Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Podcast. He is speaking of what was in that fish's belly. Literally, he said as he describes it, the water's going, you know, all of God's seas, the billows are over him.

Here's this fish. I believe that that fish when he swallowed Jonah, I believe personally that he sunk as low as that fish could get. He was on the bottom, not only literally, but I believe that figuratively Jonah had hit bottom. And he's describing, he said, the weeds were wrapped around me. Notice if you would, 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? Can I have a good hearty amen right there? If you've been saved by the grace of God, that's exactly what God did for you. He brought your life up from corruption.

We're going to talk about that a little bit. O Lord my God, verse 7, when my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord and my prayer came in unto thee, into thy holy temple. Notice if you would, verse 8, 9, and 10. They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy, but I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving.

I will pay that that I avowed, salvation is of the Lord. And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon dry land. I'm sure all of us would love to see that scene when that fish regurgitated him out of being in that belly for three days. Could you imagine what he looked like?

And could you imagine what he smelled like? What a picture of God. He brings us out of a mess like that, cleans us up, changes us, and uses us for his glory. You know, the whole book of Jonah, there's so many things you could say about the entire book of Jonah, but I want you to understand something about Jonah. The whole point, I believe, is being used by God. The whole point of your life is being used by God.

Everything that had happened to Jonah and everything that Jonah had brought on himself, listen to me this morning, it was all so God could use him. Do you know that's the point of your life? That is the main purpose of your life, whether you know it or not. I don't care what your particular occupation might be and how important it is, I'm sure, but your whole point of your life, the reason for you to even function, the reason we were even created, was to be used by God.

That's what this is all about. Everything that God brought him through, everything that God allowed, everything that Jonah was trying to avoid, this entire progression from rebellion to restoration, everything was about being used by God. The question then comes up, alright preacher, what makes me usable? You might say, preacher, you know I'm sitting here in a service this morning, in a church service, but preacher, you don't know some of the things that have gone on in my life and you don't know some of the things I've been through, and you know what, I just don't know, preacher, if I'm usable like you put it. Well I want to give you some things from this passage, this particular passage, that really encouraged my heart.

Let me tell you some things that don't matter when it comes to God using. Number one, I want you to notice if you would, verse one and verse two, look if you will at these verses. Verse one says, then Jonah prayed unto the Lord, then Jonah prayed unto the Lord. Look at verse two, and said I cried by reason of mine affliction. My affliction, it means this is mine, I'm the one that caused it, I'm the one that brought it.

Number one, listen to me, your past doesn't matter. The fact, just that phrase, then Jonah prayed. That word then means something happened before that point. That brought him to this point.

Something happened over there that brought him to here. Then he prayed. That means this, there's a whole bunch of stuff in the past that wasn't real good on Jonah's behalf. But it brought him to that point and he decided from then on, now I'm going to pray.

Then Jonah prayed. Dear friend, I want you to know something, you might have been through a lot and you might have done a lot and you might have gone low, you might have done a lot of things in your life you regret. Hey, listen, join the club, sister. Anybody in here haven't done anything they regret? Don't you raise your hand and you'll regret that. Dear friend, look at me, your past doesn't matter. You see, it didn't matter, look at me, what this verse is teaching, it didn't matter really what happened then. Jonah prayed.

And dear friend, it really doesn't matter to me what has happened before now, or where you've gone, what you've done, what all might have transpired in your life. Look at me, dear friend, what is wonderful about our Savior is that even whatever past you have, God can still use you in the future. Jonah had initiated the rebellion, but God initiated the restoration. God came to Jonah and said, Jonah, I want you to go preach, and Jonah rebelled.

He initiated the rebellion. But God had that fish prepared and just wouldn't let Jonah go. And that fish, look at me, that storm that brought on all the problems, caused those men to throw Jonah over that ship, that fish was prepared, swallowed Jonah, he is literally in the belly of the fish, while he's praying. All those things had happened then, but when Jonah prayed to God, it was a new chance, it was a new story, it was a new opportunity, it was a new future, because God says, if you come to me, and you ask me for forgiveness, I'll forgive you.

Dear friend, your past doesn't matter. Number two, I want you to notice this, look at the second part of verse one, and the second part of verse two. It says, then Jonah prayed unto the Lord, notice this, his God, out of the fish's belly.

