Taught In A Strange College (Part 2)

Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Abendroth. Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the scriptures, verse by verse, with No Compromise.

Jonah in the Belly of the Fish

You know what this is like? This is like the opposite of birthing. Now I don't know for sure, but the language tends to be like this. When you're born out of your mother's womb, you go through a very confined, narrow space.

A space that's so small that you get forced through it. And one of the things that evolution has come up with, by the way, I don't know how many billions of years it took for evolution, which is not a thing to figure this out, but that's beside the point.

It's when you come out of the birth canal, your lungs get all the water, the amniotic fluid, pressed out because you're squeezed through this narrow spot. And now it's like birth except the opposite kind of birth, where who knows, Jonah's lungs could be full of water, he could be on the way down, you know, blub, blub, blub, down he goes, and now the fish comes and rescues him, and through the throat, through the gullet, through the stomach, he's squeezed in, that's the language, and probably the water gets squozen out of his lungs.

Is that a word? You Florida orange juice people would know. I'm gonna die, near death, and now I'm rescued. I wonder what it was like, kids, the slimy inside of a stomach, slippery, and I'm gonna use a word now that I've never used in my 17 years of preaching in Bethlehem Bible Church, snotty, weird, phlegmy, that's what it was, the acid, the bleached out face, restricted area, what you cannot think about is like Pinocchio and Geppetto, is that his name?

Geppettio, edit that out of the tape. Like little fire, roasting marshmallows, hanging out, you know, in the belly of the fish there with Pinocchio, that's not what's going on. It's smashed in, it's tight, it's like death, it's like being buried alive.

Verse 7, when my life was fainting away, it's never too late to repent. I remembered Yahweh, and my prayer came to you. No longer out of your sight anymore, get out of my sight, my prayer came to you, into your holy temple.

I remembered, Lord, you're faithful, I remembered you're kind, I remembered you're merciful. What I didn't like about you towards the Ninevites, I kind of like towards me, thank you, confidently approaching God.

I don't care if you're in a lunar rover, I don't care if you're in the bathyscope, your prayers are heard by God. And then he praises God, see it in verse 8, those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.

Well, what's he doing here? He's comparing, he's using contrast as a good teacher. I trust in the living God, I don't trust in the dead gods, the idol gods. Those mariners when I first met them, they're all crying out to their God, it didn't do any good.

Trusting in the real God, and so by comparison he says, God is not an idol, he's not a God who doesn't hear. Psalm 115, their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands, they have mouths but they don't speak, eyes but they don't see, ears they don't hear, noses but don't smell, hands but don't feel, feet but don't walk, and they do not make a sound in their throat, they don't talk.

Those who make them will become like them, so do all who trust in them. Then the psalmist says, oh Israel, trust in the Lord, he is their help and shield. Oh Aaron, house of Aaron, trust in the Lord, he is their help and shield.

Oh Jonah, trust in the Lord, he is his help and shield. Oh Bethlehem Bible Church, trust in the Lord, for he is your help and your shield. He accentuates the difference between the vain God and the living God found in verse 9.

Verse 9, probably the key verse in all of Jonah, the key verse in all of Jonah is probably found in verse 9, and Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, it took a strange university, a strange college to learn this truth.

He had to learn this truth in the belly of a fish. I wonder if you've learned this truth. And now chapter 2 ends the way chapter 1 ends. Chapter 1 ended with pagans repenting and doing the right thing, and now Jonah repents and does the right thing.

Faith without works is dead, here are the works of a believer. Not to earn salvation, but because you are saved. But I, with the voice of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. Why do you talk about sacrifice?

Because the wages of sin is death, and then you have to have a substitute. You kill something in place of you. You sinned, you should die, and so then you confess that I should have died and I'll kill the animal instead, because God has a great mosaic economy that gives us a flicker of what goes on when John the Baptist sees Jesus and says, behold the dove of God, behold the ostrich of God, no behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and what does Jonah do?

But with the voice of thanksgiving, I'll sacrifice to you. It's the language of sacrifice. What I have vowed, I'll pay. What's he saying? I'm sure he's saying, God when you charge me and ordain me into gospel ministry, good news ministry, I told you I would go wherever you would send me, I would be like Isaiah, I see the glory of God, I see the holiness of God, I see my own sin, I've experienced divinely initiated grace, and my response is, here I am, send me.

