Gospel—Tim Roach
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Good evening.
Let's start this evening by singing hymn #4.
Christ is the Savior of sinners. Christ is the Savior. For me, the Savior of sinners will sing the 1St 2 verses.
Christ is the Savior of.
Grace.
Straight.
The lady had a Dalmatian puppy.
The lady had a fear of birds, especially when they're flying indoors.
She had a phobia of flying fowls.
Well, a bird got into the basement, and she didn't know it. She went into the closet. There was a little door on the floor of the closet, and the bird came up and when she opened the closet door, the bird flew out and it frightened her.
She went and opened the outside door so the bird would hopefully go out of the house and then she ran into the bedroom.
With the puppy and close the door to protect the puppy from the bird.
But the bird would not go out. We're just flying around the house.
And so the lady got brave and she went to the kitchen to get the phone and called the neighbor. And the neighbor came with a tea towel and caught the bird and put it outside.
There was danger in the house.
But there is a way of escape.
Let's sing the last two verses of #4.
Justice.
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A young man, he worked all night and then he worked all day and then he worked again all night and he thought he could manage without sleep. The father received a call the next morning. Hi dad. I can't get my car out of the ditch. And so the father came to the rescue.
The young man had fallen asleep and he woke up with a problem.
Thankfully there was a solution.
Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping in your sins? That is a problem because you are going to crash and burn. You need to wake up to your problem now. Jesus is your solution. Let's go to the book of Jonah.
Jonah Chapter one and I want to talk about Jonah tonight.
Jonah chapter one, Verse one.
Now the word of the Lord came unto Joan of the son of Mittai.
The Lord called Jonah. He called him to go to Nineveh. The people of Nineveh needed help, but they didn't know that they needed help. They were bad sinners. They would tell lies. They would pinch their brother or their sister.
They would scream if they didn't get what they wanted.
They take a cookie off the plate.
When mom wasn't looking.
They would fight, they would argue, and they would yell at each other.
They were selfish and they wanted everything for themselves and they did some other very bad things and they lived like there was number God.
They were bad sinners and judgment was coming. They needed help. And so God called Jonah to go and help them. Jonah, you need to go and help these people. They need a way of escape. I have a message of warning for them. I want you to take them this message.
Have you ever needed to call for help? That is why we are here tonight.
Because you need help. You are a bad Sinner and there is danger coming for you any day now.
The wages of sin is death.
And the lake of fire is waiting for you.
Do you know that you need help?
You need to call the Lord Jesus for help.
You can pray to God, Lord Jesus, I am a Sinner. I need help.
Lord, save me.
The Lord Jesus wants to save you, and He's waiting for you to call upon him, And he will save you from your sins, and He will save you from the punishment of your sins, and He will give you.
Eternal life. The people of Nineveh. They needed help, but they didn't know it. But they would soon find out that they needed help.
Jonah. He was also going to learn that he needed to call on the Lord for help to save him from his trouble.
Jonah one, verse two and three.
Lord said, Jonah, Arise and go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before me. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish.
From the presence of the Lord and he went down to Joppa, and he found a ship going to turd, ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare thereof and went down into it to go with them under Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
The Lord had something for Jonah to do. God had a message of warning for Jonah to share with the people of Nineveh.
And these people were in danger of God's punishment because of their sin.
But Jonah, he did not listen to God. Jonah hated these people of Nineveh. They were his enemies. And Jonah was selfish. He did not want God to give a warning to Nineveh because he thought they deserved to die. But God is not willing that any should perish. He's not willing that anyone should go to hell. So God gives everyone in the world.
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Witness.
Of God, so that all have an opportunity to believe in God and to trust him.
Jonah. He did not obey God. He ran the other way.
He ran away from God. He got on a boat to sail across the waters.
Everyone here tonight, I think everyone here tonight knows the gospel. You've heard the message of God's love and of Christ crucified, and some of you have heard it many times.
But why? You have not accepted Jesus as your savior yet. Why? Why are you waiting? Why are you resisting? Why are you running away from God?
Do you think you can get away from God and avoid eternity? No, you cannot. You cannot get away from God. It is appointed unto man and to woman. And child wants to die.
In other words, you have an appointment with death.
After death will come the judgment. You are preparing your body with your sinful life to be sentenced to eternal destruction in the damnation of hell.
You cannot avoid the judgment unless unless you accept Jesus. Jesus took the punishment for you so that you can go free.
Verse four, Jonah one.
