The prophecy of Jonah sets before
us a very powerful picture of the gospel of the substitutionary
atonement of Jesus Christ and of the fruit of that atonement
in delivering sinners from the consequence of their sin. It
sets before us the power of the Word of the Lord. The Word of
the Lord both in terms of that spoken and preached Word of the
Gospel and of the embodiment of the Word of the Lord as it
is in Jesus Christ. The Word of the Lord, Christ,
came into this world to save sinners. God spake through His
Son, Jesus Christ. He spake in the beginning of
time through Christ and formed this world and everything that
is in it and every man, woman and child who has ever lived.
God spake through the Word and all men lived. Mankind turned
its back upon its maker. You and I, as with everyone else,
have gone astray from God like sheep that go astray. We've shaken
our fist in God's face, we've sought our own glory and our
own way. And we've brought upon ourselves
the wrath and the judgment of God because of our sin. Sin entered
the world by one man, Adam, and death by sin. And everyone that
has followed Adam has sinned in the same manner and death
has entered as a consequence. We reap what we sow. We've turned
our back upon God, we've hated God and his ways, we've turned
to our own things and the consequence is sin in our heart, death reigning
in our mortal members and the ultimate judgment and sentence
of Almighty God against our sin. We live our lives outside of
Christ with a ticking by of time until that last hour of our life,
that last moment when we take our last breath and we come under
the final judgment of God. And if we know not Christ or
His mercy or His salvation, then that judgment will be our utter
destruction in eternity. That's the state of man in this
world. But that world was created and
brought into being by the word of the Lord. God spake by Christ
and all things were created. And although mankind has sinned
and gone away from God, God created this world, knowing the end from
the beginning. knowing what he would do with
it knowing what man would do with it and his ultimate aim
is to display his mercy to display his grace in salvation God's
ultimate reason for the existence of this world and the existence
of you and I is to send his son The Word of God into this world
in the fullness of time at the appointed hour. to suffer and
die in the place of sinners. God's ultimate aim was to send
His Son as a sacrifice for sinners, as a sacrifice for His people,
to deliver them from their sin, to deliver them from that which
they wrought by their own disobedience and to display His mercy and
grace in washing them clean. in taking away their sin and
in taking away their sin by laying it upon his own son and pouring
the judgment that they deserved upon him in their place. And
so the majesty of God is displayed in his grace in saving sinners. He shows unto this world that
he is a God that delights in showing mercy, that he is a gracious
God. And so in the prophecy of Jonah
we see how Jonah is sacrificed to deliver the people upon that
ship from the tempest of the storm. He gives his own life
and he goes into the belly of hell, into the belly of the fish
for three days and three nights. He's cast out of the presence
of God. He's put under the judgment of
God. He, as it were, dies that others
might live. And he's displayed unto us as
a picture of Christ, the Word of God. The Word of the Lord,
whom God sent into this world, His own Son, His only begotten
Son. He sent His Son and He offered
Him as a sacrifice. He gave Him up and His own Son
went into the belly of hell. for three days and three nights
and felt the storms and tempests of God's wrath against sin upon
him as he bore the sinner's judgment. Oh what a powerful picture of
the gospel. What a display of God's purpose
in salvation. This is how he will save his
people, by offering his own son, through a substitute. by grace,
through mercy. This is how he displays his love
in contrast to the hatred of man and his righteousness in
contrast to the sin and iniquity of man. So the message of Jonah
is a message of the Word of the Lord, the Word of the Lord which
brought this world into being, the Word of the Lord which was
offered up in the person of Jesus Christ as a sacrifice. And then
in chapters 3 and 4 we see the result, the fruit of this sacrifice
as the word of the Lord goes forth in power in the preaching
of the gospel to deliver the wicked city of Nineveh from the
wrath and judgment of God. Jonah's sacrifice was not in
vain. Jonah's death and burial and
resurrection from the belly of hell had a purpose and its purpose
was to deliver sinners from their sin. Its purpose was to send
the word of the Lord to Nineveh to deliver the Ninevites. And
we read of this in chapter 3. And the word of the Lord came
unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that
great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.
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. 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. 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. For word came unto the
king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid
his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in
ashes. And he calls it to be proclaimed
and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and
his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock,
taste anything. Let them not feed nor drink water,
but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily
unto God. Yea, let them turn every one
from his evil way and from the violence that is in their hands.
Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from
his fierce anger that we perish not? 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. This is a tremendous picture
in this chapter of the impact of the word of the Lord, of the
preaching of the gospel upon this wicked city of Nineveh. And this is to be seen in the
context of what happened in chapters 1 and 2. Initially in chapter
1, God came unto Jonah and told him to go to Nineveh. He said,
Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai,
saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against
it, for their wickedness is come up before me. But Jonah rose
up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord and
went down to Joppa. And he went into the ship. And
a storm came upon the ship. And he was thrown overboard.
and went into the belly of the fish for three days and three
nights. And as it were, died, was buried
and rose again. But here in chapter three, having
died, having been buried, having risen again, he's sent to Nineveh
again with the word of the Lord and sent to preach unto it. And
what he comes preaching is in the light of what's preceded.
It's because of what happened in chapters 1 and 2 that this
message has such an impact. When Jonah comes to Nineveh this
time and preaches unto them, the people repent. And they turn
unto God and they cry unto God, hoping in His mercy. And God
shows them mercy. but he shows them mercy because
of what he's done in type and figure in Jonah but in reality
to his own son for them. It's because he's given his son
as a sacrifice for their sin and judged their sin in another
that he can deliver them. What Jonah comes preaching unto
them is that God's wrath is kindled against their sin. that they
will be overthrown unless they turn from their wicked ways. And naturally speaking, they
would never turn. And naturally speaking, you would
never turn. If I come to you and say that
God is angry with your sin, and left in that sin you will perish
in hell the natural response of your heart and of my heart
and of all men's heart is just to rage against it or to shut
our ears and say we don't want to know and off we go in our
stubborn foolish way even though our conscience within us might
say that this is true We're so lost in our sin, we're so trapped
in our sin that we cannot turn. That we cannot change. And we
will not believe. But this people turn, they repent
of their sin. And they cry out to God and cry
out for His mercy. And the reason they turn is because
God has already set His love upon them. He's already working
in their hearts. He's sending the Gospel unto
them in such a way, with such power, that their hearts are
turned because He's prepared. He's offered the sacrifice in
their place. Because he's poured out his wrath
as it were upon his own son, but in type and figure upon Jonah
already, he can show them mercy. They have been chosen of God
unto mercy. This is an elect people chosen
of God. He sent Jonah to this people
in particular. And he sent Jonah with the Word
of the Lord in the light of the outworking of the Gospel in the
death of Jesus Christ. That ultimately is the message
that comes to Nineveh. And if that message had gone
straight to Nineveh in chapter 1, it might simply have been
a message of condemnation that left them in their sin. The whole
of this book is a display of the sovereignty of God and his
outworking of salvation. Yes, Jonah, when he was first
sent to Nineveh, fled from the presence of the Lord, but this
was in God's sovereignty, such that he would be offered up as
a sacrifice in a figure, such that when he comes with the message
to Nineveh in chapter 3, it comes as a prepared message of the
gospel. What he comes to Nineveh with
in chapter 3 is a message built upon the fact of substitutionary
atonement. God can forgive them because
God has already poured out his wrath upon another. And therein
lies the power of the gospel. But here we see the word of the
Lord coming unto Jonah the second time. Christ himself, the speech
of God, the gospel of Christ comes unto him and it's sent
to Nineveh. And he goes and he preaches there.
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. 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. Now even in these verses we see
the Gospel. Nineveh was an exceeding great
city of three days journey. To travel across this city would
have taken three days. Now why is this mentioned? It's
mentioned because it brings us back to that which we saw in
chapters 1 and 2. That Jonah was in the belly of
the fish, in the belly of hell, three days and three nights to
deliver this people. There was a work which began
at the cross in death, which went through the grave and burial
in the belly of hell, and which concluded with resurrection. It took three days and three
nights for Christ to deliver his people from their sin. It
took three days and three nights to compass the whole of this
city and the whole of the people within that city with the grace
and salvation of God. God's work in Christ over those
three days covered the sins of all the people, all his elect
people, which are figured by the people of Nineveh and that
great city. That great city was three days
journey from one side to the other and God's grace and mercy
in Jonah and in his son Jesus Christ wrought in those three
days and three nights covered completely the sins of all his
people. But when Jonah enters the city
with his message he begins to preach after a day's journey. one day and on that day he says
yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. The work of God
in salvation in Christ upon the cross is one compass in three
days. It compassed three days. On the
first day, Christ died upon the cross. The judgment of God came
down upon him. The penalty of the law was exacted
upon him. The wrath of God came down upon
him. On the second day, as it were,
he's laid in the grave, dead and buried. And on the third
day, he rises and comes forth from the grave victorious. But
as Jonah comes into this city he begins with what? He begins
with the message that comes forth from that first day, from the
judgment of God upon the cross. He comes and cries yet forty
days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. After a day's journey the message
is the judgment and wrath of God against sin. That's where the gospel begins.
