100:00:00,000 –> 00:00:12,280Owning your own sinfulness is the first part of believing the gospel. I am a sinner, a200:00:12,280 –> 00:00:22,160rebel by nature and by practice and what I deserve from God is eternity in hell. Now300:00:22,160 –> 00:00:28,379if you don’t honestly believe that about yourself you do not yet believe the gospel.400:00:28,379 –> 00:00:32,939Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Collin Smith. I’m David Pick. Glad you could join500:00:32,939 –> 00:00:38,459us today. And Collin I can imagine some people being quite insulted by that. Hang on I’m600:00:38,459 –> 00:00:43,700not a sinner I’m a good person. Haha. Yeah that’s right. You know it’s not us that’s700:00:43,700 –> 00:00:47,759saying that. It really is the Bible. This is the very heart of the gospel. That we need800:00:47,759 –> 00:00:53,200saving. The question is saving from what? Is there any reality from which I need to900:00:53,200 –> 00:00:58,299be saved? And the Bible says to us yes there is there is an awful reality from which1000:00:58,419 –> 00:01:04,959every person needs to be saved. Because the wages and sin is death. What we’re promised1100:01:04,959 –> 00:01:11,059on the basis of our lives is not some kind of an abundant life, but it is an eternal1200:01:11,059 –> 00:01:16,040death. And Jesus Christ comes into the world to save us from that. So embracing our need1300:01:16,040 –> 00:01:19,519is actually from the beginning of believing the gospel. One of the things Jonah needed1400:01:19,519 –> 00:01:24,820to be saved from was anger. If you look at the end of the book he’s very angry with God1500:01:25,040 –> 00:01:29,019isn’t he? Obviously he didn’t stay like that.1600:01:29,019 –> 00:01:32,940He could not have written the book if the last word had been that he was angry with1700:01:32,940 –> 00:01:38,400God. I think the wonderful thing about this book is it’s so humble. It’s a confession.1800:01:38,400 –> 00:01:43,099Here’s this man who was known as a great prophet but he’s telling us the inside story of his1900:01:43,099 –> 00:01:47,500own life and he’s saying, look there were things that were going on under the surface2000:01:47,500 –> 00:01:53,239with me that God needed to deal with in his grace. Thank God for that grace that takes2100:01:53,239 –> 00:01:59,120sinners like us that do deserve the worst and yet he works for us towards the very best.2200:01:59,120 –> 00:02:03,519And he works through his words. So I hope you’ll join us, if you can, in the Book of2300:02:03,519 –> 00:02:10,440Jonah. Chapter 2 today, verses one to nine. As we begin the message, restrain God’s praise2400:02:10,440 –> 00:02:13,639on account of your pain. Here is Colin.2500:02:13,639 –> 00:02:19,699Now, last time we left Jonah feeling pretty miserable. You remember he was on his own.2600:02:19,699 –> 00:02:24,899He was outside the city of Nineveh. He was in the desert with the vine that had given2700:02:24,899 –> 00:02:30,119him shade kind of drooping and lying dead in the sand. He’s angry with God. He was angry2800:02:30,119 –> 00:02:36,220with Nineveh. He’s angry about the vine and God confronts him at the end of chapter four2900:02:36,220 –> 00:02:42,660and deals with his selfishness. Jonah, you are concerned about the vine. You’re all wrapped3000:02:42,660 –> 00:02:49,080up in your own comfort. You’re all wrapped up in your own life. You are all wrapped up3100:02:49,179 –> 00:02:55,199in your own well-being. Jonah, you are concerned about the vine, but God says, I am concerned3200:02:55,199 –> 00:03:02,199about the city. 120,000 people and more who are utterly, totally, and completely lost.3300:03:02,279 –> 00:03:07,839And that’s where the book ends. You say, well we can’t end there.3400:03:07,839 –> 00:03:13,240It kind of looks at that point as if Jonah might have slouched off into retirement like3500:03:13,240 –> 00:03:20,240a grumpy old man. You know, some folks do that. People say time heals. Time heals if3600:03:21,619 –> 00:03:25,279a wound is clean, but if a wound is septic, time