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He set aside to celebrate this day of Jesus Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem a week before he rose from the dead. And Father, I just pray that you would bless the message to our hearts and help us all to learn what you would have us to learn this morning, and in Jesus' name I pray, amen. Now I want to take you to another verse, and I would like everybody to turn it in your Bibles if you would to Matthew chapter 12, verse number 40, Matthew 12, 40. Now the passage that we just read is a familiar passage, it's the story of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. When he came and made the ascent up into Jerusalem on the occult, the foal of an ass, a young donkey that he rode on, and he made this triumphal entry on the Sunday before Easter, on Palm Sunday, and it says that the people were rejoicing, people were thrilled, they'd heard about the great miracles. Notably, they'd heard about the miracle that he had just performed where he rose Lazarus from the dead after four days of being dead. And so as he's coming into Jerusalem, the Bible says that they took out their jackets and threw them in the way, they took down palm branches and threw them in the road so that he could ride on this path. And they were shouting, Hosanna, blessed is the great king that cometh in the name of the Lord. And the Pharisees told them, boy, you can't let them say that about you, you can't let them say that you're Christ, that you're the son of God. And he said, don't you know that if these would be quiet, then the rocks would cry out. Because this day is a prophecy that must have been fulfilled, my triumphal entry, my presentation to Israel. Look at Matthew chapter 12 verse 40, if you would. The Bible says here, and the whole sermon this morning is kind of encompassed in this verse here, but the Bible says, for as Jonas, talking about Jonah, was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Let me read that for you again. For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Now let me ask you something, there's a holiday coming up this Friday, who knows what that holiday is called? Nope, that's not on Friday. Who knows what it's called on Friday? Good Friday. Now, the title of the sermon this morning is The Hoax of Good Friday, The Phony Lie of Good Friday. That's the title of the sermon this morning, and I want you to see this, and you'll be blessed by the sermon, because I'm going to show you what a magnificent book this is, the Bible, and I'm going to show you some great things about Jesus Christ and how he died on the cross for us. Turn if you would to Exodus chapter 12, and I'm not going to have you turn too much because there's so many scriptures, but I do want you to turn here because I'm going to spend a lot of my time here, Exodus chapter 12. Now let's just, and I want the kids to listen up right now because I know that the kids sometimes understand these things even better than adults many times, but if Jesus Christ rose from the dead on Sunday morning, agreed, right, Sunday morning, Easter Sunday, well, if Jesus was crucified on Friday as tradition and the Roman Catholics would tell us and as the calendar tells me that Friday is when Jesus, and every time I open like a study Bible and it has the little headings, it says Jesus is crucified on Friday. Now let's say Jesus died on the cross on Friday, right? Well then that means he was buried, he died, that's Friday night, he was dead, right? All day Saturday, so that's one day and one night so far, and then we got Saturday night for a total of one day and two nights. Now how long did the Bible say that Jesus was dead for? Three days and three nights. So we could just close our Bibles right now and just say, well, do you believe the Bible or do you believe what some religion taught you and what some church told you? Because the Bible says that Jesus was dead for three days and three nights and the calendar tells me that he was dead for one day and two nights, so Jesus could not be crucified on Friday. But I'm going to show you something very interesting, how all this works together in the Bible. Look at Exodus chapter 12, this is the Passover chapter. The Bible says in chapter 12 verse 1, and the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying, this month shall be unto you the beginning of months. He's saying from now on this month will be the first month on your calendar. Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel saying in the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house, and if the house will be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next Sunday's house take it according to the number of the souls. Every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, for in verse number 5 of Exodus 12, your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year, ye shall take it out from the sheep or from the goats, and ye shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, of the same month, and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening, and they shall take of the blood and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door posts of the houses wherein they shall eat it, and they shall eat the flesh and that night roast with fire and unleavened bread, and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Now look at verse 13, I'm sorry look at 12 and 13 so you can see this, it says for I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, God speaking, and will smite all the first born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment, I am the Lord, and the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where you are, and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt. Now we know from 2 Corinthians chapter 5 that Jesus Christ is our Passover. The Bible says Christ our Passover is come. Everything in the Bible is a picture of Jesus Christ, everything. This whole book is the revelation of Jesus Christ from Genesis 1, 1 all the way to Revelation 22, 21. The whole book is pointing us toward Jesus Christ. This Old Testament sacrifice of the Passover, the Lamb of God here, is a picture of Jesus Christ who would one day come and die on the