Look at verse two, I cried by reason of my affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me out of the belly of hell, cried I. Number one, your past doesn't matter, but number two, your place doesn't matter. It doesn't matter where you are. You can call on God in the middle of the ocean at the bottom, dragging the bottom in the belly of a fish, and God can hear you. Your place doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what place you're at in your life, it doesn't matter all the things you've done in the past, but dear friend, listen to me, you might say, but you don't know all the chaos that's going on right now, and you don't know what's happening to my family, and you don't know even what I've been through this week, look at me, dear friend, I'm here to tell you, if you can call on God out of the belly of a fish, and if you can call on God out of the belly of hell, I'm here to tell you, you can call on God here. You've come to the right place. You're at the very place where God can hear you.

It doesn't matter your place. I notice this first, that God called Jonah first, then cast him. See, God called Jonah, but because Jonah rebelled, then God had to cast him into the ocean. He would have never had to have cast him if Jonah had answered the call. Dear friend, you and I, it's amazing sometimes the turmoil we bring in our life, because we simply just won't answer the call from God.

Your place doesn't matter. I notice how Jonah put it, the belly of hell. By the way, if a big old nasty stinky fish swallowed you, and you're sitting in those intestines for three days, you would call it the belly of hell too. You know what's amazing here, this wasn't hell. It wasn't anywhere close to what hell's gonna be like. But it felt like hell to Jonah. And you know what, it might be you might not be sitting in a fish, folks, but some of you might be going through some circumstances in your life right now that literally feels like hell itself to you.

I'm here to tell you, it doesn't matter where you are, it doesn't matter how bad it is, God can hear you. And he is waiting and ready for you to call him. I notice this, that Jonah was able to go directly from the belly of a deep fish.

Look at me, I want you to get this. Jonah was literally, while he was sucked up into those intestines of that belly of that fish, stinky, slimy, dark, hot. And what is amazing about this whole thing is that Jonah was able to go directly from the belly of that fish to the throne of God.

That quick, he was down in the bottomless parts of that sea as far away as he could get just about, and he was able to go from there to the throne of God in an instant. Isn't that amazing? Well guess what? You and I get to too. I don't care where you're at, what you're doing, how bad it gets, you might be driving in your car, you might be arguing with your wife, you might be sitting in a family reunion, you might be at the job getting chewed out by your boss, and I'm here to tell you, in an instant you can go from whatever situation you're in right to the throne of God. What a privilege. Your place doesn't matter.

Because wherever you are, you can get to Him. Number three, I've got more I'm going to say about that, but for time we need to go. Number three, your past doesn't matter, your place doesn't matter. Number three, look at verse three if you would. It says, for thou has cast me into the deep, into the midst of the seas, the floods come pass me about, all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.

Things were bad. Look at verse five. The waters come pass me about even to the soul.

Wait a minute. Now, Jonah is getting a little bit different here. Now he is going from describing purely what happened physically to what is happening spiritually. He said that literally I'm in the belly of this fish and all the waves are passing over me and the billows and all this stuff, and now in verse five he says that it's even covered up my soul. Waters can't cover up a soul. What Jonah was saying here is yeah, there's waters covering everywhere, but I was drowning inside. I wasn't just drowning in my body.

I was dying from the inside. I had run so far from God, and I had gone so far to the point I never thought I'd go that far from God. And now he has time to think.

Have you ever been there in your life where you had time to think? I'll never forget when my dad had both hips replaced and he was out of meetings for about a year and a half, had two hip replacement surgeries. They had a whole year where my dad did not preach revival meetings.

And they were living in the basement apartment of brother Linus Newsom, him and Edna, and they were living down in that basement at that time. And here my dad's on a walker, had his hips replaced, you know, and he couldn't preach, couldn't go anywhere, couldn't travel. And I was over there talking to him a number of times, you know, go down and see him and different things. I'll never forget one day he was talking to me. I just don't think I've ever in my life had so much time to think. And he said it's almost scary when you begin to think about your life and what you've done and how little you've done for God. You know, dear friends, sometimes God arranges things in our life to give us time to think. Because we've gotten so busy we have forgotten what's important. And we've gotten so busy with life that we have overlooked what should have been looked at. And sometimes in life God arranges things and all of a sudden we look at things and we think, I've blown it. I've been so unwise.

I don't understand how I could have gotten so far away. And in verse 5 he says, literally, my soul is drowning. I want you to notice number 3.

Your past doesn't matter, your place doesn't matter, but number 3, your problem doesn't matter. I notice in verse 3, I believe it is, notice this, it says, for thou hadst cast me into the deep. Isn't that amazing? God didn't cast him into the deep. Those men did.