makes it worse.3700:03:25,279 –> 00:03:32,279But thank God, Jonah did not slouch into retirement as a grumpy old man. God’s grace triumphed3800:03:33,800 –> 00:03:38,500in his life. You say, well, how do you know that? The reason that we know that is, he3900:03:39,500 –> 00:03:44,539brought him to the place where instead of being angry and frustrated, as we find him4000:03:44,539 –> 00:03:49,820at the end of Chapter 4, he felt under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit coming freshly4100:03:49,820 –> 00:03:55,160to him that he wanted to share where the grace of God had brought him in his life and that’s4200:03:55,160 –> 00:03:59,539why we have this book. And when Jonah wrote it under the inspiration of the spirit, he4300:03:59,539 –> 00:04:06,539put this song of praise in Jonah, Chapter 2, right in the center of his own life story.4400:04:06,539 –> 00:04:13,320Now, we are going to dive into that testimony to God’s grace together. We will pick up4500:04:13,320 –> 00:04:19,399the story just so we remember what’s happening here back in Chapter 1 and verse 12. Jonah,4600:04:19,399 –> 00:04:26,339you remember, had disobeyed God and God intercepted his disobedience when he first refused to4700:04:26,339 –> 00:04:32,820go to Nineveh by sending a storm. The storm very clearly was a judgment from God. Jonah4800:04:32,859 –> 00:04:37,160knew this, and so verse 12, he says to the ship’s crew, pick me up, throw me into the4900:04:37,160 –> 00:04:42,359sea and the sea will become calm for you. And so, Chapter 1 and verse 15, they take5000:04:42,359 –> 00:04:49,859Jonah, they throw him overboard and we’re told there that the raging sea grew calm.5100:04:49,859 –> 00:04:58,100Then we have this remarkable statement in Chapter 1 and verse 17. The Lord provided5200:04:58,179 –> 00:05:10,940a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.5300:05:10,940 –> 00:05:17,160Now this was an amazing miracle and there is no doubt in my own mind that it really5400:05:17,160 –> 00:05:23,320happened. You will not be surprised that some writers suggest that this was just a parable5500:05:23,320 –> 00:05:29,359or that it was just a story or a fable rather than a historical reality, an event that happened,5600:05:29,359 –> 00:05:33,359that is just a story to teach us something about God.5700:05:33,359 –> 00:05:40,019But there is nothing in the story itself that suggests that. And the biggest reason why5800:05:40,019 –> 00:05:45,640I cannot accept that and I am wholly convinced that this was an event that actually happened5900:05:45,640 –> 00:05:50,899is that the Lord Jesus clearly regarded this as an event that actually happened.6000:05:51,140 –> 00:05:51,899He says in Matthew 12 and verse 40,6100:06:03,899 –> 00:06:09,459Now, the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ was an event of history.6200:06:09,459 –> 00:06:16,459It actually happened, no mere story. And Jesus talks about the story of Jonah in exactly6300:06:16,579 –> 00:06:20,239the same way as an event that actually took place.6400:06:20,239 –> 00:06:26,779So, the story of Jonah, then, does not belong in the realm of the parables. Where it belongs6500:06:26,779 –> 00:06:28,260is in the realm of the miracles.6600:06:28,260 –> 00:06:33,859In fact, there are really three miracles here, first that God provided the fish at exactly6700:06:33,859 –> 00:06:39,179the right time. Second, think about it, that Jonah survived three days and three nights6800:06:39,179 –> 00:06:44,980in the belly of the fish. And thirdly, that the fish vomited Jonah, as it says at the6900:06:45,079 –> 00:06:49,820end of chapter 2, onto dry land safely.7000:06:49,820 –> 00:06:55,000Now it’s good to know that God did an amazing miracle in the life of Jonah, but the important7100:06:55,000 –> 00:07:01,399question is, what does this have to do with us?7200:07:01,399 –> 00:07:06,820And I want to suggest to you that Jonah chapter 2 was written to answer that question, that7300:07:06,820 –> 00:07:13,299out of this extraordinary experience, by any standards, Jonah