mine affliction. We see the rod of God as it was lifted up against Jonah. Jonah was being afflicted by God for his sin and he knew it. And therefore he cried out to God for mercy. Trouble is not designed to lead God's people to cry against the Lord. It is designed to lead God's children to cry unto the Lord. If you're experiencing the rod of God's correction, you'd be wise not to utter a single word against God. You'd be wise, as brother Vincent instructed us in the devotion, be wise, have wisdom. You'd be wise to cry unto God for mercy. Affliction is always intended to draw us back to God, not to push us away from God. The psalmist in Psalm 119 verse 67 said, Before I was afflicted, I went astray. But now have I kept thy word." In other words, affliction taught the psalmist to draw nigh unto God and keep the Word of God. He would say in verse 71, It is good for me that I have been afflicted. That goes contrary to all common sense. Nobody wants to be afflicted, put under great pressure. And yet the psalmist said, it was good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes. Without the fire of God's affliction, oftentimes the lessons of the Word of God go unheard and unlearned. So we need affliction in our life. Verse 75 of that same psalm, I know, O LORD, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me. You know what's interesting? Jonah didn't pray during the great wind. He slept. He didn't pray when the sailors asked him to pray. He didn't want to talk to God then. He didn't pray when the lots exposed Him for being the CAUSE of the storm. But now He prays. God has His weapons to reach our stubbornness. He has His weapons to get to our hardened hearts and to prompt us to pray when He wants us to pray. Isn't that true? Doesn't God know exactly what bolts to turn? Doesn't He know exactly where to put us in life to get our attention? Someone said God's not a puppeteer. Well, He sure knows how to pull my strings. He knows exactly where to put His finger in my life to get my attention. Maybe He's getting someone's attention tonight. Maybe He's put His finger on your finances. Maybe on your job. Maybe on a relationship. God knows how to get your attention. Are you fighting against Him or are you submitting to Him? Are you crying out in anger against God or are you crying out unto God for mercy and help in this situation? Thought about the children of Israel in Numbers chapter 21 verse 7. They'd sinned against the Lord. And so God sent fiery serpents in among them. He knew what buttons to push. What was the result? Therefore the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned. We have spoken against the Lord and against thee. Pray unto the Lord. Pray unto the Lord. Pray, Moses, unto the Lord, that He take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. When the fiery serpents came, then Israel was interested in talking to the Lord and not about Him. II Samuel 12, 16. David didn't even realize that he was under the chastening hand of God until that old prophet Nathan came and stuck his bony finger right in David's face and told him, Thou art the man, David. And in verse 16, David therefore besought God for the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night upon the earth. When David was confronted with his sin, THEN he began to seek the face of the Lord. Why is it that so often we have to get into a similar situation of God's chastening hand and tragedy all around to get our attention for us to call upon the name of the Lord? I think sometimes we're just too much like Israel. And that's why these things are written, as the New Testament says, for our example. So we can learn from them, but sometimes we don't learn. Some folks say, Well, I didn't pray in the calm, so I'm not going to pray in the crisis. That's not being pious, that's being proud. That's thinking you can still do it on your own. Listen, we don't ever deserve to have any of our prayers answered. But when we're at the end of our rope and there's only one direction to look, look up. Look to God. Start calling upon Him. Seek Him with all your heart. And as you pray and you call upon His name and you seek Him and you confess that only God can deliver you, the amazing thing is He delights in answering those prayers. Prayers for help. That's where Jonah is. And it's all because of the rod of God. Prayer is the Christian's declaration of dependence toward God. If you're not praying, you're not depending on God. If I'm not praying, I'm working, I'm operating independently of God in the energy of the flesh, and I'm destined for failure. Jonah knew that only God who put him in the fish could get him out of the fish. I don't know what you may be going through tonight, but God put you there, and the only one that can get you out is the one that put you in. So you need to look to the Lord. You know what's amazing we see in these verses? Not only the rod of God, but the rescue by God. Verse 2, He heard me. Twice He says it as He cries out unto the Lord. And then in verse 6, I went down to the bottoms of the mountains. The earth with her bars was about me forever, yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God. You've had mercy on me, Lord. You've heard me. You're sustaining me. you're bringing me up this is resurrection language he's saying I prayed and God answered now let me tell you what Jonah didn't ask for it's amazing to me I don't know about you this may not be that profound to you but for me this is pretty big stuff he didn't even mention the fish I don't know about you, if I'm in a fish's belly, oh, I'm telling God about it. As if he doesn't know, I'm going to tell him. Make sure he knows. Lord, you know I'm in a fish right now, and I know you put me here, and I know you're the only one getting me out. I need you to get me out of this fish. He doesn't even mention. There's not a fish mentioned by Jonah in this prayer. We're told about it as a prelude to the