The Gospel concludes with the grace and forgiveness of God
and the resurrection of Christ and his people victorious. God having judged all sin at
the cross, having finished the work, having buried it in the
grave, brings his people forth victorious from the grave in
Christ, without sin, righteous before a holy God. and the grace,
love and mercy of God are displayed. But on the first day, in the
hours of darkness upon the cross, We see the judgment, the wrath,
the tempest and the storm of God against sin. And when the
gospel comes unto you, if you ever hear it aright, that's where
it begins. As it begins in Romans, the wrath
of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men, against all your wickedness. There are those who will come
with their watered down, easy believism gospel, where they
come simply telling you about the love of Jesus for all men,
the love of their Jesus, who loves all men and wants all men
to be saved, and they don't tell you anything about sin. anything
about death, anything about the reality of the situation in which
you and I found ourselves, as a consequence of what we have
done and of what we are by nature. They make everything sound easy
and fine, but the Gospel starts with the wrath of God against
our sin. It's that wrath that came down
upon Jonah, as it were, in the fish. and upon Christ in the
darkness at the cross. And that's where Jonah's preaching
begins in Nineveh after a day's journey. He preaches that the city will
be overthrown. God is angry with their sin. Repent and turn. And the alarm
of that message is struck home to this people by the power of
the Holy Ghost and they do turn and they do repent they do feel
the wrath of God against them they do see the consequence of
where they are they're struck to their heart like those of we read of in Acts
when the Apostles came preaching the gospel. There were those
who were struck in their heart. They were pierced in their heart.
It came to them in power. They heard. And they heard because
this message came in the light of the finished work of Jesus
Christ. It didn't stop with a message
of judgment. It went on to a message of salvation. They turned and cried out unto
God in the hope that God would repent of his fierce anger and
that they would perish not. They cried out to God for mercy. They had a hope of mercy. The
natural instinct. outside of the work of God and
outside of the power of the gospel on hearing of God's wrath against
sin is just a rage against it or to shut the ear and there
are many who do but when God sends his word like this in the
light of the gospel through his son through the word of God then
it has a different impact this is why the people react in this
way they turned and they cried out under God and he heard them
he heard them God repented of the evil that he had said that
he would do unto them and he did it not because God knew that
the wrath which was due unto them had been poured out as it
were upon the substitute upon Jonah upon Christ So He could
forgive them, and He could show them grace, and He could show
them mercy. And if God comes unto you in
the Gospel, and has chosen you from before the foundation of
the world, and has laid your sins upon Christ, then when He
comes unto you, though the Gospel might begin by making known unto
you the wrath of God against your sin, it will go on to reveal
a saviour. It will go on to reveal a Jonah
who went into the belly of hell for your soul. It will go on
to reveal the grace and mercy of God in judging his own son
in your place. Have you heard that gospel? What
has the reaction of your heart been to it? Have you turned against it? Have
you run away from it? Have you raged against it? Have
you tried to shut your ears and wish you were somewhere else?
Or has God spoken unto your soul like he did unto the Ninevites
and caused you to cry out for mercy? Has he given you a hope
of mercy? Because you've heard of a saviour. You've heard of one who's gone
to the belly of hell for sinners. You've heard of one who's been
sacrificed. Here came Jonah unto them. And
this man who preached unto them had been sacrificed for them.
God sent his word unto them. He sent, as it were, Christ unto
them and displays Christ and says, I've given my son for you,
that you should be spared this judgment. that you should be spared this
judgment. But what is Jonah's reaction in this prophecy to
this turn of events? When this comes about, we read
in chapter 4, But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was
very angry. 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 Antitashis,
for I knew that thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger
and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. Therefore now,
O Lord, take I beseech thee my life from me, for it is better
for me to die than to live.' Then said the Lord, Doest thou
well to be angry? Sojourner, rather than rejoicing
in the impact of the gospel upon the Ninevites and the fruit of
it, is angry. He's angry. And here we see how
we as men can react to the things of God and their
application against sinners Jonah was initially sent of God to
go to Nineveh and Jonah knew that that nation was a wicked
nation and he knew that God was sending him with a message to
cry against it for their wickedness has come up before me but Jonah knew that God is a
gracious God O LORD, was not this my saying
when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before under
Tarshish, for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful,
slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentant of the evil. He
knew that God was a gracious God. And though God sent him
to Nineveh to preach against it and to declare the wrath of
God against their sin, and the impending judgment of God against
their sin Jonah knew that ultimately God is a gracious God who would
deliver them and he didn't want to go and
preach that message of judgment when he knew that ultimately
God might spare them here we see some of the confusion
in Jonah's mind there is a part of Jonah who like many and like
many Christians at times can be who can see the wickedness
of man and be indignant against it and feel it's wrong and feel
it should stop and speak out against it and then be annoyed if people
are forgiven and don't pay the price that they should pay There
at times is this war between the reality of grace and our
legal judgmental instinct against sinners. So there is that in Jonah which
felt that the Ninevites deserved to be judged. And yet at the
same time he knew that God would be gracious. But there was also
that in Jonah that knew that he would be saying unto the Ninevites
that the wrath of God is kindled against them but ultimately God
might spare them. He's torn in two and therefore
he runs away because he knows that God is a gracious God. A merciful God. And he feels angry. How many
of us can feel angry when we look at the darkness and the
evil of the world around us and what goes on and what seems to
be allowed to go on. And yet this world around us
is wicked just as we by nature are wicked. The greatest acts
of sin you see in the world around you, believer, the greatest sinners
you see in the world around you, are no more sinful than you are.