cross, the Lamb of God, for the sins of the world. Notice the story, on the 10th day of the month the Bible says they're supposed to take out a lamb out of the flock. It says they were supposed to go to their flock and find a lamb that had no blemish, no spot, no irregularities, the most perfect specimen they could find. Then they were supposed to hang onto that lamb from the 10th day, and the 11th day, and the 12th day, and the 13th day, and they're supposed to just watch it to make sure that they did not notice something that was wrong with it maybe, and just watch it and make sure that this really is a good lamb that they're sacrificing. Then on the 14th day at even, the whole congregation, not just their family, but the whole congregation of Israel gets together, and they kill this lamb. Then each person takes the blood of their lamb, and they were to take it to the door of their house, and they were to put it on the side posts of the door, the Bible says, and on the upper lintel of the door, and when they put that blood on, God said the blood on the door would be a token so that when he went through the land to kill all the firstborn on the Passover, he would pass over any house that had the blood on the door posts, and nobody in that house would die. Everybody would be saved. If they're in the house, the Bible is very clear on this. Now this is exactly the same thing with salvation. Let me ask you a question. If somebody was in that house who was a drunk, who was, you know, they were smoking, they were taking dope, they were cussing, they were doing everything wrong, but they had the blood on that door, are they going to die? No, absolutely not. I'll bet you that there were some wicked sinners. I'll bet you there were ungodly people, filthy people who didn't do anything right. I mean, they were cussing, they were probably dressed sloppy, they were probably dirty, and they sinned, and they hated people, and they didn't help anybody, and they only cared about themselves, and they lived for money, but if they had the blood on the door, God said, you'll be saved. But I also would venture to guess that perhaps there were some very nice people. I mean good, decent people, and the Egyptians, do you think every Egyptian was a bad person? No, of course not, and I'm sure that there were many fine, good, upstanding citizens of the Egyptians who paid their taxes, and they lived a good life, and they brought turkeys down to the shelter on Thanksgiving, and they would always donate to the Salvation Army when they're ringing the bell outside the grocery store, and they helped old ladies across the street, and they may have even read the Bible, and they may have even loved people, and they may have even been great, godly, nice people by our standards, where we look at them and say, this is a good Christian, this is a nice person, but if they didn't have the blood on the doorpost, they would die. They'd suffer the same fate of the ungodly that didn't have the blood on the doorpost, because there's only one deciding factor in salvation, and that is the blood of Jesus Christ. That's the only factor. Jesus said, he that hath the Son hath life, he that hath not the Son of God, shall not see life. Now, that's the Bible. It has nothing to do with doing good works. You know, many people look at somebody and say, well, they live a sinful life, so they must not be saved. Is that what determines whether somebody's saved? Living a sinful life? Living a good life? And who are you to be the judge of whether somebody is saved because they live a sinful life? The Bible says, he that believeth on me, he is saved. It says, if any man believe on me, he shall be saved. It says, I am the door. If any man enter in by me, he shall be saved. He said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. He said, whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life. Now, the problem is that people are not in the house, not the way they're living. They're not in the house where the blood has been applied. Let me ask you, has the blood been applied to your heart this morning? Have you had a time when you believed on Jesus Christ and said, I am a sinner, I deserve to go to hell, I've lied, I've done wrong, but I believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven, he died on the cross for me, he paid for my sins, rose again from the dead, and I'm trusting him to take me to heaven. That's salvation. But to say, well, I think I'd go, because I live a pretty good life, that's pride, and that's wrong. To say, well, I'm going to heaven, but that guy, there's no way he's going, look at the way he lives his life. Look, there are going to be a lot of people that get to heaven that aren't exactly quality people in our mind, and then there's going to be a whole lot of other people who we thought surely this wonderful person would go, but that person's pride and arrogance and refusal to accept Jesus Christ as their savior will take them to hell, because nobody's perfect, and they must pay for their sins, if Jesus does not pay for their sins, through them accepting the blood of Jesus Christ as their salvation, they will go to hell. But let me show you something about the chronology here. The Bible here is saying on the 10th day of the month, you get out the lamb, and you watch it. This corresponds exactly with Jesus Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem. When he came into Jerusalem, he was presenting himself the sacrifice that would be killed by the whole congregation of Israel, as it says right here, that the whole congregation was supposed to slay the lamb. He was the man who a few days later, the whole congregation would take Jesus Christ, the lamb of God, and would crucify him and kill him on the Passover at even. Now, that's the 10th day of the month. What day of the week is that? Sunday, right? Palm Sunday. That's what we learn about. Palm Sunday is that day of that presentation. So that would make Monday the 11th day, that would make Tuesday the 12th day, and that would make Wednesday the 13th day. Now, I must explain something to you here. In the Bible, and this makes it a little bit more complicated, but in the Bible, God starts the day at 6 p.m. for some