write the second chapter,7400:07:13,299 –> 00:07:24,299a song of praise, to tell us how God saves sinners, how he saves sinners like Jonah,7500:07:24,299 –> 00:07:31,600how he saves sinners like you, and how he saves sinners like me.7600:07:31,600 –> 00:07:35,859Now I want to summarize the message today in a very simple sentence that I hope we can7700:07:35,859 –> 00:07:37,480get hold of.7800:07:37,579 –> 00:07:48,299And it’s just this, that God saves guilty, believing, desperate, repentant sinners.7900:07:48,299 –> 00:07:51,579You might like to say that with me, will you help me along here, let’s get it in8000:07:51,579 –> 00:07:52,859our minds.8100:07:52,859 –> 00:07:59,779God saves guilty, believing, desperate, repentant sinners.8200:07:59,779 –> 00:08:01,380One more time together.8300:08:01,380 –> 00:08:08,279God saves guilty, believing, desperate, repentant sinners.8400:08:08,279 –> 00:08:14,320Now, that’s the message of Jonah in chapter two, and let’s see that for ourselves together.8500:08:14,320 –> 00:08:19,600First, God saves guilty sinners.8600:08:19,600 –> 00:08:21,500I’m looking at verse three.8700:08:21,500 –> 00:08:28,260Jonah says, you hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the sea and the current8800:08:28,260 –> 00:08:30,660swirled about me.8900:08:30,660 –> 00:08:36,820All your waves and breakers swept over me.9000:08:36,820 –> 00:08:43,000Now I’m coming to verse three first because it clearly recalls what happened when Jonah9100:08:43,000 –> 00:08:44,179first hit the water.9200:08:44,179 –> 00:08:50,780I want you to try and use your imagination with me and picture this situation for this9300:08:50,780 –> 00:08:51,780man.9400:08:51,780 –> 00:08:56,140He’s thrown overboard, he hits the water, and notice what he says in verse three, all9500:08:56,140 –> 00:09:00,020your waves and breakers swept over me.9600:09:00,080 –> 00:09:04,460Now waves and breakers that are on the surface of the water, not at the bottom of the water.9700:09:04,460 –> 00:09:09,500So he’s talking about what happened the moment he hit the water.9800:09:09,500 –> 00:09:10,979Can you picture the situation?9900:09:10,979 –> 00:09:16,119He manages, he goes under, he manages to get up for air, he takes a gulp of air, a breath10000:09:16,119 –> 00:09:22,239or two, and then another wave comes over him and pushes him down and he goes under again.10100:09:22,239 –> 00:09:26,659He’s bobbing up and down, fighting for his life, fighting for air, trying to keep his10200:09:26,659 –> 00:09:29,859head above water.10300:09:30,200 –> 00:09:37,640He doesn’t care because verse one says that this recalls what he prayed inside the fish.10400:09:37,640 –> 00:09:42,900Later, he thinks back to what happened in these first moments in the water, and he says10500:09:42,900 –> 00:09:47,659to himself, God did this.10600:09:47,659 –> 00:09:50,719God sent the storm.10700:09:50,719 –> 00:09:57,039Verse three, you God, you hurled into the deep.10800:09:57,039 –> 00:10:00,419Power waves broke over me.10900:10:00,419 –> 00:10:07,919Now, I like to think about this because Jonah could have said the ship’s crew threw me11000:10:07,919 –> 00:10:17,799into the deep, but he’s coming to a distinctively Christian understanding of life here, behind11100:10:17,799 –> 00:10:22,340the human events that happened to him, the crew threw him overboard.11200:10:22,340 –> 00:10:25,320He sees the hand of God.11300:10:25,880 –> 00:10:27,880Now, think about this.11400:10:27,880 –> 00:10:30,859People view their lives in different ways.11500:10:30,859 –> 00:10:36,020Some folk see their lives as a series of random chance events, and they feel that they’re11600:10:36,020 –> 00:10:37,859either lucky or unlucky.11700:10:37,859 –> 00:10:42,020They talk like that all the time.11800:10:42,020 –> 00:10:47,979Other people see their lives as a series of events controlled by other people.11900:10:47,979 –> 00:10:54,520They feel like victims, and they talk like that all the time.12000:10:54,520 –> 00:10:59,859Other folks see their lives as