But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty Tempest in the sea.
So that the ship was like to be broken.
Jonah was sailing on the boat to get away from God, but he could not get away. God followed Jonah. God sent a big wind to rock Jonah's boat. You cannot get away from God, read verse 5. When the Mariners, then the Mariners. That's the people that were working on the ship. The Mariners were afraid and they cried every man unto his God and cast forth the wares.
That were in the ship into the sea to lighten it of them, but Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship.
And he lay and was fast asleep.
The people working on the boat, they prayed to their gods because they were afraid, but their gods could not hear them. Their gods could not answer their prayers.
Who do you pray to when you are afraid? When you have trouble?
Sometimes children say they have my teddy bear, or it's my Bunny, or my blanket, or my friends, and these are all nice to have, but they cannot answer your prayers. Only God can answer your prayer.
The false gods of the ship crew.
They could not answer their prayers. Jonah, who had the one true God. He was not praying. Jonah was down in the bottom parts of the ship, where it was dark. He was sleeping. Jonah was angry. He was discouraged. He was depressed. And when people get depressed.
They want to sleep all day. That was Jonah.
And when they're depressed, they start thinking about ways to get out of their problem and justice. Like Jonah, sometimes they think about suicide and life becomes very dark for them.
But God does not want to leave you in the dark.
It's time to wake up and call upon God.
Verse six, Jonah, one. Verse six. So the shipmaster came to Jonah, and said unto him, What meanest thou sleeper arise, call upon thy God? If so be that God will think upon us that we perish not.
The captain of the ship.
He found Jonah. What are you doing down here? Sleeping. Wake up, Jonah. Pray to your God. Maybe he will be able to.
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Save us.
The message for you tonight is a Waco sleeper. It's time for you to be saved in Jonah One verse 9 and 10.
Jonah said unto them, I am in Hebrew, And I fear the Lord the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land. Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that Jonah fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.
It is a very dangerous thing to run away from God. It is dangerous for you, and it's dangerous for the people around you. Look at Jonah. It was dangerous for him, and he got everybody else on the boat in danger because of his sin, because he was running away from God. And if you run away from God, you will begin thinking badly about God, and you will think badly about other Christians, and you will discourage.
Others.
You will drag your friends down with you. Do you want to take your friends down? To hell with you.
Don't do it. It's a dangerous game that you are playing.
Verse 11.
Then said they unto Jonah, What shall we do unto you? That the sea may be calm unto us? For the sea wrought, and was tempestuous?
By this time, God was really rocking Jonah's boat. Jonah knew that he was in trouble because he had run away from God. He was disobedient. He knew that he had sinned against God, and he knew that God was following him.
Do you know that your lives?
And you're pinching your sister, and you're snitching your cookie and your selfishness.
It is sin. It is sin against God. Yes, it's a sin against your brother or your sister.
But it's a sin against God. But we don't always think of it that way. I'm just taking a cookie, but it's a sin against God.
Jonah verse 12 and 13.
And he said unto them.
Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea. So shall the sea become unto you. For I know that for my sake this great Tempest is upon you.
Nevertheless, the men rode hard to bring it to the land, but they could not, for the sea rot and was tempestuous against them. Tempestuous means it was very stormy, with high winds and big waves, and it was so bad that the men were afraid. They lived their life on the waters. They knew what storms were like, but they were afraid of this storm. No, they didn't want to throw Jonah overboard into the water.
They did not want to be responsible for Jonah's death, and so they rode hard. They tried to get to the the out of the storm. And you might think that by rowing hard you can try, and you can do what's right. You can work hard to honor God and please him, but you can't do it. You think maybe it will help me get to heaven if I do some good things, but there's nothing you can do to satisfy God about your sins.
Except accepting the Lord Jesus Christ and his death.
For your salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ, he went down into the waters of death.
For you.
Jonah. I like to look at him as a picture of the death of Christ. You know, the man on the ship, they could not be saved unless Jonah went down into the waters of death.
That's like the Lord Jesus. He had to go down into the waters of death to take the punishment.
For your sins, verse 14.
Wherefore they cried unto the Lord, and said, We beseech thee, O Lord, we beseech thee, Let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood. For thou, Lord, hast done as it pleased thee.
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So they took up Jonah, and they cast him forth into the sea, And the sea ceased from her raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord, and made vows.
They didn't want to throw Jonah into the water, but they realized it was the only way. So they picked Joan up and they threw him into the water.
