I want you to turn back in your
Bibles to Jonah chapter 3. Jonah chapter 3. We are so thankful. God is gracious to allow us to
have a ministry where we can target the growth of our children
in the gospel of His grace. Many of us did not grow up with
that privilege. We didn't have gospel homes.
We didn't have mothers and fathers who loved us in Christ enough
to point us to Christ and teach us those things that are essential
for eternal life. And so for many of us who have
been part of Grace Bible Church for years, it has been part of
a longstanding vision and dream that we have had for our next
generation and the generation after us and the generation after
that to know this glorious Savior that we know and to serve Him
with the same joy and enthusiasm and hope that we have. So my
heart is always delighted in doing these sorts of things for
the children's memory. But I know you all like it, too.
I know you do. I want to talk to you a little
bit about what our Lord said in Matthew chapter 12 with regards
to the question that was posed to him in verse 39. You can remain in Jonah chapter
3, but our Lord was confronted by the rulers of the church and
they They beseeched him and they begged him for what was constantly
a request on their part, and that is that Christ would show
them a sign. A sign. Master, we would see
a sign from you. A sign. Now you know what a sign
is, right? You know that a sign is a mechanism
or a device that is designed to point away from itself to
something else. That's what a sign is, the mechanism
or a device that points you away from the mechanism or the device
or the instrument to something else. So the sign is, and our
Lord said to the rulers of his day, he said, an evil and an
adulterous generation seeks after a sign and there shall no sign
be given it. Now mark these words, but the
sign of the prophet Jonah. So Jonah serves as a sign for
us. The whole book of Jonah is a
signification. It's an analogy. It's historical. It's factual. But it's a sign.
And we want to derive the meaning of the sign. I mean, signs are
important, aren't they? If a sign tells you to go left
and you go right, then you've missed the objective of the sign.
And all the Old Testament Scriptures in a lot of ways serve as a sign,
do they not? They are not in and of themselves
the point of termination or the place of culmination. They point
us somewhere else. And so does Jonah. He's a sign
that is sending us somewhere. And we know this most certainly
because our Lord said, but the sign of Jonah, the prophet. And so what I want to do today
in this brief time that I have with you is to exercise your
senses In four signs given to us four signs given by jonah
in jonah chapters three and two three and four But were affirmed
by our lord's words when he said 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 and that's
the essence of the sign that we want to contemplate today
in Jonah chapter 3 we read over in verse 1 and 2 and the word
of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time saying Arise and
go unto Nineveh that great city and preach unto it the preaching
I bid you now if our Lord is right There are things inherent
in this command and imperative given to Jonah by which you and
I can learn some lessons. The first I would say given to
us in point number one, the bodily resurrection of Jonah, the bodily
resurrection of Jonah. If you've been following us in
our series, you know that this is an absolute feat for Jonah
to be standing on the shores of Nineveh at this time after
all that he went through. for Jonah to be standing alive
physically on the shores of Nineveh, our Lord says is a sign. Now
we know that Jonah's coming up out of the well, the text says
in the last chapter, and the well vomited Jonah up. The Lord
spoke unto the well and the well vomited Jonah up. Jonah finds
himself on the shores of Nineveh. And you and I have to ask this
question, what in the world did Jonah look like? Now I want you
to think about this for a moment before we pass on to the more
significant point. If you had taken a ride in a
fish from one direction to another and found yourself spewing up
on the shores of an alien country, wouldn't you consider at least
briefly what you looked like before you found yourself confronting
people? I want you to think about it
with me now. He's in the belly, and we have already looked at
the miraculous power of God to keep the gastric juices from
destroying Jonah, which it would have destroyed any human being
of this kind of nature to be in the belly of a fish for three
days. After three days, listen, your
flesh is falling off your bone. I don't know if you know, but
the very gastric acids in your own stomach is enough to just
dissolve Coke bottles. Did you know that? So practically
speaking we know we have a miracle That Jonah is not only still
alive But he bears at least somewhat of a human Semblance on these
he didn't have a suitcase with him when he went down He didn't
change his clothes before he got spit up on the shores. This
is the same brother that went in that came out and So we are
at least given somewhat of a contemplation on the appearance of this man
as he walks a day's journey into Nineveh. He must have been a
sight. He must have been a mess. His very appearance must have
caused alarm for the people of Nineveh. They must have said,
this man looked like he just came back from the dead. And
that's the point. See, we are celebrating what?