a series of events controlled by themselves.12100:10:59,859 –> 00:11:07,559They feel like heroes, and they talk like that about themselves all the time.12200:11:07,559 –> 00:11:15,219But Jonah sees his life as a series of events controlled by the sovereign hand of God.12300:11:15,219 –> 00:11:23,520And he knew that behind the crew and beyond the storm, God’s hand was at work.12400:11:24,179 –> 00:11:28,520And God was exposing his guilt and God was dealing with his rebellion.12500:11:30,020 –> 00:11:32,820He’d suppressed that guilt for a long time.12600:11:32,820 –> 00:11:38,419He’d been able even to sleep when he was in the boat despite the raging of the storm.12700:11:38,419 –> 00:11:41,679That’s pretty good suppression of guilt to be able to do that.12800:11:41,679 –> 00:11:47,299But in the water, he comes to his senses, he owns his own guilt, he embraces as it were12900:11:47,299 –> 00:11:52,500his own sin, and he acknowledges that he is under the judgment of God.13000:11:52,520 –> 00:11:56,260He says to God, you hurled me into the deep.13100:11:56,260 –> 00:11:58,739All your waves swept over me.13200:11:58,739 –> 00:12:06,380I am under your judgment and this is what I deserve.13300:12:06,380 –> 00:12:11,000Now, this is the first big thing for us to grasp from Jonah, chapter two, that God saves13400:12:11,000 –> 00:12:12,000guilty sinners.13500:12:12,000 –> 00:12:19,299In other words, God saves us when we come to the place of acknowledging, owning, embracing13600:12:19,299 –> 00:12:21,960our own guilt before Him.13700:12:21,960 –> 00:12:27,859You’re listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith, and we’ve got to pause our13800:12:27,859 –> 00:12:30,859message briefly there, but we’ll be back very shortly.13900:12:30,859 –> 00:12:36,099The message is called Restrain God’s Praise on Account of Your Pain.14000:12:36,099 –> 00:12:39,979And it’s part of the series, How to Avoid a God Centered Life.14100:12:39,979 –> 00:12:44,599And don’t forget, if you want to catch up or go back and listen to any of the broadcast14200:12:44,799 –> 00:12:50,979you might have missed, or to hear them again – come to our website, that’s at openthebible.org.uk14300:12:50,979 –> 00:12:55,840– and there you’ll find all of the previously broadcast messages.14400:12:55,840 –> 00:13:00,460Open the Bible is able to stay on the air and on the internet, because of the financial14500:13:00,460 –> 00:13:02,400support we receive from listeners.14600:13:02,400 –> 00:13:07,919But as well as the programmes, the website, the daily devotions and the podcasts, your14700:13:07,919 –> 00:13:13,260support can also go towards reaching a section of the community who are not able to contribute14800:13:13,260 –> 00:13:14,260themselves.14900:13:14,260 –> 00:13:18,080I’m talking here about men and women in UK prisons.15000:13:18,080 –> 00:13:22,640Through our partnership with Daylight Prison Trust, we are enabling Christian books and15100:13:22,640 –> 00:13:25,020media to be distributed in prisons.15200:13:25,020 –> 00:13:28,580Here’s Open the Bible’s Executive Director, John Martin.15300:13:28,580 –> 00:13:29,580Yes, David.15400:13:29,580 –> 00:13:34,200We’re thrilled to be working with Daylight Christian Prison Trust, who are helping us15500:13:34,200 –> 00:13:38,140send our resources into our UK prisons.15600:13:38,140 –> 00:13:42,679We’re also working with London City Mission’s Prison and Resettlement Team.15700:13:42,719 –> 00:13:47,280New this year is a full-colour graphic novel about the Thief-on-the-Cross, which we know15800:13:47,280 –> 00:13:48,500will be popular.15900:13:48,500 –> 00:13:52,640We want to get thousands of copies into prisons.16000:13:52,640 –> 00:13:57,299Prisoners can get our resources by asking their prison chaplains or writing to us at16100:13:57,299 –> 00:14:05,400Open the Bible, P. O. Box 1420 Cheltenham, GL50 9PG.16200:14:05,400 –> 00:14:10,500Listener donations are helping us share the good news with so many so thank you.16300:14:10,619 –> 00:14:14,619you can donate at open the