Splash. And there he was in the water and the waters became very calm. There were animals on the boat.
And they could use some of these animals to offer a sacrifice to God.
And then they made vows and they made promises to God. I don't know what they promised because we're not told, but they made promises to God in their vows. Maybe they said God, if you save us from this storm, we will believe that you are the one true God.
Do you fear the Lord Jesus Christ?
Do you believe that Jesus is the one true God?
Will you accept Jesus as the sacrifice for your sin?
You might make vows to God and promise God that you will be a good person.
But none of that will save you. Only believing and accepting the sacrifice of Jesus Christ can save you. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin.
Verse 17.
Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish 3 days and three nights.
As the men were enjoying the calm waters, they could look over the edge of the ship.
They could see Jonah down there, floundering like a fish in the dark waters of the sea.
And as they are watching, they were astonished to see a big fish come along, and come up to the surface and come closer and closer. And they saw the big mouth open, and it swallowed. Joan Jonah was gone from sight. They would see him no more, and they sailed off in the calm waters.
Imagine the terror in their hearts as they saw Jonah being eaten by the big fish.
It was a very fearful experience for Jonah too, as he was floundering in the water.
He could see the big fish approaching him, and the big mouth open and coming towards him, coming closer and closer. And Jonah went down into the mouth of the fish and down the gullet and settled down in the darkness of the belly of the fish.
You know, Jonah wanted darkness down in the in the bottom of the ship so he could sleep through his depression.
And now he was enveloped in the inner darkness of the belly of a fish, and his soul was exceeding sorrowful even unto death.
If you reject the Lord Jesus again tonight.
You have the prospect of being enveloped in outer darkness in the bottomless pit of hell, and you'll have inner darkness in your soul.
An outer darkness for your physical body as you flounder in the eternal destruction of the lake of fire.
The only thing Jonah could do was pray.
He did not pray to my bunion.
He did not pray to the false gods.
Jonah called on the eternally existent God, the Lord of heaven and earth. He prayed to the one who created the fish.
Jonah chapter 2.
Verse one.
Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fishes belly, and said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord. And he heard me out of the belly of hell, cried I, and thou heardst my voice.
Jonah knew.
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That the Lord was still following him.
He knew the hand of the Lord was there, ready to save him. And so Jonah cries to the Lord, and the Lord is here. He's ready to save you tonight. He's waiting for you to call upon him. The Lord heard Jonah cry out for help.
And God was going to answer Jonah, but not for three days.
The Lord was going to save Jonah in God's time.
Do you hear the Lord Jesus calling you today?
He says Come, come. I love you. I have loved you with an everlasting love.
I am going to follow you until you come to me.
Come.
And I will give you rest. I will take away your anxiety. I will calm the waters and the fears of your soul. And I will give you peace. Believe in me. Trust me. Come to me, and I will give you eternal life. And you will never perish. And nobody will be able to take you away from me. Not your friends, not Satan.
And not even yourself. You cannot get out of the hands of Jesus. You are safe.
Forever.
Are you saved? Can you remember when you asked the Lord Jesus to save you?
Do you believe on Jesus?
If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you shall immediately be saved.
And if you trust that the word of God is true, and you believe that Jesus means what he says.
You can have assurance that you are saved and you don't need to worry about it again.
Trust Jesus. Trust Jesus with all your heart and you can know.
That you have eternal life.
Verse 5.
The waters compassed me about even to the soul. The depth closed me round about. The weeds were wrapped about my head. This verse reminds me about the Lord Jesus at the cross. The Lord Jesus went down into the waters of trouble when he was punished for our sins, and while he suffered on the cross he called for help. He said, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helping me?
There is no answer from God.
There was number help for Jesus. He received only the punishment and the death that we.
Deserve.
Christ died for our sins.
When I was a boy.
There was a fisherman. He had three sons.
Mark, Amos and Robin.
And their father was a fisherman and the mother had died and they had no one to take care of them. And so there's another brother and sister in the assembly there. They took them into their home. And these young boys, they're about my age and they grew up with with us and and we got to know them pretty well. And when Amos got older, he became a fisherman also. And one day he was out in his ship way, I don't know how many miles, 50-60 miles out in the ocean fishing.
And when you're fishing and you need a bucket of water, sometimes you lean over and you get the water.
But if the boat's moving a little bit, it can pull you in. And somehow Amos went overboard in the Atlantic Ocean, the cold waters of the North Atlantic.
Those waters are so cold you don't have much time before you go under.