reason. That's why the Bible says in Genesis chapter 1, it says in the evening and the morning were the first day. Now, you would assume that it would be the other way around. I'm still adapting to this Arizona climate a little bit, you know, the dryness, but you'd think that he'd say the morning and the evening were the first day. The morning and the evening were the second day. Wouldn't that make logical sense, because usually that's the way it comes. But you'll notice throughout the Bible, this pattern, where God starts the day the night before, and then it goes through night and then day. That's the way God looks at it for some reason, and that's why the Bible starts out with evening, first, and then morning. So, the day begins in the evening at 6 o'clock. The reason that word even even comes from is because that's the point where midnight would be the darkest point, and then noon would be the lightest point, and then there's those two spots in the middle, 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. 6 a.m. is referred to in the Bible as morning, and 6 p.m. is referred to as evening. And the Bible talks about there being 12 hours in a day and 12 hours in a night between 6 and 6. And that's just the way God looks. That's a little different than the way that we would look at it in modern day. But Jesus was presented on the tenth day, which is Sunday, the triumphal entry. The eleventh day, the twelfth day, and the thirteenth day is the observation period. He was tried before Pontius Pilate, and remember, three times Pontius Pilate said, what? I find no fault in him. I find no fault in him. That was the trial to say this is the lamb for the sacrifice. Then at even on the fourteenth day, which would basically be Wednesday night at 6 o'clock, would be the fourteenth day because you've got Sunday's the tenth, Monday's the eleventh, Tuesday's the twelfth, Wednesday's the thirteenth, at 6 p.m., boom, you're into the fourteenth, according to God. And that's exactly when they were supposed to kill the Passover, and that's exactly when Jesus died on the cross, was at Wednesday night at 6 p.m. Now let me show you something, and actually I'm just going to read through these because I don't want to belabor you too much, but I remember I was in junior college, just a typical junior college, not a Bible college, I think probably like the one that you work at, right? What's the one called? It's like a two-year junior college, right? I remember when I was in junior college, we were in a history class, and people brought up, you know, well the Bible has contradictions in it, and I said, well, why don't you name one? You know, because people always make that statement, oh, the Bible's got all kinds of contradictions, and I'm like, okay, well show me one, and then usually that just shuts them up, and you know what they said? They said, well, okay, I'll show you one. They said, the Bible says that Jesus was crucified on Friday, and yet it says that he was in the grave for three days and three nights, that's a contradiction, and they were right because that doesn't make any sense, that's stupid, but I'm going to show you right now why people think, part of the reason why they think he was crucified on Friday, obviously the underlying reason is because they don't believe Matthew 12.40, they don't believe the Bible, but I'm going to show you why they think that, and I'm going to expose the ignorance of thinking that he was crucified on Friday, but the first thing I want to show you, and this isn't really a typical sermon for me, usually I'm more preaching, but I want to show you this, I want to teach you this because I think it's really important, but I'm going to read this for you in Leviticus chapter 16, the Bible says, and this shall be a statute for you that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls and do no work at all. Okay, so try and follow me, bear with me for the next few points, you know, for this part, but it says in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, he says I don't want you to do any work at all, and then it says it shall be a Sabbath of rest unto you. Now look, he's saying here that the tenth day of July, the tenth day of the seventh month is going to be a Sabbath of rest unto you, a Sabbath. Now let me ask you something, what is the Sabbath usually talking about in the Bible nine times out of ten? Saturday, right? The Sabbath day is the seventh day Saturday, but God here is saying that the tenth day of July is going to be for them a Sabbath. Now does the tenth day of July always fall on a Saturday? In fact, six times out of seven it's not going to fall on a Saturday, so God is showing us here among many other places, I'm not going to show you all the places, that not only does he refer to the Saturday as a Sabbath, but he also refers to any holiday as a Sabbath. So he refers to here the Day of Atonement as a Sabbath. Then in Leviticus chapter 23 he lists a list of the Sabbaths. It says right here, speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them concerning the feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts. Number one, he says, six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest. That's one of them. Then he says in the fourteenth day of the first month is the Lord's Passover. Then he goes on and he says in the fifteenth day of the same month, so this is the day after the Passover, is the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord. It says you shall do no servile work therein. He says you can't work on this. This is a Sabbath. So not only the seventh day, this is the Old Testament, the rituals and the law. The fourteenth day is also a Sabbath and the fifteenth day is also a Sabbath. Right? Does everybody follow that? The fourteenth day is the Passover. The fifteenth day is the feast of unleavened bread. These are Sabbaths plural because they were not allowed to do any work and God refers to these holidays as Sabbaths. Now I'm going to skip all this, but there are several dates listed that are specific dates where God calls it a Sabbath because it's a holiday, not because it's a Saturday at all. And again, this is all repetitive, but I can literally show you like ten verses. I'm