The resurrection. We are celebrating the fact that
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, after three days, rose again
bodily. And the bodily resurrection of
Jesus Christ serves as a great comfort for those of us who believe
for the many implications and inferences that lie in the fact
that Christ rose. But we know that when our Lord
says, the only sign that shall be given to this generation,
this religious generation, this culture, of the world from the
time of our Lord's appearance on earth to this present hour
is the sign of Jonah the prophet. Now the first sign that rises
out of the text for us is that Jonah is a dead man under the
unction of the Spirit of God now finally conforming to the
will of God. Remember he didn't want to do
it at first? It's amazing how when the word of the Lord comes
a second time you're ready to do the will of God. Especially
when you've been swallowed up by a fish. He's persuaded now. He's persuaded to do what God
is calling him to do. He's persuaded that what God
is calling him to do is far more important than his prejudice
against the Ninevites. Jonah's been persuaded. And Jonah's
been persuaded because he has experienced, to some degree,
a resurrection. real resurrection and he appears
to these people in Nineveh as a sign and our Lord Jesus Christ
when he rose again from the dead after his crucifixion he served
as a sign to his own generation for 40 days and He went about
the people eating and drinking demonstrating that he had literally
in a bodily fashion risen from the dead and he showed himself
to among 500 brethren and he affirmed himself in the life
of the apostles that he indeed is the one that rose from the
dead. In a real sense Jonah could say what our master said in Revelation
chapter 1 verse 18. I am he that liveth and was dead
and behold I am alive forevermore. And I hold the keys of life and
death. And the resurrection of Jesus
Christ has been for the world for the last 2,000 years a great
blessing whether they are saved or not. God has in his disposition
of love towards sinners because of the resurrection of Christ,
he's tolerated a lot of our mess, hasn't he? The resurrection of
the God-man Jesus Christ sitting at the throne of God at the right
hand of the majesty on high has allowed God to be patient with
us You know what the word of God says and let us account that
the long suffering of the lord is unto salvation Why he doesn't
wipe out nations? Why he doesn't wipe out america?
Why doesn't he wipe out the bay area? Why doesn't he wipe you
out? And why doesn't he wipe me out?
because our god is so complacent in joy and satisfaction by the
resurrection of his son and all that that implies He can be patient
with us As Jonah is walking through the city, he is fulfilling his
call to demonstrate to these pagan people exactly what God's
will is. But he only does it, ladies and
gentlemen, after he has been persuaded. He's been persuaded
that it's necessary for him to proclaim this word to them. Point
number two in your outline. Effective preaching, therefore,
comes from an effectual atonement applied. effective gospel preaching
comes therefore from an effectual atonement applied. Why would
you or I believe that in our sharing the gospel with people
that they would actually believe what we believe if we didn't
believe what we believe? Why would you think that someone
would actually cast their eternity-bound soul on a God that you don't
know or believe, though you might be able to articulate it with
your words? May I therefore persuade you
in this reality? For someone to believe something
you believe, you must believe it first. And the reason why
Jonah will serve as a significant sign to these people of Nineveh
is because Jonah himself has experienced the power of the
resurrection. See, every preacher, every called
sick preacher, every man or woman of God that's used to share the
gospel with men and women. Yeah, I would say every believer
in Christ has to first themselves understand what it means for
Christ to have risen from the dead. We, after all, do believe
that that's the gospel, right? 1st corinthians chapter 15 verses
1 through 3 how that god how that god raised him from the
dead he was Crucified he was buried and he was raised again
the third day For our salvation. We believe that with all of our
heart. We believe that christ died on calvary street We believe
that he was buried and on the third day. He rose again as part
of the confession We proclaim according to romans chapter 9,
but we believe it because we have experienced its power Do
you know that one day you were dead, dead in your trespasses
and sins, dead in your walk before God, dead to the things of God. And you may have even heard the
gospel over and over and over and over again. And, you know,