And I, Jonah, stood before you, and I saw your holiness, I saw my sin, I experienced grace, and I said I'll go anywhere, I'll preach anywhere, any place, any time, and then I found out it was the Ninevites, and I said no, and now I repent, and now I'll change, and now I'll offer a sacrifice for my disobedience, and what I vowed to go preach to Nineveh, I will pay.

And now we come to the theme of the Bible. Yes, it's temporal in Jonah's case, but the spiritual truth is incredible. Often, you'll have truths in the Bible, redemption, God redeems Israel out of Egypt, because the megaphone is shouting to you from the New Testament, it's not just a physical redemption, it's a spiritual redemption, and it's the same thing here.

And here is the theme of the Bible. Here is the theme of Jonah. Here is, salvation belongs to Yahweh. Salvation belongs to Yahweh. John Newton said of this, and can he have taught me to trust in his name, and thus far have brought me to put me to shame, I made a vow and I'm going to keep it.

Salvation belongs to the Lord. Maybe some of you know this hymn, I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore, very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more, but the master of the sea heard my despairing cry, from the waters lifted me, now, love lifted me.

I better not sing anymore, okay, edit that out of the tape. Now, some of you don't know that hymn because you're not over 50 years old and love the Gaithers, but I know it, and I guess I'm over 50. Souls in danger, look above, Jesus completely saves.

He will lift you by his love out of the angry waves. He's the master of the sea, billows his will, obey. He your Savior wants to be, be saved today. The theme of the Bible is, salvation belongs to the Lord.

Jonah's experiencing it, and Jonah knows, I'm about ready to get going to Nineveh because I have a message for them, that salvation for the Jews and the Gentiles is from the Lord. Verse 10, and, N-A-S, then.

It's like the second he comes to his senses fully and realizes salvation is from the Lord, then God does something, and what does he do? The Lord spoke to the fish, Yahweh speaks to the fish, the Creator speaks to the creation, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.

I mean, once he finally comes to the end of his proverbial rope, okay, uncle, your will be done, salvation belongs to you, it's about your glory in my life, not about my glory in your life, okay, I give, salvation is all about you, glory is all about you.

Salvation, glory, majesty, transcendence, this whole world is about you. And then, God speaks to the fish. Now, when I was a kid, I watched a lot of Arthur Gordon Linkletter. Arthur Gordon Linkletter was known by another name, and what was his nickname?

Art Linkletter! Who here remembers Art Linkletter? Alright, everybody with gray hair, amen! At least you've got hair. Canadian born, American residing, TV personality, radio personality, he had all kinds of shows on, People are Funny, House Party, and he had a very popular show, and I usually don't let my kids say this word, but I'm just saying the name of a title in a book, I mean, in a TV show, Kids Say the What? Darnedest Things.

Well, Art Linkletter asked a little child, what is your favorite story in the Bible? The story of Jonah and the whale, and how Jonah was swallowed by the whale. Art Linkletter, on Kids Say the Darnedest Thing.

What do you think the lesson of that story is? I ask you the question, what's the lesson of Jonah? And the little child said, people make fish sick. You're getting closer. The theme is, the story is, just what was earlier stated, salvation is from Yahweh, and salvation belongs to God.

That's the theme of Jonah. And the second it came to his mind, I mean, think about it, whatever tight space you're in, I'm not going to try to spiritualize the passage, but the principle is true. You're in a tight spot, you're seeing the world through your problems, and to use Grandma Evie's language that I love to lift, is, you know, when you're looking at the world through your problems, everything's messed up.

You're gazing upon your problems and you glance at the Lord. Jonah is written in a lot of other books, Genesis 37 -15, so you're gazing upon the Lord and you glance at your problems, and in the belly of the fish, he says, salvation is from the Lord, and then there's a release, literally.

And the text says he was vomited out, spewed out, the word means disgorge. I mean, can you imagine? One man said, the fish was glad to do this, three days of undigested Jonah. He's talking to an animal and the animal obeys.

He's sovereign over everything. He's sovereign over the wind, sovereign over the mariners, sovereign over everything. Matter of fact, if I didn't think clearly, I'd say salvation belongs to the Lord. And the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey and she said to Balaam, what have I done to you that you've struck me these three times?

Balaam said to the donkey, because you made a mockery of me, if there had been a sword in my hand, I'd have killed you by now. Donkey said to Balaam, am I not your donkey on which you have ridden all your life to this day?

Have I ever been accustomed to do so? And he said, no. The God of the universe has animals talk, has animals obey, because salvation belongs to the Lord. When I was a kid, I loved the animal kind of people, the people that could walk with the animals and talk with the animals and do Doctor Dolittle things with the animals.