going to skip through these. But now I want to read this for you. Actually turn, if you would, to Mark 15 42. Mark chapter 15 42. This is toward the beginning of the New Testament. Mark 15 42. Now in this story right here, Mark 15 is the account of Jesus dying on the cross. Now at this stage in the chapter, Jesus has just died on the cross. He has just died. And the Bible says here, and now when the even was come, this is Mark 15 42, and now when the even was come, so the even has come on this day that Jesus is dying on the cross, because it was the preparation, that is the day before the Sabbath. So oh, see, Jesus was crucified on Friday, right? Because it says he died right there and it was the day before the Sabbath, so he must have died on Friday. Well, let's study a little more and let's see if we can make sure that the Bible is not contradicting itself, because that wouldn't make a lot of sense. Well, Luke 23 54, I'll just read this for you, it says the same thing. And that day was the preparation and the Sabbath grew on. Boy, it sounds like he was crucified on Friday, doesn't it? But look at John 19. Turn if you would to John 19 and look at verse 14 of John 19. And I'm going to show you why there's no contradiction in the Bible here, and that Jesus was not crucified on Friday. John 19 14, the Bible says, and it was the preparation for the Passover, and about the sixth hour, and he sayeth unto the Jews, Behold, your King. Now it says it was the preparation of the Passover. So the first two scriptures that we looked at in Mark and Luke said, this was the day of the preparation, which means the day before the Sabbath. But then here in John 14, it's saying it was the preparation for the Passover. So that term preparation does not just refer to being before the Sabbath as in Saturday, but it could refer to the day before any Sabbath, like the day before the Passover as it says here. Look at verse 31 and God puts it all together for you. John 19 31, the Jews, therefore, because it was the preparation that the body should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day, for that Sabbath day was an high day. You see that? He's saying this Sabbath was not Saturday. This was a holiday. This was a high day. This was a different kind of a Sabbath. This is what's fascinating about this. Jesus died on the cross on Wednesday night at six o'clock. He was in the grave for three days and three nights, but watch this. The first day he was in the grave was Thursday. Thursday was what? Does anybody know? Is anybody following the logic? Passover, right? The 14th day. Friday that he was in the grave was the Feast of Unleavened Bread. No work done at all. Saturday was the Sabbath day. So the way that this fell, the way that God laid this out, was so that Jesus Christ would happen to die on this Passover when it happened to be on a Thursday, so that it would go Thursday, Friday, Saturday. And the three days and the three nights that Jesus was dead were three Sabbaths back to back. Isn't that amazing? That's pretty interesting. And so God has a plan here that he laid out and he orchestrated this perfectly according to his plan. Now Jesus Christ in the grave for those three days, no work was done. I mean it was things stopped in the Jewish culture there and they were celebrating these peace, these feasts, they were celebrating the Passover, the Unleavened Bread, the seventh day. And Jesus Christ was fulfilling all three of those in one day, I mean in one event here. Because number one, Jesus Christ was the Passover. No longer would they have to slay a lamb. No longer would they have to take a lamb and butcher it on a cross, I mean on an altar and the blood would flow and then they would light it on fire and burn up that offering and the smoke would come before God as a sweet saver. No longer would they have to have the blood upon the altar for an atonement for their sins because Jesus Christ, the lamb slain once for all as we learned in the book of Hebrews, once for all he died for the sins of many, he died on the cross for all of us and he conquered sin and death finally and he conquered over number one the Passover, he completed it, he fulfilled it. Number two, the Feast of Unleavened Bread which represented the sinless body of Jesus Christ. That unleavened bread, bread with no corruption in it, leavened of course is decomposing. There's nothing wrong with eating leavened bread but it's a decomposing process. You get a bacteria of yeast and you put that bacteria in the bread and it begins a decomposition process. So that's why bread will become moldy and old. You take unleavened bread, does it ever go bad? Crackers, I mean you could eat them a year later and they're fine. But you take a loaf of bread and eat it a year later, ugh that's going to be horrible because it's got leaven in it, it's got yeast in it. Now that represented the sinless body of Jesus Christ. He said this is my body which is broken for you when he instituted the Lord's Supper with the unleavened bread and the juice and he said this is my body which was broken for you this do in remembrance of me. And then number three, the other thing that signified was that Sabbath on Saturday. What does that represent? The Sabbath represented the fact that we don't have to do any works to go to heaven. As you saw, God has finished the work. He finished it. Six days he finished the work, seventh day he rested. God says he that has entered into his rest, in Hebrews chapter four, he also had ceased from his own works as God did from his. In order to enter into that rest of salvation, we must cease from relying on our own good works to get us to heaven and trust the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. This is why we no longer celebrate the Sabbath day in the New Testament because the Bible says that Jesus Christ is our rest in the New Testament. We no longer have to not work on Saturday because we have entered into the rest, the Bible says, that Joshua and that David did not enter into as we learned about in the book of Hebrews. We as Christians have entered into the rest of saying I don't have to worry about whether I'm going to heaven or hell. I don't have to stress and work and try and I