King James Bible Study – “And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” – Mark 8:34
Date: Tuesday, July 07, 2020
Chapters: Book of Jonah
Message: Just Go
Hello My Friend,
There is something incredible within in every saved, born again Christian, something I think we often neglect, especially when we are put to tests, and that is the Holy Spirit. That is right, the Spirit of God Himself lives in every saved, born again Christian, He is our Comforter, our conscious, our knowledge, our wisdom, our teacher, the one who reminds us that the Almighty is with us when we feel like He is no where to be found. Before Christ came and gave His life to save His believers souls from death and hell, that was not always the case, God would use willing souls by touching them with His Spirit for a time, but it was not permanent, if they sinned without repenting, God would take His Spirit away. This is why our works could never save us, all it would take is one sin, even the thought of committing a sin, for us to be cast into hell if God saw fit, [Revelation 1:18 I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.]
Jesus Christ, God in the flesh Himself, is the only one with the keys to death and hell, the only one who has, and ever has had the power to save a soul from hell and death. Christ does not nor ever has limited Himself to one group of people to save, He saves all who believe in God, and Him, and receive Him as their Saviour. The book of Jonah contains four chapters, the author of the book is Jonah and it was written to the nation of Nineveh. The timeline for these events took place approximately between 825BC to 790BC. The purpose of the book was to get Nineveh to acknowledge God, repent, and turn to Him for their salvation. What we are to learn from the book is that God does not put a restriction on salvation, it is for all who call upon the name of the Lord. [Jonah 4:11 And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?]
Do not let it fool you to believe that the world does not know who God is, they may reject, and even say He does not exist, but given the right circumstance they will admit that there is only one Almighty God. Jonah spent most of his days in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, he was even sent to speak to king Jeroboam concerning their judgment, but God was about to send him to another place, one that was not of the Jews. God told him to go to Nineveh to warn them of the judgment placed on them and give them a chance to repent, turn away from their false gods, and to Him. Jonah, like many Jews, was under the assumption that salvation was only for the Jews, and therefore refused to go. He found a ship headed in the opposite direction, boarded it, found a cozy spot to lay in and fell asleep, all of a sudden a storm came upon the sea, a hurricane, in fact.
[Jonah 1:1-6 Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me. 3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. 4 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. 5 Then the mariners were afraid, and 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. 6 So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.]
[But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD,] When God calls us to do something, He means business, and He will stop at nothing to get us to go. There is also something to remember, we cannot escape the presence of God. Once we get saved, we belong to Him, He walks with us, and it does not matter where we go, He is always there. Likewise, those who are not saved are going to know the presence of God as well, for they will send eternity begging Him to free them, but it will never happen because they had their opportunity to receive Him when they were alive, [Psalms 139:7-10 Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? 8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. 9 If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; 10 Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.]
Is it not comforting to know that, the second we get saved, Christ’s hand leads us and holds us. We can mess up a thousand times a day, but He is right there, all we need to do to see Him is call out His name. Well, that is exactly what the fishermen were doing when they discovered that Jonah’s God was the Almighty God Himself.
[Jonah 1:10–12,14-17 Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them. 11 Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous. 12 And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you. 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, O LORD, hast done as it pleased thee. 15 So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging. 16 Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made vows. 17 Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.]
[Then were the men exceedingly afraid,] Talk about a wake up call, these men went from praying to every god they could think of to unanimously, not only praying to the Almighty, but turning away from their false gods. They knew that He is not only God, but LORD. Do not let the world fool you into believing they do not know who God is. Why do you think they go through such lengths to try and prove He does not exist? Let me tell you, they may reject, and even deny his existence, but given the right circumstance they will admit that there is one Almighty God. Now, as Jonah sat in the belly of that fish for three days and three nights, he realizes that he was not getting out of there unless he agreed to do what he was supposed to do and finally calls out to God.
[Jonah 2:1-2,7-10 Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly, 2 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 heardest my voice. 7 When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple. 8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. 9 But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD. 10 And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.]
[out of the belly of hell cried I,] We are all bound for hell until we realize that our salvation only comes from Christ. The second we believe in Him and receive Him as our Saviour, we are heaven bound, and let me tell you, when we get to the point that we truly understand what Jesus saves us from we get right to work on whatever it is that He calls us to do. God, commanded Jonah a second time to go to Nineveh, and what would have taken three days journey only took a day.
[Jonah 3:1-5,10 And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying, 2 Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. 3 So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey. 4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. 5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. 10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.]
[And God saw their works,] What? Does this mean we are saved by our works? No. What were they doing that God saw? Fasting, praying, and gave sacrifices to Him. Salvation has never been based upon our works at all, it has always been by the grace of God. The sacrifices they gave were for redemption and atonement, just like when we receive Christ as our Saviour, only Christ is permanent. Without works faith is dead. What I mean by that is, it takes an effort to go to God and admit we need Jesus. We can have complete faith in Jesus saving us, but unless we confess to Him that we do believe and are only trusting in Him as our Saviour, faith does nothing for us. Faith is believing in what Christ did on the cross for us, the prayer in asking Him to save us is what saves us. Sadly, millions of people die, fully knowing what Jesus did for them but are in hell right now because they never asked Him to save them, [Romans 10:8-10 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; 9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.]
Jonah did not believe that at all, in fact, he was angry that these people were even given the chance to be saved. He could not get over the fact that God would save a heathen nation, could not understand why God spared them when they would just go back to their wicked ways. He just knew that they would forsake God and turn back to their wicked ways, and he wanted to catch them, kind of like an, “I told you so.” to God. So, he camped himself up and watched over them.
[Jonah 4:1-5 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. 2 And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. 3 Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live. 4 Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry? 5 So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.]
[till he might see what would become of the city.] This is where we teach them the right way, and let God handle the rest. We cannot pick and choose who we tell the Gospel to, it is to be told to whomever God puts on our heart. It saddens me to say this, but I have family in hell right now because they never received Jesus as their Saviour, they never even got that chance. Likewise, there are probably some people I do not care for that are in heaven right now. Do I know that everyone I tell the Gospel to is saved? No. But God does, and that is between them and Him. We who are saved have the responsibility to tell everyone God lays upon our heart, in fact, Jesus commands it Himself, [Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.]
Today’s Prayer: God, You have blessed us with so much, You have given life to all who believe in and receive Your Son. We are saved only by trusting in His death, burial, and resurrection, He even brings us out of every mess that we have gotten ourselves when call on Him. How merciful You are, how wonderful You are to save a sinner like me. Thank You, Jesus, and thank You God for giving me the opportunity to repent of my vain works and enjoy a new found, abundant, never boring, life with You in it. Lord, Lead me and guide me, let me not run from anyone You lay upon my heart to tell them about Jesus, and let me boldly speak and proclaim You as my Saviour and how they can be saved too. I ask these things pray in Your name, Jesus. Amen.
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina
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