And I like Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. Why? Because when you live in Omaha, Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom has it, especially if your mom works for Mutual of Omaha. I'm like, mom, are you going to bring home an animal today?

Different show. God of the Bible, the sovereign God, it's so obvious. I've said this 20 times and I have to say it more because I just can't get it through my skull half the time. You read Joseph, it's obvious God's in charge.

You read Jonah, it's obvious God's in charge. You read Matthew about the life of Christ, it's obvious God's in charge. And then we have problems in our life and things come up and we're like, our theological house of cards just caves.

It's so obvious in the Scripture because it's not obvious in our lives. And the way you honor the Lord is to say, salvation belongs to you. You're sovereign. You've ordained this. I want to think rightly about you.

Help me worship you when I'm in trouble. Help me honor you when I've got a trial. Help me bow down to you and speak your praises even though my 10 kids are just murdered, or killed rather, Job. Salvation is of the Lord.

It belongs to the Lord. I ask you the question, have you learned that? Have you learned that in a certain college? You learned it from the Bible, salvation belongs to the Lord. And that means salvation does not belong to education.

Salvation doesn't belong to church membership. Salvation doesn't belong to baptism. Salvation doesn't belong to being good. Salvation doesn't belong to my parents taught me. Salvation doesn't belong to the church, the culture, the Reformation, mass, tradition.

Salvation belongs to the Lord. Turn your Bibles to Titus chapter 1. Let's think about this for a minute. We've talked a lot about temporal deliverance in Jonah. Oh, there's some spiritual deliverance.

I think those sea mariners from the language of the text seem to be saved. The Ninevites from the language of the text seem to be saved. But let's talk about your salvation for a minute. Now if I were to ask you to tell me about your salvation, give me your testimony, what would you say?

Well, I want you to incorporate this into your testimony. I don't mind, matter of fact, I love if you give your testimony and you say, I was under the law of God that said do this and live and love God with your heart, soul, mind and strength, your neighbor as yourself.

And I just couldn't keep those laws, but there's a man, the God man named Jesus, He perfectly obeyed in my place. And for all my sins, He died on the cross and was raised from the dead in great confirmation of what He's done.

And you talk about the Savior. I love that. You've got to talk about Him. I don't mind that you say, you know, in 1989, on an October day, God opened my heart by the power of the Holy Spirit. He regenerated me.

He made me alive. He gave me a new heart. He made me a new creation. He did all that. Matter of fact, you have to talk about that as a testimony. The work of Christ, the life of Christ, the work of the Spirit, the life of the Spirit.

But I want you to even go farther back in time when you give praise and say to yourself, salvation belongs to the Lord. Titus chapter 1. Paul, a servant of God, a doulos, a bondservant, a slave, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, sent out by Jesus personally.

Why are you in ministry, Paul? I'm in ministry for three reasons. One, for the sake of the faith of God's elect. In other words, I'm in ministry because I know there are elect people who haven't believed yet, but I know they will through the preaching of the Word.

I'm in it for justification. I know God has chosen some, and through preaching, weak as it might be, God often, regularly, wonderfully saves sinners. Why are you in ministry, Paul? I'm in ministry for justification, for salvation of sinners.

He goes on to say, and their knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness. Paul, why are you in ministry? I love to see people get saved. Paul, why are you in ministry? Number two, I love to see Christians grow.

This knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness. I know Christians grow through the Word, and I love to see them mature. Does Paul like church growth? Yes, he wants people in the church to grow, mature.

Why are you in ministry, Paul? I love to see people get saved. I love to see them grow in Christ. By the way, don't you love those things too? I do. And then he says, in hope of eternal life. I'm in ministry because people get saved through preaching, people grow through preaching, and God glorifies people too.

He won't lose one. If God saves someone, no one, Satan, our people, can undo what God has done, and God glorifies people. When God starts a good work, He finishes it, and I'm in ministry for these three reasons, Paul said.

I'm in it for justification, sanctification, and for glorification. That's why I'm in ministry. And then what does he say? Which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began. I just was on the island of Crete a couple years ago.

You know what I noticed about the island of Crete? I talked to the people who lived in Athens. What do you think about the Cretans? And they didn't say these words, but they could have. They're evil, they're liars, and they're lazy gluttons.