don't know if I'm good enough, I don't know if God's going to let me come to heaven, no glory to God, Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow, hallelujah, I don't worry about whether I'm going to heaven or hell, I know I'm going to heaven because I know that Jesus is my savior. Jesus said I give unto them eternal life and no man shall pluck them out of my hand. My father is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand. Once I got saved, the Bible says I was passed from death to life. The Bible says I shall never come into condemnation because I've been passed from death to life. Glory to God. Boy, talk about rest. You say well rest, does that mean that I sit around and I'm lazy? No, I'm not lazy at all because I've got rest about where my eternity is going. I've got rest about trying to get to heaven because I just believe on Jesus Christ. But now I'm ready to roll up my sleeves and work for God. Now that I'm saved, now that I've entered into my rest, I'm going to work as hard as I can. Every ounce of energy that I have until I die to get as many people saved as I can. To do as much for God as I can. Why? Because I'm scared of going to hell? No, because I love God. Because I want to love God and do what God wants me to do. That's the glorious liberty of the children of God, the Bible says. The liberty of saying I have the freedom to do whatever I want and yet I choose to live for God. Boy, there's nothing better than that, is there? Now why does this matter? You say come on. You say big deal, you know, Friday, Thursday, Wednesday, you know, who cares? Well that's the problem. That attitude that says like I don't really care what's true or not. I just care, you know, it's fun to go to my Good Friday service and I just think it's, you know, I just, whatever, you know, who cares? I care because I care that one thing's true and one thing's a lie and I want to know what the truth is. And, you know, the same religion that's telling people that Jesus was crucified on a Friday because they don't care what this book says, because they don't care that it says three days and three nights, that's the same religion that tells you go work your way to heaven. That's the same religion that says go confess your sins to a man. That's the same religion that says go and eat human flesh and drink blood in our mass and it's going to become the body in your stomach and it's become the blood in your stomach and listen to this guy in a dress and he's going to tell you what's true. Nobody tells me what's true except this book tells me what's true because that's God's word. And you see, it's the same philosophy that says, well, my church told me thus and so. I don't care what your church told you, I don't care what my church told me, I don't care what I told you, I care what this book says. This book is truth. Now God is a God of truth. Jesus said I am the truth. You say, well, what is God like? Well, I'll tell you, he's the truth. What's the Bible? What's the Bible about? What's it like? Well, my word is truth. And so everything epitomizes what God is. God is the truth. And so the difference between Jesus being crucified on Wednesday versus Jesus being crucified on Friday is that one of them is true and one of them is a lie. And you could go through life believing lies, believing lies, believing lies, why? Because if you don't know this book and if you don't read this book and study this book, yeah, maybe Wednesday, Friday, big deal, you know. But what about the other areas of life when you don't know what this book says? What about when somebody tells you something totally different and it has to do with salvation? What if it has to do with child rearing and you don't know what the book says? When you don't know what this book says, you're a slave to what other people tell you, to what the television told you, to what the radio told you, to what the preacher told you, to what I told you, and other people are just controlling your mind telling you what to think. The freedom in the Christian life is when you say, I will look at it myself. I will open this book myself and I will have the freedom to look at it and decide what I believe. I don't need to, when I read something in this book, I don't have to run and call some preacher and say, is this what this means? Is this really what that, look, that's what it says. I don't have to ask anybody. I don't have to run it by anybody because I just have the freedom to say, I've seen it myself in the book, God spoke, thus saith the Lord, end of story. Let me show you, let me show you something else, and you know, here's the other difference. It's also the difference between a Bible that's pretty accurate, you know, that gets you in the ballpark, kind of tells you the events of Jesus, and a book that says, no, I'll tell you exactly when Jesus was crucified. I won't make it sound like Friday here and then talk about three days and three nights here. No, this illustrates the supreme accuracy of our Bible. I don't question this book. This book, the King James Bible is the word of God. Now, if you would turn back to Matthew chapter 12, and I want to show you something else. Matthew chapter 12, verse number 40, the first verse that we started in, I want to show you another aspect here of this verse, and this is another thing that liberal theologians and Protestants and Catholics have taught us erroneously, and I'm just going to set the record straight, just straight from the word of God. The Bible says here in Matthew chapter 12, 40, and I'm going to read it again. It says, I'm sorry, I'm in the wrong book here. Matthew chapter 12, 40, Matthew chapter 12, 40 says, for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Now, let me ask you something. When they took Jesus down from the cross on that preparation day after he died, and they buried him in the tomb. Here they rolled the stone away, and they laid him in a brand new tomb that was engraved in stone, and they rolled a stone over the front door of it. Let me ask you something. Is that the heart of the earth? I mean, think about it. Let's picture the earth here. I'm going to draw a picture for you. Okay, the earth looks like this, right? And God knows that it looks