Repentance and Salvation

11-11-2018

Jonah Chapter 2

Intro -

welcome

review from last week

Jonah was a messenger for the Lord and disobeyed and went the other way

Jonah knew why the storm came, and knew what needed to happen to make the storm go away

God was in charge of everything

Last week we left off with Jonah being swallowed by a big fish

We understand that there are still consequences for sin, and if we are honest we bring on those storms

we know why the storms are there and we know what we need to do

This week we will continue our story in Jonah

Jonah 2:1–2 NASB95

1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the stomach of the fish, 2 and he said, “I called out of my distress to the Lord, And He answered me. I cried for help from the depth of Sheol; You heard my voice.

We pick up the story of Jonah with Jonah in the belly of the fish

Jonah is now praying to God

We are going to see the story of repentance in this chapter

Jonah starts to cry out in distress because he is in the belly of a giant fish because he was disobedient to the call he received from God

Sometimes we find ourselves in the same place as Jonah, now we are not probably in the same physical place as Jonah in the belly of a giant fish

But we do find ourselves in distress, often brought on by ourselves

Jonah begins to cry out loudly, not a whisper

Jonah begins his prayer with an introductory of what has happened

I mean to sum up Chapter 2 we need really only read the first 2 verses

Jonah prayed from the belly of the whale and he called out to the Lord in His distress and he answered him

This was his prayer in distress, you may not like the answer

Jonah 2:3–6 NASB95

3 “For You had cast me into the deep, Into the heart of the seas, And the current engulfed me. All Your breakers and billows passed over me. 4 “So I said, ‘I have been expelled from Your sight. Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple.’ 5 “Water encompassed me to the point of death. The great deep engulfed me, Weeds were wrapped around my head. 6 “I descended to the roots of the mountains. The earth with its bars was around me forever, But You have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God.

Jonah thought he was going to die and not going to be in the presence of the Lord

Remember Jonah knew why the storm had come upon the ship and knew what needed to be done

Jonah is thrown into the sea and the sea starts to overtake him

Jonah is drowning and sinking down, and in his mind he is probably thinking this is it, I am dying

vs 7 BUT

Jonah is drowning and going to die

BUT

God saved him

God saved Jonah with the giant fish

See God’s answer to Jonahs prayer while in distress was for a giant fish to come and swallow him up

I told you might not like the answer

But when we are able to step back and look at things from Gods perspective we can see that He was and is always in charge and right now is still very much in charge

So you might be in a storm and actually you might be drowning because of things you have brought on yourself

God is not yet through with you, if you will cry out to Him and repent

Jonah 2:7 NASB95

7 “While I was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, And my prayer came to You, Into Your holy temple.

believe repents of his disobedience

I believe that while he is drowning, it says he remember the Lord

I believe in that moment he was convicted and he sought repentance and forgiveness from the Lord for his disobedience

See God was not yet done with Jonah because I believe he sought forgiveness and repented from his sin

Without this verse we dont see verse 10

I do not believe that God would have saved him if he would not have

God saved Him

Jonah 2:8–9 NASB95

8 “Those who regard vain idols Forsake their faithfulness, 9 But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving. That which I have vowed I will pay. Salvation is from the Lord.”

When we focus more on the things of this world, the idols of this world we give up faithfulness because they are not faithful at all

The idols of this world are not faithful are they

your savings account is not faithful is it, your retirement is not faithful is it?

Jonah also says that our faith should be in the Lord

Salvation is from the Lord, Jonah has experienced salvation first hand

Jonah 2:10 NASB95

10 Then the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land.

Again the Lord is still in charge

God commanded the giant fish to vomit Jonah up at an appointed time at an appointed place

See God is not through with someone just because they mess up, although God does require that we own up to that sin

It is not a blanket free pass because we are believers, we still have to ask and seek forgiveness but God desires more that simply forgiveness of the sin He expects us to seek repentance, to turn from our sin that has caused us to be in the belly of a giant fish

Closing

Maybe you are here today and you do not have a relationship with Jesus and to be honest you need to begin that today

People will be down front to help you with that

Maybe there is some other decision you need to make

Or maybe you are a Jonah and sitting in the belly of the giant fish and you need to repent and seek forgiveness for the sin that got you there

or maybe you need to spend some time in prayer at the altar

the altar is open