The name Crete comes from liar. What island do you live on? Oh, liar island. And Paul says, listen, Cretans may lie. Cretans might be Cretans, but God never lies. And God made a promise. Take a look at the text.

He promised before the ages began. What does the text not say? The text does not say, He promised you. He promised the church. He promised Israel. He promised the seraphim. He promised the Nephilim. He promised Satan.

He promised angels, demons. He just promised before the ages began. Who was in existence before Genesis 1 -1? Nobody. What was in existence before Genesis 1 -1? No thing, nowhere, no place except the triune God, the Father, the eternal Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Now, salvation belongs to the Lord. Calvary included, yes. The life of Christ included, yes. When I got saved, regenerated, converted, yes. But I want you to know that salvation belongs to the Lord even in eternity past.

Look at the text, promised before the ages began. From eternity, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit make a pact, a promise. Call it whatever you want. Use the text here, a promise. To whom did God make the promise?

It was an inter-Trinitarian promise. Salvation belongs to the Lord. It makes 2 Timothy 1 -9. Preach in technicolor. Saved us and called us with the holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus.

And the exact same words from Titus 1, before time began. It makes sense of Ephesians 1. Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love, He predestined us.

Salvation belongs to the Lord. Have you learned the lesson? Have you learned that truth? Say, yeah, but I've got issues with responsibility, or issues with duty, issues with freedom of the will, issues with puppets, issues with robots, issues with all these kind of things.

Friends, all those truths are important to work through, depending on the definition and how true they all might be or might not be. But all those issues cannot be figured out until you learn the lesson that Jonah learned in the belly of that fish.

Salvation belongs to the Lord. And once you get that right, you get everything right, you'll say, how do I pray for an unsaved person? If salvation belongs to their will, you're smoked. If salvation belongs to the Lord, God, save them.

Open their eyes. God, humble them. God, give them repentance. Give them faith. God, like when You saved me, would You save them? Salvation belongs to the Lord. How about when you praise God? You're like, well, I'm only going to praise God with part of my heart, soul, mind and strength because I, after all, let God save me.

I made the initiation. I'm the one that did part of it. And so I'll take 20 of the credit. I'll praise God with 80 of my being. Because you know, when I get to heaven, I'm going to fist bump God and say, you know, we did this.

Salvation belongs to the Lord. Once you get that settled in your mind, then everything else, how does freedom come in of the will? Free agency, duty, responsibility, the next and the next. Friends, if you struggle with those issues, it's because deep down, I want to say it kindly, but you still haven't bowed your knee to the doctrine that says salvation belongs to the Lord.

Show me someone that believes that and then they'll see these other issues in the light of that truth. If you've got a telescope and you put the eyepiece to your eye, you see some things down the street, magnified and brilliant.

And if you take it and reverse it, what do you see? When you put the big lens to your eye, what do you see? Answer? Your own eyelid. You see like your eyelashes. You think you're like some kind of female model or something with all these huge eyelashes.

I mean, it looks like it's some kind of gross creature. And it is because you see yourself. The lens of the telescope that has the big lens here and the small one here is salvation belongs to the Lord.

And then you see everything perfectly. John Newton said, I know that if God wouldn't have chosen me before the foundations of the world, He sure would have never chosen me afterwards. See, everything's tied up in that.

Revelation 13, from the foundation of the world. Revelation 17, from the foundation of the world. Salvation belongs to the Lord. I love it when the Lord comes back and says He's going to be on a horse and on His thigh it has a name written.

King of kings and Lord of lords. What's the language? What's the picture that your mind should picture? Well, if someone is up on a white charger and they have a robe and they have their leg up, the robe falls back and the thigh is eye level, so everyone will obviously know King of kings and Lord of lords.

And for Jonah, you read the book and it's obvious salvation belongs to the Lord. Martin Lloyd-Jones said, there was a great council between the Father, the Son and the Spirit. Do we realize our salvation was planned before the world was planned or created?

It is a realization of this fact that makes a man stand on his tiptoe and shout out praise to God, chosen before the foundation of the world. Salvation belongs to the Lord. The three blessed persons in the eternal council were concerned about us.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And then Lloyd-Jones says, and I close, let us get rid forever of the idea that salvation was an afterthought in the mind of God. It was not a thought that came to God after man had fallen into sin.

It was planned before the foundation of the world. Why? Because salvation belongs to the Lord.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's Word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 8 .30 and 11 a .m. and Sunday evenings at 6 p .m. We're located on Route 110 in West Boylston, Massachusetts. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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