like this, because in Isaiah chapter 41, he said that the earth is round, and in many other places, he calls it the circle of the earth, and talks about the heart of the earth, and so forth. But here's the earth, right? And so, here's this little cave that Jesus was buried in, okay? Does that look like he's in the heart of the earth to you at all? No. Now, who knows what an artichoke is, right? Who likes artichoke hearts? I love artichoke. I love artichoke hearts on pizza. Oh, so good. My favorite pizza is Canadian bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes, artichoke hearts, and chicken. Yes. I used to work in a pizza restaurant, and that's what I made every day. It was good. Artichoke hearts are great on pizza. I love them. I'm talking about big chunks. Well, where's the artichoke heart? It's right in the middle. Now, everybody knows that the heart, if we need to get to the heart of something, if you say he lives in the heart of the Sonoran Desert, you know, that's going to be right in the middle. Isn't that right? So in order for the Bible to be true, this verse that seems to not be in people's Bibles, or I don't know if they just don't believe it because they think he's crucified on Friday, and they don't understand that Jesus was right here when he died. And let me prove that to you from the Bible. Turn to the book of Jonah, and I'm going to show you some very interesting things from the book of Jonah. Now, most of the time, this is a little different than a typical Sunday morning. This is more of a Sunday night type of message where I teach a lot of things from the Bible. Sunday mornings, usually more preaching and, you know, kind of like last week where we just had it right down on the bottom shelf where everybody understood what we were preaching about last week. But look at Jonah chapter 2. Jonah chapter 2, and I want to show you this great chapter, one of my favorite chapters in the Bible, Jonah chapter 2. It's at the very end, I'm sorry, it's at the very end of the Old Testament. There's 12 little short books right there called the Minor Prophets. It's right toward the end, so this is about, you know, four or five books before Matthew, somewhere in there. Jonah chapter 2. Now, in Jonah chapter 1, of course, Jonah disobeys God, he's running from God, he's supposed to go to Nineveh, he goes to Tarshish. God causes a storm to come, they throw him overboard, you know the story. He falls into the water. God prepares a great fish, which we find out in Matthew chapter 10 is actually a whale, and that whale swallows Jonah, and the Bible says at the end of chapter 1, look at the last verse in Jonah chapter 1, 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. Seventy-two hours he was in this fish. Now look at chapter 2 verse 1. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly. Now we already know that Jonah is picturing Jesus Christ here. He is picturing the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We already read that in Matthew chapter 12. Just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so also must the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. And so Jonah here, being swallowed up by the fish, represents the death of Jesus Christ. In the fish represents the three days that he was dead, and when he's vomited up on the dry land, that represents the resurrection. Now look, look at chapter number 2, it says, then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly and said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me. Out of the belly of, what's that say, hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. Now let me ask something, did Jonah go to hell? No he didn't even die. He was just in the belly of a whale, right? It says out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. For thou hast cast me into the deep in the midst of the seas, and the floods come past me about. All thy billows and thy ways pass over me. Look down to verse number 6 now. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains. The earth with her bars was about me forever. And hast thou brought up my life from corruption? Now notice that word corruption, okay, just think about that in your mind. What's he saying here? He's saying he brought up his life from corruption. But look what he's saying. He says, I cried out of hell, number 1. Jonah didn't go to hell, he's talking about Jesus Christ, he's prophesying here about Jesus Christ. What do you say? Well, that's just a figure of speech. No, you know, the Bible means what it says, and it says what it means, and it says here out of the belly of hell cried I. It's talking about Jesus Christ. But look at this fascinating verse in number 6, it says, I went down to the bottoms of the mountains, the earth with her bars was about me forever. So the earth was around him, so he was in the center of the earth in hell, and the Bible says the earth with her bars was about me forever. This is the fascinating thing, somehow Jesus Christ in those three days and three nights suffered an eternity of hell, because this is the way he perceived it. He says, I was in hell forever, that's what he said in Jonah chapter 2. Now, because God is this eternal being, and none of us can fully understand this, but somehow the punishment for sin is for us to go to hell for all eternity when we die, if we're not saved. Somehow Jesus Christ with his eternal life, that he died on the cross, he said I was dead in Revelation 1. I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive forevermore. He was somehow dead in hell, and in three days and three nights he suffered an eternity of hell. Amazing. We'll never understand it, but that's the truth. So Jesus' body was, yes, in the tomb, but the Bible says that his soul was in hell in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights, and he suffered eternal hell. You say, well, Jesus suffered so much for us, he was spit on and he was beaten and he was hit with sin. How about the fact that he went to hell for three days and paid all your sins? How about the fact that he went to hell? You say, well, I don't believe that he went to hell. Look at Acts chapter 2. Remember that word, corruption. Now I've met everybody who I've ever