bible.org.uk16400:14:15,039 –> 00:14:16,140Thanks John.16500:14:16,159 –> 00:14:17,200Back to the message now.16600:14:17,200 –> 00:14:18,599Here again is Colin.16700:14:18,619 –> 00:14:21,719Owning our sinfulness means getting beyond16800:14:21,719 –> 00:14:30,159this idea that so many people live with that we deserve something better from God.16900:14:30,159 –> 00:14:34,099If you’re going through your life feeling that you deserve something better from God,17000:14:34,099 –> 00:14:37,039get that out of your mind.17100:14:37,099 –> 00:14:40,419The bible says that the wages, notice that word,17200:14:40,419 –> 00:14:43,559wages are what are due for work done.17300:14:43,559 –> 00:14:48,500The wages of sin is, help me, what’s the wages of sin?17400:14:48,500 –> 00:14:49,599Death.17500:14:49,599 –> 00:14:53,000The wages of sin is death.17600:14:53,000 –> 00:15:06,580What I am owed for what I have done by God is not abundant life but eternal death.17700:15:06,719 –> 00:15:08,640That is what I’m owed.17800:15:08,640 –> 00:15:11,479That is what I deserve.17900:15:11,479 –> 00:15:14,500Do you know what?18000:15:14,500 –> 00:15:21,780Owning your own sinfulness is the first part of believing the gospel.18100:15:21,780 –> 00:15:32,340I am a sinner, a rebel, by nature and by practice, and what I deserve from God is eternity in18200:15:32,340 –> 00:15:33,619hell.18300:15:34,239 –> 00:15:41,700Now, if you don’t honestly believe that about yourself, you do not yet believe the gospel.18400:15:41,700 –> 00:15:48,739You are not yet being saved because God saves guilty sinners, and if you’re not in that18500:15:48,739 –> 00:15:53,919category, if you have not seen that and owned that yourself, you’re not yet in a position18600:15:53,919 –> 00:15:58,760where God is saving you.18700:15:58,760 –> 00:16:03,500Jonah owned his guilt right there in the water, struggling with the waves, pouring over him,18800:16:03,500 –> 00:16:10,599he said, these waves are your waves, I am under your judgment and I deserve to be under18900:16:10,599 –> 00:16:15,219your judgment.19000:16:15,219 –> 00:16:19,179God saves guilty sinners.19100:16:19,179 –> 00:16:27,760Believing the gospel begins when you own your own guilt by nature and practice before God.19200:16:27,760 –> 00:16:34,159Second, God saves believing sinners.19300:16:34,159 –> 00:16:39,799And let’s look at verse 2 and verse 4, either side of where we began, and let’s ask this19400:16:39,799 –> 00:16:43,919question, where did Jonah first call upon God?19500:16:43,919 –> 00:16:46,679When did he first ask God for help?19600:16:46,679 –> 00:16:50,700Was it in the fish or was it in the water?19700:16:50,700 –> 00:16:53,820There’s an important distinction.19800:16:53,880 –> 00:16:58,840Notice verse 1 says from inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God, but notice that19900:16:58,840 –> 00:17:04,479after that, what he said inside the fish is for most of the way up until about verse 8,20000:17:04,479 –> 00:17:07,939it’s all in the past tense.20100:17:07,939 –> 00:17:11,819He’s looking back to what happened when he was in the water.20200:17:11,819 –> 00:17:16,619Past tense, in my distress I called, past tense to the Lord, and he answered me from20300:17:16,619 –> 00:17:20,979the depths of the grave I called for help verse 2, and you listened to my cry.20400:17:20,979 –> 00:17:25,979So he’s looking back to what happened before he was in the fish when he was still there20500:17:25,979 –> 00:17:29,959in the water, and he says in my distress, the distress was in the water.20600:17:29,959 –> 00:17:34,699When he was in the fish he knew he was safe, but his distress was in the water, and he20700:17:34,699 –> 00:17:43,719says there, I cried to the Lord, and he answered me from the depths of the grave I called,20800:17:43,719 –> 00:17:45,979and you listened to me.20900:17:45,979 –> 00:17:52,199The word that’s grave there translated grave, the depths of the grave in the New International21000:17:52,199 –> 00:18:01,380Version, literally means Sheol, or the place where