Most of the fishermen there don't know how to swim because it won't do them any good.
But Amos?
He had no answer. He could call, but there is no one to answer. And Amos went down under the waters and he went down, down down to the bottom of the ocean.
He still at the bottom of the sea. That was some years back.
Jonah 2 verse six I went down to the bottoms of the mountains.
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The earth with her bars was about me forever, yet thou hast brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God.
Now, Jonah, he went down in the water.
Amos who went down in the water. You are down in the water, buried in your sin.
The waters are washing you away into the lake of fire, where you will never have an opportunity to get out. At that point, it's game over for you.
When I was a boy.
That was bad.
And my mom, She had a wooden spoon. She had it in the kitchen drawer. Sometimes I'd hear my mom searching through that drawer, looking for that wooden spoon. Then I'd hear the footsteps coming up the stairs. And as the punishment came closer and closer.
I would quickly pad my bottom side with extra clothes.
But mom would always get me on the leg below the padding. Ow ow ow that really hurt.
But imagine if it never stopped.
Oh.
For eternity the screaming and the torment of the flames of hell will be unbearable for you.
The judgment of hell that God had prepared for the devil and his demons is far worse than a wooden spoon.
God has no other choice for where to put you if you reject Jesus.
Verse 7.
When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came in unto thee into thine holy temple.
Jonah remembered the Lord. He was inside the fish's belly, where it was so dark. But he remembered the Lord, and he called for help. I have sinned. Oh Lord, save me.
And the Lord heard Jonas prayer his cry for help.
But now we have a problem.
The problem is sin.
Are you a Sinner?
You may say, well, I'm not sinning right now.
But when you do not obey.
For when you are selfish, you do that because you are a sin.
Whether you're sitting right now or not, you are a Sinner and that's why you sin some of the times. All of the times.
Some people are bad sinners.
Some people are good sinners.
But your goodness is useless.
Being good cannot save you. Every Sinner needs to call on the Lord Jesus to save you from your sin.
Verse 9. But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of Thanksgiving.
I will pay that, I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.
Jonah knew that he was going to be saved by the Lord, and you can know that you are saved too.
You don't have to fear when things don't go right, you can know that you have eternal life.
Verse 10.
And the Lord spake unto Jonah, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.
This verse is another proof that God is the creator. This world was made by intelligent design. The Lord spoke to the fish and the fish obeyed the Creator.
The fish vomited Jonah unto dry land.
That sounds disgusting. That is so humiliating for Jonah.
We have all vomited before and it's not nice.
Jonah became a piece of Vilnius.
And he had to be humbled like this so he could be saved.
And when we are in our sin, we are no better than a peace of vomit.
There is no good in us. There is none good. No, not anybody. Not you, not me. We are nothing without Christ. But you know Jonah, he did not care about the humiliation of becoming a piece of vomit. In his humiliation his judgment was taken away. And so Jonah was happy to be out of the fish's belly and on dry land. Now he was ready to go and serve and to do the will of the Lord.
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In the city of Nineveh. And so the Lord called Joan again and said Jonah go to the city of Nineveh.
Verse 9 says that Jonah was thankful. We also need to be thankful for what the Lord has done for us. You know God wants to save you.
And he wants to give you eternal life so that you can be a worshiper of God the Father.
And of his Son Jesus Christ, I want to read one final passage of Scripture.
In Romans 5 verse 8:00 and 9:00.
Romans 5 verse eight and nine. God commends his love toward us.
In that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us much more than being now justified by His blood.
We shall be saved from wrath through him.
Let us sing #11.
The first two verses of #11.
Will you?
In verse 3.
Will your anchor hold in the floods of death when the waters chill cold chill your latest breath? I can just think of Amos as he was in those cold North Atlantic waters.
And that cold water chilled.
His latest breath, if that was you.
There's a lake just out here.
If you slip into the water and you can't reach the bottom.
You might panic.
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Amos, he went to the bottom.
And he didn't. He will not come out until the Lord comes to call us to heaven.
Are you ready? Are you ready for the Lord Jesus to come? If the Lord Jesus doesn't come soon, he promises he will come soon, but there's a chance that you could die very easily.
You need to be ready to meet the Lord Jesus.
Let's sing the last verse.
Will your anchor.
If you want to be saved tonight, or you want to have assurance of your salvation, or if you have any questions, ask your mom. Ask your dad.
Ask Ask your friend and if you want to you can come and talk to me. I'll be here around for the this weekend.