met who doesn't believe this, who doesn't believe that Jesus went to hell for three days and three nights, they just think he was dead, or I don't know where they think he was. Everybody I've ever met who believes this, you know what they said? They said that's not what the Bible really says. They said your Bible's wrong. They said if you go back to the original languages and the original manuscripts and Dr. Fatbottom will explain to you that he will tell you that this word hell does not really mean hell, it actually means hades and sheol and gehenna, and it's actually a trash dump that was outside of the Jerusalem town, that's what they literally tell you, because they don't believe the Bible. We all believe the Bible, right? And we're just going to read it and believe it. Look at Acts chapter 2, and the Bible says here in Acts 2 26, therefore did my heart rejoice and my tongue was glad, moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope, because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. See how consistent the Bible is? Written by 40 different authors over a space of 1600 years and yet it's so consistent. So Jesus said that his soul would not be left in hell. Now look down at verse number 30 of Acts chapter 2. The Bible says therefore being a prophet, it's saying David, David's the one who spoke this in the book of Psalms, therefore being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on the throne, he's seen this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ that his soul was not left in hell. Whose soul was not left in hell? Christ! It says he spake this of the resurrection of Christ that his soul was not left in the tomb? No, that's not what it says. It says he spake this of the resurrection of Christ that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Boy, isn't the Bible a fascinating book, isn't it great? So Jesus Christ died on the cross on the 14th day of the month Abib, Wednesday night, he died, he was in the heart of the earth, his soul was in hell for three days and three nights, he paid all our sins, he paid for the sins of the whole world, and then Sunday morning up from the grave he arose, only the first day of the week, and he was triumphantly victorious over death, over hell, over the grave. That's why he has the power to save you. You say, well, Jesus died before I was even born. So that means he died for your sins all in the future, they haven't even happened yet. That means he died for sins that you haven't even done yet. He died for stuff that you're going to do next week, he died for the sin that you might do later today. Jesus has paid all your sins. You say, well I think if you sin, you'll lose your salvation. Jesus already paid all your sins. It's like double jeopardy in the United States. No crime is punished twice for the same person. And so it's already been paid for. How would you like, let me ask something, I want you to appreciate what Jesus Christ went through for us. How would you like to face God with all the sins of an Adolf Hitler? Okay, let's say all the sins of Adolf Hitler, it's like you did it, okay? And God, as far as God's sins are concerned, you're guilty. How would you like to stand before God, who is a consuming fire, the Bible says, who, the Bible says, hell is kindled out of a stream of fire and brimstone out of his mouth. God, who's terrible and dreadful, the Bible says, the Lord is terrible and dreadful. The Lord is furious, the Bible says. And so how would you like to stand before the God of the universe with all the sins of Adolf Hitler, Jeffrey Dahmer, every wicked, vile sinner in the world, and have God pour out his wrath on you? Oh, none of us could even imagine. What kind of a punishment those type of men would deserve from a holy God, who even thinks that lying is a wicked sin. And yet, these men did all kinds of vile things. Can you imagine that? But the Bible says that Jesus Christ bore in his own body our sins on the tree. And it says, not for ours only, in 1 John 2, 2, he's the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And so here's Jesus on the cross, all the sins of the world are on his shoulders. And, you know, of course, we have the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the Trinity. Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one, as the Bible says in 1 John 5, 7. And so somehow the Father, the Heavenly Father, God the Father, looked down on God the Son, Jesus Christ on the cross, who had all the sins of the whole world embodied in him. He who knew no sin became sin for us, the Bible says. That we might be made the righteousness of God through him. And here's Jesus with all the sins of the whole world. And God the Father, somehow, some kind of a separation took place. None of us could ever understand this. But the Father had to turn his back on his own son. And Jesus cried out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And he felt eternal damnation of a person who had had all the most wicked, vile sins in the world, he understood the feeling of being damned to hell, and he died on the cross. He took his body to the tomb, and his soul went to hell, and he paid the price for sin. And he comes up from the grave, and he appears to his disciples, you remember, in the garden? And he shows them the holes in his head, the wounds in his hands. He shows them the hole in his side, and he says, be not faithless, but believing. Because somebody actually tried to question him whether he'd actually done that. He said, be not faithless, but believing to Thomas. Thomas fell on his knees and said, my Lord and my God. And you see the power of Jesus Christ when you open the book of Revelation. And you get to the final chapter of the Bible, in Revelation chapter 1, where he says, fear not. I am the first and the last, is Jesus Christ speaking. I am the beginning and the end. I am either was dead and I'm alive, and I live forevermore, and I have the keys of hell and of death. And John said, when I saw him, I fell on his, and his feet is dead. And he put his hand on John. He was on his face. He fell down like he was dead at the awesome sight of Jesus Christ. And Jesus put his hand on John and said, fear not. He