dead people in the Old Testament were21100:18:01,380 –> 00:18:07,859separated from God, we would say hell, and so what he’s saying there is from the depth21200:18:08,180 –> 00:18:17,739my hell I cried out to God for help. See, here’s a man who’s been running from God, and now21300:18:17,739 –> 00:18:26,859he suddenly realizes he’s on the brink of an eternity without God, and he says out of21400:18:26,859 –> 00:18:34,599that I just cried out to God and You listened to me.21500:18:34,599 –> 00:18:41,339It isn’t easy to ask God for help when you are very aware of your own guilt. When you21600:18:41,339 –> 00:18:48,979know you have sinned and you are aware that in some particular way you are under his judgment,21700:18:48,979 –> 00:18:56,199when you feel your own guilt it takes courage to ask God for help.21800:18:56,199 –> 00:18:59,800And I want you to see what a great struggle that was for Jonah. You’ll never see it more21900:18:59,839 –> 00:19:07,619clearly than in verse four of chapter two. He says, notice the first line, I said, I22000:19:07,619 –> 00:19:17,780have been banished from your sight. So Jonah’s heart at this point condemns him completely.22100:19:17,780 –> 00:19:23,579God, there’s no hope for me now, he is saying to himself. I see and I feel the weight of22200:19:23,579 –> 00:19:30,880my guilt and my own failure. He came to the conclusion that he was beyond forgiveness.22300:19:30,880 –> 00:19:35,280He felt within his heart that God had pulled the rug from him, that there was no future,22400:19:35,280 –> 00:19:40,920that there was nothing now that he had by way of hope at all. Some of us may have been22500:19:40,920 –> 00:19:44,060there.22600:19:44,060 –> 00:19:54,780He came to a point where he really believed that. God doesn’t want me now. But I want22700:19:54,780 –> 00:19:59,300you to notice this amazing thing what he says in the very next line because it’s a battle22800:19:59,300 –> 00:20:03,880that’s going on in his mind and it’s a battle that you will experience if you seek to find22900:20:03,880 –> 00:20:08,180your way to faith. On the one hand, I said I’ve been banished from your sight. There’s23000:20:08,180 –> 00:20:19,160no hope for me. I’m an outsider, I’m gone. Yet, I will look again towards your holy temple.23100:20:19,160 –> 00:20:25,619Marvelous statement comes out of a battle and it’s raging inside Jonah’s own soul23200:20:25,619 –> 00:20:31,420right here in the water. He wants to pray. But as you’ve probably experienced he feels23300:20:31,719 –> 00:20:37,819so far from God, he thinks I can’t possibly pray. God’s not gonna listen to me.23400:20:37,819 –> 00:20:43,119The flesh tells him God doesn’t want to know you. But somehow something within him rises23500:20:43,119 –> 00:20:47,339up and says, no but I’m gonna cry out to God. I’m gonna reach out to God. I’m gonna put23600:20:47,339 –> 00:20:54,339my hope in God. Friends, don’t expect coming to faith to be easy.23700:20:55,300 –> 00:21:02,300Jonah struggled to believe. Your life and your eternity hang on this. So why would you23800:21:08,339 –> 00:21:15,339be surprised if it is literally the fight of your life? That’s what it was for Jonah.23900:21:16,680 –> 00:21:23,599You know, easy phrases about just believe, just believe it’s a battle for him to believe24000:21:23,680 –> 00:21:30,680that God will listen to him and it may be for you too. Yet I will look to your holy24100:21:33,180 –> 00:21:37,900temple. Could you make those words of Jonah your own in the struggle that you have to24200:21:37,900 –> 00:21:44,900believe? Even though I have sinned and even though I feel you judgment upon me I dare24300:21:45,839 –> 00:21:51,760to hope in you.24400:21:51,760 –> 00:21:57,239Jesus told a story about two men who came to pray. One person came into the temple and24500:21:57,239 –> 00:22:04,239told God about all the good things in his life and then he went home. Another man, Jesus24600:22:04,900 –> 00:22:11,219said came into the temple and told God about his sin and he said O God, be merciful to24700:22:11,219 –> 00:22:18,219me a sinner. Jesus said that second man, not the first one, went home right with God.24800:22:21,099 –> 00:22:26,300You’ve been listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and a message called Restrain24900:22:26,300 –> 00:22:32,099God’s Praise on account of your Pain. Part of the series, how to avoid God centred life.25000:22:32,099 –> 00:22:36,099We’ll be back with the second part of this message in our next program. So I hope you’ll25100:22:36,099 –> 00:22:40,739join us for that. And if you ever miss one of the messages in the series it’s easy25200:22:40,760 –> 00:22:47,760to catch up by coming to our website openthebible.org.uk or you can also find them as a podcast. And25300:22:48,219 –> 00:22:53,160those are on all the main podcast sites. You can find them by searching for Open The Bible25400:22:53,160 –> 00:22:59,540UK, or by following a link from our website. Also on our website and available as a podcast25500:22:59,540 –> 00:23:06,540is our daily reflections program. 2 to 3 minutes every day. Open The Bible daily based on pastor25600:23:06,680 –> 00:23:11,959Colin Smith’s teaching. Many Christians find that Open The Bible Daily is a great way to25700:23:11,959 –> 00:23:18,500start the day. Colin, as you pointed out in the program today we saw that God’s Grace25800:23:18,500 –> 00:23:23,400did triumph in Jonah’s life, even though he went through some tough struggles.25900:23:23,400 –> 00:23:27,880Yes, a marvellous story of hope and when he was in the water there, he must have felt26000:23:27,880 –> 00:23:32,660quite desperate, you know. He sensed that he was banished from God’s sight and you26100:23:32,660 –> 00:23:38,020know when the Holy Spirit begins to work in your life and you become aware of what26200:23:38,020 –> 00:23:43,300you have done wrong and how far you are from God, the greatest danger is that you give26300:23:43,300 –> 00:23:47,920up and that you lose hope and Jonah was nearly there, he said, I’ve been banished from26400:23:47,920 –> 00:23:53,079God’s sight, no hope, but he didn’t end there, he said yet I’m going to look to26500:23:53,079 –> 00:23:57,739your holy temple and he put his faith in God and we’re going to see what that struggle26600:23:57,959 –> 00:24:03,180for faith looks like and how God in his mercy prevails even when we’ve hit rock bottom.26700:24:03,180 –> 00:24:07,719I’m sure you’ve often heard this, Colin. People will say that they’re sinking, I feel26800:24:07,719 –> 00:24:13,760as though I’m so far from God, I’m a mess and I’ve done so many bad things, Jonah26900:24:13,760 –> 00:24:19,260was actually God’s prophet, but I don’t have that kind of status. Will God take a27000:24:19,260 –> 00:24:20,900messed up person like me?27100:24:20,900 –> 00:24:24,459Well of course that’s the great thing about the story of Jonah that God would take a messed27200:24:24,520 –> 00:24:29,500up person like Jonah because whatever he looked like on the outside, he was really messed27300:24:29,500 –> 00:24:34,160up on the inside. And actually that’s the position of all of us. That’s why Jesus says,27400:24:34,160 –> 00:24:39,500I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to the repentance. And the cross is all about27500:24:39,500 –> 00:24:45,400God in his mercy reaching out to you where you are. You don’t have to clear up the27600:24:45,400 –> 00:24:51,660mess before you come to Christ. You come to Christ in order that He, the Redeemer will27700:24:51,660 –> 00:24:55,239transform your life. And that’s what grace does.27800:24:55,239 –> 00:24:59,140Thanks, Colin. We’ll be back with the second part of this message in the27900:24:59,140 –> 00:25:04,060next program, so do join us for that. For Open The Bible and Pastor Colin Smith,28000:25:04,060 –> 00:25:08,680I’m David Pick and I hope you’ll join us again soon.28100:25:08,680 –> 00:25:19,900Open the Bible28200:25:19,900 –> 00:25:25,920What happens when a person starts to believe? Find the surprising answer .28300:25:25,920 –> 00:25:29,560Next time on Open The Bible.