And if God has showed you mercy, might he not show others mercy?
And if God has forgiven you and spared you, might he not spare
them? What is your reaction to the
wickedness around you? When you look upon a wicked Nineveh
in which you live, what's your reaction? Do you rail against
the wickedness? Do you feel the people should
be condemned? Or do you want them to hear the
gospel and be spared and delivered? Turner's reaction. is that he's torn. Torn between
a righteous view of the judgment of God against sin but a knowledge
that his God is gracious. He also knows from what happened
on his way to Nineveh in the fish that as it were for them
to be delivered, he must die. He sacrificed in type and figure
for them. Their life comes at his expense. And Christ knew, when he came
into this world to save his people, that he could only deliver them
if he died. he must die. But God gives us a great message
in response to Jonah's confusion and in response to the legal
heart of men who would condemn that which
is wrong and seek to see judgment come down. God displays his gospel
and his grace. He says unto Jonah, Doest thou
well to be angry? 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. And the Lord God prepared a gourd,
and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over
his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding
glad of the gourd. But God prepared a worm, when
the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it
withered. And it came to pass when the
sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind, And the
sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in
himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than
to live. And God said to Jonah, Doest
thou well to be angry for the God? And he said, I do well to
be angry even unto death. Then said the Lord, Thou hast
had pity on the God, for the which thou hast not laboured,
neither made it grow which came up in a night and perished in
a night and should not I spend in that great city wherein are
more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between
their right hand and their left hand and also much cattle. So God's reaction to Jonah's
reaction is to show him The reason for his grace. Jonah sat and watched what would
become of the city. And God gave him this gourd to
keep the sun away from him. But then God sent a worm which
smoked the gourd and it withered away. And Jonah was angry that
the gourd was destroyed because the gourd had been something
which eased him, which delivered him from his grief. Something
he loved. And then here comes this worm
and destroys it and he's angry about it. Here he is fainting in the sun
without this gourd and suffering. God says unto him, Doest thou
well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be
angry even unto death. Then said the Lord, Thou hast
had pity on the gourd for which thou hast not laboured, neither
may'st it grow which came up in a night and perished in a
night. And should not I spare none of that great city? Jonah never made the gourd, it
was a gift given to him. Yet he was angry. when it was
destroyed but God made Nineveh and all the people therein and
whatever wickedness that people may have turned to, whatever
they may have done, however rebellious they may have been, however just
their judgment might be, however right it might be for God to
pour down His wrath and destroy them for what they had done,
nevertheless God made them. They were His creation. Jonah
hadn't laboured for the God but God did God created this world
He created every living creature and every person therein Is it not up to God if He shows
mercy and spares? Oh you may look upon the wicked
and say well look at what they're doing they deserve this they
deserve to be judged but has God not shown you mercy believer? and can he not show another mercy?
you didn't know what you were doing in the folly of your sin
you went this way and that way and you could not discern the
truth and you could not walk aright and you would not turn
unto God and follow him you went around in your own wisdom which
is the foolishness of man and you went astray and if God showed
you mercy it was in spite of all that you did and all that
you fought and all that you strove to be you went your own way hating
God and glorifying yourself And yet God showed you mercy. And if God shows anyone mercy,
if you, O sinner, are shown mercy this day, it won't be because
of any wisdom in you, or any good in you, or any right decision
in you, but because God set his love upon you. God made you in
the beginning. You turned aside from him and
went your own way. But if God chooses to show you
mercy, He will show you mercy. This
people in Nineveh could not discern between their right hand and
their left. They were foolish children of
Roth, like sheep they'd gone astray, bumbling about, turning
to the right hand and the left hand, not knowing where they're
going. not knowing where they're going
they went astray and God showed them mercy and oh how like us
they are we've all gone astray none of us can discern between
our right hand and our left hand however great we think we are
however wise we think we are ultimately we're fools We've
foolishly gone astray from God. We've foolishly sought our own
things and our own ways. We don't know what we're doing.