said, write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter. And we see the unveiling, which culminates in Revelation 19, when Jesus Christ returns on a white horse with a two-edged sword coming out of his mouth. All the saints behind him in linen, clean and white. And he comes back, and he has a name on his thigh written, the word of God. He's got another name that says, faithful and true. And the Bible says he had a vesture dipped in blood. His name is called the word of God. And he comes through and he says, hallelujah. He sets up his kingdom on this earth. He takes the devil and throws him into that bottomless pit, locks the key away. He sends him to his eternal destiny of hell. Boy, what a wonderful Savior that we serve, don't we? What an awesome God is this Jesus Christ. All glory, and all praise, and all power be to him, which is, and which was, and which is to come, Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. Hallelujah. And then in Revelation 21 and 22, we see the new heaven and the new earth, and all the former things are passed away. And we see the glorious destiny that we have. Just sinners, just, you know, just ordinary people that we are, sinful, pledged, we make mistakes every day. I probably sin every single day of my life. But, oh, God has translated us into the glorious kingdom of his son. He took a vile sinner from the dust of the earth that was going to return to the dust from whence he came. And God took us and he lifted us out of that miry pit and set our feet on a rock and says, I'm going to take away your vile raiment. Then I'm going to give you a brand new robe of righteousness. Not your righteousness, not the great things that you've done. But the righteousness of Jesus Christ. He said, put this on. This is my righteousness. You can have this coat. Put it on. And I've forgotten all your sins, and I've cast all your sins behind my back. And I've put them in the deepest sea, and I've saved you. You'll never become an condemnation. You'll never have to face hell. You'll never have to face death. You'll breathe your last breath, and you'll be with me in heaven. And I'll take you with me and set up my glorious kingdom on this earth, and you can rule and reign with me. Oh, hallelujah. That's salvation. That is what it means to be saved. It means to come from nothing, to be a king and a priest and a brother and a joint heir with Jesus Christ. That's why this matters. That's why it matters, the truths of God's work. You take away that truth right there. You take away that truth, and you've just devalued salvation. You just took something away from the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. When you start using tradition and using a religion to let you interpret the Bible, instead of just saying, Thus saith the Lord, I don't care whether I understand it or not, I just believe that God's word is the truth. I just believe it. I don't read this book and decide whether it's true or not. I just believe that it's true. What's the application? Usually my sermons may be a little more practical. What's the application? The application is, number one, don't listen to tradition. Don't just go by what you've always been taught. Make sure it lines up with this book right here. This is God's word. Number two, if you're not saved, maybe you say, Well, I hope I'm going to heaven, but I'm not really 100% sure that I'm saved. Look, you don't have to turn over a new leaf to be saved. You don't have to repent of all your sins and say, I'm going to quit this and quit this and quit this. Hey, Jesus said, Whosoever will, let him come and take the water of life freely. He said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Remember the Philippian jailer on his knees? He grabbed a lantern. He said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? I'll do anything. He said, No, you don't have to do anything. He said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Just apply the blood to the doorpost, and the death angel's going to pass over, and you'll be saved no matter who you are. Whosoever believeth. And number three, you say, Well, I'm already saved. I'm a Christian. I believe the Bible. But you know, life is just so hard, and it's so hard to live for God. And I just struggle constantly with trying to do what's right and trying to live for God. I struggle being faithful to church. I struggle reading my Bible every day. You know, I struggle to pray. I struggle to obey God's commands. I find myself giving into temptation. It's just so hard. And sometimes I just feel like throwing in the towel and just, I'm just tired of fighting. I'm just tired of trying. No, no, no, no, no. Look what Jesus went through for us. Unimaginable things. Unspeakable things that we can't even comprehend what he went through for those three days and three nights. He suffered for us. Let's put in a little suffering for him as Christians. It's not that all life doesn't have to be a bed of roses. If we suffer, we shall also reign with him, the Bible says. Let's put in some suffering. Let's put in the hours, you know, out winning people to Christ. Let's put in the hours reading this book, knowing God's word, being filled with the Holy Spirit through reading the Bible so that we could see many people saved. So that we could see people escape the fires of hell and have the same privileged position that we have as children of God himself. Boy, let's work at this thing constantly. Let's suffer. Jesus suffered for us. And the Bible says that he left us an example that we should follow in his steps. 1 Peter chapter 2, a whole chapter about suffering. You know, our life is as a vapor. It appears for but a little time and then vanishes away. And the Bible says that the sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed when Jesus Christ returns. Boy, we're going to look back at the suffering on that glorious day when Jesus Christ returns. We're going to look back at the suffering and say, it was nothing. You know, we're going to be glad. We're going to be like, man, I wish I would have suffered more. Now that I see the glory, I want to be a partaker of Jesus Christ's sufferings so that I can be a partaker of the glory when his glory is revealed at his second coming.