<TITLE>04. Par 16-19</TITLE>L-16 And when God gave Jonah the commission, and he went down to--to Nineveh, he found a ship at leisure, so he couldn't get his ticket and his fare, maybe, down to Nineveh, so he just went to Tarshish. And they found out that he got in trouble.
I think that's what's the matter with the Christian church tonight; we're in trouble. We've took the wrong road. And God's not in trouble; it's the church that's in trouble. God wants us to be all one, wants us to have fellowship one with another, while the Blood of His Son, Jesus, cleanses us from all unrighteousness. But we draw little walls and say, "No, we will not cooperate in such a meeting. No, we can't do this, because our church is not in it." Oh, what a weak petty thing, like little juveniles.

L-17 And notice, then the ship begin to rock, and Jonah was in trouble. And they bound his feet and his hands, and threw him overboard, and God had a great big fish all prepared to swallow him. I've always had a deep sympathy for Jonah. He was in a terrible condition, yet he was a prophet of the Lord.
Now, anyone knows that a fish prowling through the water is hunting for its prey. And as soon as it has eaten, it goes to the bottom and rests itself, with its swimmers on the bottom of the water--of the pool. Feed your little goldfishes and watch what take place. He will go right down to the bottom of the pool, and there rest himself. And here was this fish, after he'd swallowed this prophet, down at the bottom of the sea, many fathoms deep.

L-18 And let's just notice tonight, you people in the wheelchairs, and you that's on crutches, and maybe feel like that you can't be well. We have never come into any situation like Jonah was in. The first place, he was backslid, and he had his hands tied and his feet tied, and he was in the whale's belly, way down in the bottom of the sea, and a storm on the sea. If he looked this a way, it was the whale's belly. If he looked backwards, it was the whale's belly. All around him was whale's belly.
You talk about a good case of symptoms, Jonah had it. I don't think that any of us could have that kind of symptom. But you know what he said? He knew God, and he said, "They are lying vanities; I won't even look them."
For he knew that when Solomon dedicated the temple of God, that he prayed and said, "Lord, if Thy people be in trouble anywhere, and look towards this holy place and pray, then hear from heaven." And he had confidence, under those symptoms, to have confidence in the prayer of Solomon and believed that God heard the prayer of Solomon.

L-19 And the whale kept him in his belly for three days and nights, and delivered him right in the right place. God just turned the whale around and taken him on a taxi ride across the country, till he got from Tarshish to Nineveh. And God kept him alive, because he said, "I will not look at my symptoms; I'll look to Thy holy temple."
And if God did that, under those symptoms and that circumstance, how much more will He, tonight, under this circumstance with our symptoms, if we'll not look to a temple made with hands of man, but to the temple of heaven, where Christ sets at the right hand of God, making intercessions upon our confession. How much more will He deliver us? I will not look at my symptoms; I will look at what Jesus said. Said, "By His stripes, I am healed," and I confess it, for God can do nothing for you until first you confess it. The Bible in Hebrews 3, said, "He is the High Priest of our confessions." Now, the King James has "profess." But "profess" and "confess" is the same thing.


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