And this world of people that didn't know what it was doing,
when God sent his son into it, they took his own son and they
crucified him. and they thought they were doing
God's service. The Jews, when Christ came to
him, rejected him and they thought they were doing the right thing
in putting this man to death. They couldn't discern between
their right hand and their left and they took God's own son and
slew him. And what did Christ say upon
the cross when they did that? Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. father
forgive them they know not what they do there's the grace of God there's
the grace of God there's the love and the mercy of God there's
the heart of God that he can look upon the most wicked people
who took his son and put his son to death and God in Christ
could look upon them and say Father forgive them they know
not what they do. Should not I spare Nineveh that
great city where are more than six score thousand persons that
cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand. Oh what a reaction to this wicked
world and that wicked city. Oh what a display of the heart
of a God that delights in showing mercy. Jonah knew that God is
a gracious God and merciful and slow to anger and of great kindness. What's your reaction to the world
around you? the darkness and evil of men
around you, the sin you see, the wicked laws that are passed,
the brazen display of sin upon our streets. Yes, there's a righteous
indignation. There's a reaction of the law
to these things. A just hatred of sin, these things
should not be. And God's wrath from heaven is
rightly kindled against them. But at the same time, God sent
his son into this world to save sinners. And of such are some
of you. When you look upon the wickedness,
remember, believer, you were just like them. You did not know
what you did. You could not discern between
your right hand and your left hand. You were sinning as greatly
as they are. And God showed you grace and
mercy in the Gospel. Oh that our reaction might be
that which comes from grace. That which comes as those who've
been forgiven. Forgive others, even as ye have
been forgiven. O that we might look upon the
world around us, the way God looks, by grace, as a world ripe
for the gospel, as a world that needs to hear the gospel, as
a world that needs the gospel and the preachers of the gospel
to go into the great city of this world and to go in a day's
journey and preach against their sin but to carry on and preach
Christ and his death and his resurrection. To point to people
and say behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of
the world. Behold the Lamb of God! Behold my Son! Hear Him! Yes, Nineveh was wicked. Yes,
it deserved to be destroyed. But the message of this Book
of Jonah is a message of grace. Of substitution. Of God's justice
being poured down upon another. God didn't just turn a blind
eye to the sin of Nineveh. He didn't just let it go, He
judged it. But He judged it in His Son. And when we preach the Gospel
in this wicked world, if any hear and believe, God hasn't
turned a blind eye to their sin. But it's judged in Christ. as
it was believer for you. It's judged in Christ. It's been
blotted out. Every sin has been taken away. When Christ in the darkness suffered,
He took away every sin, every transgression, all rebellion,
all unbelief and He cried out at the end of the suffering,
it is finished. Out of the belly of hell he cried
to his father and his father heard him and his faith was rewarded. Because having blotted out all
the sins of this people of Nineveh, of this wicked world around,
of the people of God in this world, of all the chosen elect
of God, of all the chosen election of grace, having blotted out
every sin of every one that God chose to judge in Christ, Christ
laid down His life. and was laid in the grave. And
on the third day he rose victorious from the grave, and all that
people rose with him. And they came forth victorious,
forgiven, washed, cleansed in the blood of God. And they could
say with Jonah, I know that thou art a gracious God, and merciful,
slow to anger, and of great kindness. because thou hast given thy son
for me, because he was plunged into the belly of hell for me,
he came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. He saved me because he loved
me. Do you do well to be angry? Do
you look around at the sin of this world? Are you right to
be angry? Yes. It's a wicked world. But God sent his son to deliver
his people from their sins. Oh, how thankful we should be
that he sent the word of the Lord to us if we believe. And if we've not heard, how thankful
we should be if he sends it to us. How thankful we should be
if he sends a preacher with this message to us this day. Oh, turn
from your sin and see if the Lord will repent. Who can tell
if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger
that we perish not? O sinner, call unto God for mercy. Who can tell? if he will turn
and repent and turn away from his fierce anger against your
sin that you perish not because he laid it upon Christ for you. Did he do that for you? Cry out
under God and see for this is a God who delights in showing
mercy. O that God would send a Jonah
to the Ninevehs of today and deliver them and us from their
folly. O that he would send this message
into your soul, the word of the Lord, that you might know that
the God that spake it, the God that wrought it, the God that
sends it, is a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger,
and of great kindness. Amen.