Listen, I don't know if you've noticed this, but you need to think about this. We're going to stop here just for a second because I'm going to give you some really good wisdom from God's word. Jonah was not mad at those men that cast him into the water. He knew God was sovereign. God was in control.

There's no reason to get mad at those men. God allowed it to happen. He said, God, you cast me into the sea. But you know what you and I do a lot of times? God's arranging things and God has a plan. But you know what we do?

We get mad at all the people in the plan. Yeah, but preachers so and so did such and such to me. Yeah, but that might have been what made you who you are. And that might have been what brought you closer to God.

And that might have been what gave you the power that you have in your life now. Yeah, but they did this and they did that. Listen, Jonah could have been mad a lifetime at all those guys that threw me over the ship.

How dare they? He had time to think in that belly. And he realized, you know what? There's no sense being mad at the mariners. It was up to the master. Dear friend, I'm gonna save you some effort in your life. You just need to quit getting mad at all the people. And you need to just submit to the sovereignty of God.

Hopefully you and I won't have to get in the belly for three days to learn that. What he says in verse three and verse five is this, I can't see you God. He says, I can't find God. Look at verse five. He says, the depth closed round about me.

The weeds were wrapped about my head. Look at verse three. He says, the floods come pass me about. All thy billows and thy waves passed over me.

What he is saying is this, I couldn't get beyond all these waves and the weeds and all this stuff. I can't find you God. I can't see you God.

Maybe this time I literally went too far. Maybe, and have you ever been there where it seems like your prayers weren't getting anywhere and you couldn't seem to find God anywhere in your life and everything you're trying to do is falling apart? And this is what Jonah says. He says, I can't even find you. Dear friend, your problem doesn't matter. You say, preacher, you've said all this, but my problem is it doesn't matter what your problem is. Yeah, but I don't know how God's gonna fix it.

It doesn't matter what your problem is. God can fix it. And what I find about this is it doesn't matter what your problem is, God knows exactly where you're at. Old Jonah couldn't find God, but God found him.

Old Jonah couldn't see God, but God saw him. And sometimes God's watching you and you can look around because all of a sudden you realize I left God. I got so busy with my things and I've wandered off and where's God at now? I need you, God, now. Hey, I didn't know I needed this and I went down this road and I did this with my life and I just, you know, I wanted what I wanted, but now I can't find you and God, I need you and I can't find you now. Dear friend, he's watching you the entire time. Your problem doesn't matter, number four.

Your position doesn't matter. Look if you would at verse six. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains.

The earth with her bars was about me forever. That's pretty low. Your place doesn't matter. Say preacher, you don't know where I have ended up. You don't know what happened in my life, some decisions that I've made.

And preacher, in fact, I don't even know if half these were decisions I made. I don't know how I got here. But I'm low and you just don't, I don't know what happened. How did I become this person? How did I end up here?

How did all these things that have happened in my life, how did they happen? I want you to notice if you would, verse six. Yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption?

Your place doesn't matter, folks. I don't care how down and low you get. He can always bring you up from corruption. One of my favorite verses in the Bible. Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For the Lord upholdeth me with his hand.

I want you to notice for sake of time, your position doesn't matter. Number five, your powerlessness doesn't matter. This is a big one, look at verse seven if you would.

This is what Jonah said. When my soul fainted within me. He's describing a powerless situation. I literally did not know what to do. I had tried everything there was to do. I'm sure in the belly of this fish, he had tried to run everything through his mind.

He had tried to think of everything, justify everything, somehow make sense of it all. And literally he's stuck in this belly. He can't get out. He's confined. There's nowhere to go.

It's just you and your sin. And he got to the point that he said, my soul has literally fainted within me. I've got no more strength left. And dear friend, that's exactly where God wants you to get to. Is when there's nothing of you left.

And where he has to take over. Your powerlessness doesn't matter. You say I've tried everything and I just can't seem to fix it. You're not gonna fix it. God's gonna have to fix it. You say well preacher I appreciate all the encouragement. Romans 8 38 says for I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Your sin can't separate you from the love of God. Your circumstances can't separate you from the love of God. You can be in a fish in a belly down in the bottom of the sea and that can't even separate you from the love of God. It's everywhere you go. Dear friend you can fight it all you want to but God loves you.

Yeah but so and so they let me down. They might have but God loves you. I say all right preacher Mr. Know-It-All. All those things don't matter what does matter.

Glad you asked and we'll go home. Number one your prayer matters. Look if you would at verse one and verse seven. Then Jonah prayed.