prayer. Really it's almost as a commentary on the outside letting us know the information that's going on in verse number one of chapter two. And then again it's mentioned at the end of this chapter in verse ten when it tells us again as a commentary, the Holy Spirit commentating on the Word of God lets us know that that fish spit Jonah out! Jonah never mentioned the fish. In fact, we're told that in these verses, if I've read them correctly, he didn't ask anything from God. I don't see any requests. The only thing that we can even allude to being perhaps a request is that fact that he's crying and he's praying. We don't know what he's saying. That's not recorded in Holy Scripture. So I can tell you what Jonah didn't ask for. He didn't ask for a lot. Let me tell you what answer the Lord didn't give Jonah. He didn't say, now Jonah, I'm sorry for letting this happen to you. And Jonah, I promise you'll never have to suffer this way again. No, the Lord didn't say that to Jonah. Now that's what we would have wanted to hear. Isn't that what we still want to hear? When God does bring us out of a terrible situation, wouldn't we like to be able to say, Oh, I'm glad that's over. I'll never have to go through that again. Yeah, maybe you won't. Maybe you will. I know one guy, one time he believed in providence so much he fell down and he scraped his knee and hit his head on the pavement and he stood up and said, boy, I'm glad that's over. God had already purposed it from before the foundation of the world, he's going to fall and crack his head. Come on, it's alright to smile in church. Some of you are asleep, that's what it is. So then why did he pray and what did he get out of? Jonah was convinced that through prayer God could bring comfort to his heart even in the midst of crisis. I have no doubt Jonah wanted to be saved, but I'm just saying the text does not say that, but he wanted God's presence. When you get away from God's presence and God lets you know you've got away from His presence, that's where Jonah is. There is nothing like getting back to where the presence of God is. because the presence of God brings peace and joy and love and comfort even in the midst of crisis sometimes God helps us not by taking us out of the crisis but by taking the crisis out of us he gives us a calm assurance in the midst of the storm some of you tonight may be dealing with a crisis in your heart a storm that's raging And you may have prayed many, many, many times, Lord, please take this away. But God's answer may be no. But it may be what he told Paul, my grace will be sufficient for you. Look at that. 2 Corinthians, chapter number 12, Paul in the first part of that chapter is speaking of the great revelation he had received. The great things that God had revealed particularly and especially unto him and him alone, things that he was not even able to utter. And in light of that knowledge, that revelation, he says, "...unless I should be exalted above measure." In other words, unless I should become proud. "...For the abundance of the revelation there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me." lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Notice what Paul says, "...Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure..." Whoa! Wait a second! It's one thing to be okay with suffering, Paul, so that you can experience the divine strength and aid from God. It's altogether another thing, Paul, for you to say what you're saying in verse 10. "...Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities..." in reproaches, in necessities, in persecution, in distresses, for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then am I strong. God was telling Paul basically what Jonah is telling us from the text tonight. There's times when God is not going to remove the crisis in your life. He's not going to remove the thorn. You're going to have to deal with the difficulty, with the tragedy, with the pain, with whatever it may be. But God will give you grace to see it through another day. And because of the strength and the grace that you receive from God that otherwise you would not receive from God, you rejoice in that suffering, knowing that it's bringing you more into the Christ-likeness that God has ordained for your life. Isn't that amazing? We could look at Acts 16 again, the Apostle Paul stands as a great example and testimony of this very thing in Acts chapter 16 when they had gone to Philippi and had preached the gospel and then they had brought them into the court and they had judged them and then they had been brought there to the prison, in verse 23, And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely, who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in stocks. And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises. That was a shouting spell in the belly of jail. They're praising God! Now, I don't know about you, if I just got whooped unjustly for preaching the gospel and then thrown into the inner prison, you know, that's that place where they put the BAD guys, the hardened criminals. I don't know, would I be praying and singing? I'd like to think I would. Paul was. started praying and singing praises, shouting, thanking God that they were worthy to suffer shame for Christ's sake, and then all of a sudden, earthquake. And their bars opened, and their shackles fell, and God saved another soul, and the whole household followed in the faith. I'm simply saying, sometimes God's just not going to take away the pain and the suffering that we have, the affliction of this life, but He'll give us grace in the midst of it. Sometimes he's wanting to see if we'll sing a song of praise, give a word of thanksgiving even in the midst of that difficult season. And then we see, thirdly, the reconciliation by God. Verse four tells us, Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight, yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. Again in verse seven he mentions that holy temple. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came in unto thee and to thy holy temple. Now I think for Jonah, who was a Jew in the northern kingdom, while there was still worship being done in the temple in Jerusalem, I think that's probably what he had in mind. I don't think he's looking just to heaven and thinking about God upon His throne. I think he's looking to the temple. That's the place where worship happened in Israel. And I think he keeps looking back in his mind's eye of that place there in Jerusalem, no doubt the place that he's visited before. And he's thinking about all that's going on there. And he's remembering a faithful God who is willing to reconcile His people unto Himself by the shedding of blood. I believe he was excited about what he saw when he looked back at the temple. I think it may have even frightened him. Maybe he wondered had he gone so far that God didn't see or care about him. He looked again, and then he looked again through the eye of faith, looking there to that which pointed ahead to Calvary, to that which just revealed to all of the world that would look and listen that God requires the shedding of blood. That means He's a merciful and a gracious God, willing to receive sinners if they come by way of the blood. What was it about the temple that inspired him to pray? Well, the temple with all of its offering and sacrifices spoke of God's willingness to bring reconciliation to the sinner. Hence the statement that we have in verse 9, salvation is of the Lord. That's one thing that provoked him to prayer, reconciliation to God. He's praying, praying, knowing that God can reconcile him, give him another chance if he so chooses to do so. I think sometimes we think of Jonah, we don't think of a man of great faith. But I believe we see in these verses a man of great faith. I mean, normally when you think of Jonah, you first think of the fish, and then you think of Jonah's disobedience, but we don't associate often Jonah's life as being a life of demonstrating tremendous faith. And yet it does! Jonah confessed his sin. He renewed his commitment to God. Oh, before he ever gets out of the fish's belly. He didn't wait until his feet hit dry ground to start making promises to God. He said, God, whether you get me out of here or not, I recognize that you alone are worthy of my life, and I am looking to you. Whatever you choose is best for me is fine. You know, I think that's how just about every sinner has to come to faith in Christ. Lord, I know I'm a hell-deserving sinner. I know I'm on my road to hell. I know You don't owe me a thing. I'm going to look to You for mercy and grace. Whether You give it or not, I'm going to look. Being at the point where you see no hope in yourself and you're casting yourself upon Christ. And that's where a sinner's got to get to to get help from the Lord. Give up! Just give up. But also as Christians, sometimes God wants to remind us of this and so the memory of reconciliation caused Him to pray, but it also caused Him to praise. I will sacrifice with the voice of thanksgiving. He's praising God for who He is. He saw the attributes of God. He saw that God was providential, that God was omnipresent, that God, no matter where He went there, that God was all-powerful. He's the one that's put Him here, the only one that can get Him out, that God is holy, that God is sovereign. He's seen who God is in light like He's never seen before, even in the darkness He saw. and he's praising God for it. See, a lot of times our praise is caught up in what God's done for us, and there's nothing wrong with that, but we don't ever need to forget that our praise primarily should be caught up in who Christ is. That's what separates a lot of the new Christian music from the old Christian music. I'll just throw this out there. a lot of this more modern contemporary fluffy feel-good stuff it's all about what he's doing for you he's your buddy he can get you out of a jam but a lot of them old hymn writers man they were writing from a place of of deep experience with God and it wasn't so much about just what God was doing it was about who God was don't get me wrong I want to sing about what he's done for me in redemption But if we just get focused on what he's doing for us right now, what he's blessed us with in this life, well those things can be taken away. We can find ourselves in a crisis. Then what? We don't have a song to sing anymore? So he's praising God for who God is. Again, as he remembers reconciliation. And then finally, he is Vowing. He's making a pledge. He's promising some things in light of reconciliation. What does he say? He says, I will pay that that I have vowed. I have said I would do some things for you, Lord, and I have been unfaithful. I have fishtailed on you. And I'm recommitting myself to you again. I don't even know if I'm going to get out of this fish, but if you let me out of this fish, I will do what I said I'd do. Now God wants that kind of commitment from us before we get to the crisis. But maybe you're already in the crisis. It's a good time to surrender to him right now to do whatever he's told you to do. See, the way out of the fish's belly, or whatever crisis you're in, is to be a person of prayer, a person of praise, and a person of promise. And if you'll be those three things, God may just bring you out of that crisis. But if he doesn't, I promise you, he will give you grace and peace and strength in the crisis. until he gets you out of this crisis. This crisis of a fallen world when he comes the second time. A shouting spell in the belly of hell. I'll just give you my opinion on it. I believe it's good biblical advice. But when you find yourself in a crisis place, in a well's belly, Remember the Lord and praise Him. Shout the victory. Thank Him for who He is and what He's doing, even though you might not feel real good about it at that moment.