Notice this. Unto the Lord his God. Let me tell you something interesting there in our Sunday school class we did a study on this about a month or two ago about the different names of God and the doctrine of God and different things. Now listen to me what Jonah here said is very interesting. Look if you would at verse one. He said then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God. That word Lord is the word for master. That word God is the word Jehovah. This is what Jonah said in verse one. After all he'd been through then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God.

What that is saying is this. He prayed unto the master my Jehovah. When Jonah prayed he said this God I know you're the master but you're my Jehovah.

You're my savior. You are the Lord but you're my God. And dear friend I'm here to tell you that God is God and he is master and he is Lord but what is important today is this is he your God. Jonah stated his position as Lord but he got personal with Jehovah. Jonah's in that belly he said listen Lord I know you're Lord but you're my Jehovah. You're God but you're my God.

You said you'd always listen to me and I need you now. And God showed up. I want you to look if you would at verse seven.

I love this. When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord and my prayer came in unto thee into thine holy temple. I remembered the Lord and dear friend you and I can get so busy we can think of everything else but him but Jonah said hey I remember the Lord and my prayer came to him.

It made it through. Your prayer matters. I find it interesting here that the mariners in this story listen to me. In chapter one the mariners the guys on the ship they were trying to get Jonah to pray to his God so that maybe the storm would stop but if you read chapter one through a hundred times you'll never find that Jonah ever prayed to him. I still wonder this day if Jonah had prayed if God would have stopped that storm I don't know. But they all prayed to their gods and then they came to Jonah and they said listen would you pray to your God maybe he'll stop this storm and we never find that Jonah did. He was so stubborn and so rebellious. He was so far from God that he couldn't even pray and I have met people like that they have gotten so cold that they can't even pray anymore.

Dear friend that's a dangerous place to be because I'm going to tell you God's not going to put up with that long. But now that God had brought some things into his life the mariners didn't have to ask him to pray anymore. He wanted to pray. Then Jonah prayed. Hebrews chapter five verse 15 says this I will go and return to my place God says till they acknowledge their offense and seek my face listen to this in their affliction will they seek me early.

It's amazing how affliction will make you turn to God. Your prayer matters. I want you to notice secondly your promise matters. Look at verse eight and nine. Jonah says this they that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. In other words he says those that promise something and don't keep up with it they are literally forsaking the very mercy that God has given. Look at verse nine but I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving I will pay that I have vowed salvation is of the Lord. Notice three things here he promises. Number one he promises to sacrifice. He says I will sacrifice unto the Lord. That means this God I'm going to change some things I'm going to give up some things I'm going to change my priorities I'm going to change my attitude I am going to sacrifice my life.

God I am going to do that for you. And dear friend you and I ought to sacrifice for Him. And by the way I look at it differently. I don't think anything we do for God is a sacrifice.

I think it's a blessing. He always gives us more than we give Him. But you know what he's saying. God I will sacrifice. Number two he promises to be thankful. He said I will sacrifice notice this with the voice of thanksgiving.

Apparently Jonah had gotten to the point that he wasn't thankful in his life. Huh. Huh.

Well. Anybody else in here get to times in your life where you're not thankful? How many times have we driven to church in a car and we didn't even thank God for that car?

We complain about it. Apparently Jonah had gotten so far away from God because at some point he had stopped giving thanks. And dear friend as soon as you or I cease from being thankful we are in danger of rebelling. Because then we're going to get complacent. Then we're going to think we deserve more and we've earned more.

And before long we're going to be far away from God. Number three he promised to keep his word. Notice what he says I will pay that I have vowed. You know what the Bible says it's better for you not to vow a vow than to vow a vow and break it. Jonah says God I'm going to sacrifice. I'm going to be thankful and I'm going to keep my word. Dear friend your promise matters.

Number three this is great. The providence of God matters. Notice if you would verse and I like this look at chapter one just turn your page look at verse 17. Obviously we've read this verse but look at it. Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. Now look at chapter two look at the end of verse nine.

I will pay that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. Look at verse 10. And the Lord spake unto the fish and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.

Look at verse six. The Lord lifted him up out of corruption. Dear friend over and over and over again in Jonah's life we see the providence of God. When he ran from God God had a fish prepared. When he said hey I am sorry God lifted him up out of corruption. When Jonah said God I'll serve you now he had that fish.

Vomit him up. Everything Jonah did everywhere he turned every circumstance was already in the providence of God. Dear friend look at me there are some things in your life that you cannot control. But everything in your life God can't control. God bless you.