while as yet the power of the cross had not taken place in
that preaching, what we were saying to you or whomever it
was speaking to you, what they were saying was either nonsense
or irrelevant. But there was a day when the
gospel came in power. And you know what the gospel
did? It took the law of God, which you and I mocked, and it
used that law to slay our heart and show us our sin. See, Paul
put it like this in Romans chapter 7. In Romans 7, verses 9 through
11, he said, I was alive in my own thinking once. You know how
we were when we were just living like hell? Living it up. We thought
we were alive. We were just as dead as anything
stinking rotten could be but we thought we were alive and
then God in his mercy brought you under the gospel and the
Spirit of God took the law of God and plunged it into your
heart and you know what Paul said? Paul says I was alive once
until the commandment came and when the commandment came it
slew me. You know what it did? It showed
him that he was absolutely exactly the way God said he was. Watch
this. Outside of the life of God, a
sinner estranged from God, under the wrath of God, and dead spiritually. Dead spiritually. What a blessing
for God to wake us up to the reality that we are dead. But
do you know that God doesn't leave the sinner that's in that
state dead when he reveals to him his dead state? And in fact,
here's what I can say. If you ever come to realize how
dead you are apart from Christ, God has already begun a work
of grace in your life. See, the Spirit of God takes
the law of God and it will convince you, watch this now, that there
is no salvation in yourself. This is what he says in verse
24 of Romans chapter 7, as Paul is giving us an example of how
the Spirit of God completely analyzed him, deconstructed him,
showed him his corruption, his rebellion and disobedience to
God. Do you know what he ultimately said? He says, O wretched man
that I am! Has your sin ever come to you
in such a nauseating reality that all you can do is say, God,
deliver me from my sin, from my sin? That's the work of grace,
ladies and gentlemen. That's God beginning to deliver
you from yourself, as our elder said. Paul said, O wretched man
that I am, who shall deliver me? Who? Remember, he didn't
say what, he said, who shall deliver me? It began to dawn
on him that he needs a person to deliver him. Person to deliver
him and then over in Galatians chapter 2 verse 19 through 21.
He says I was crucified with Christ Nevertheless, I live yet
not I but Christ liveth in me. You know what he's talking about
again He's talking about the power of the cross To take him
the guilty sinner Already persuaded that he has broken all of God's
law now watch this now take the guilty sinner and place him on
the cross with Christ That's what the gospel does for you.
The gospel doesn't leave you separated from your mediator.
It starts you off that way so that you can cry out, who shall
deliver me? And then the spirit of God will
turn your head and show you the crucified Christ. and your soul
will long to know what it means for a man to stand in your place,
in your stead as your representative, as your go-between, to have loved
you in a way you couldn't love yourself, and then attach your
soul to that man so that you find out that everything that
he is, he was for you. This is what Paul says. He says,
I was crucified with Christ. That's what we're talking about.
I was crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I what? You know
what he's triumphing in? The resurrection of our Savior.
See, you and I don't preach a Christ that's still on the cross. We
preach a Christ that's risen, reigning, and running the universe
from his throne on glory. But stay with me for a moment,
ladies and gentlemen. We never preach a reigning Christ
apart from a sovereign cross. Please let me help you understand
this. The way to properly view a seated reigning Savior is through
the prism of the cross work of Jesus Christ. There are no bifocals,
no observation of this glorious King apart from the cross of
Christ. See what he said in verse 19 of Galatians 2 was this, I
was dead to the law through the law of God by the body of Christ. He said, the law shut me up to
Christ. The law condemned me with Christ.
The law put me on the cross with Christ. And when Christ rose
again, I rose with him. Are you following me? No resurrection
apart from the cross of Jesus Christ. No preaching a sovereign
savior apart from preaching the necessity of the atoning work
of Jesus. The atoning work of Jesus becomes
for you and I the revelation of the invisible God in this
matter of the redemption of our soul. I would submit to you that
what Jonah experienced three days before landing on the shores
of Nineveh was hell. See what the gospel teaches us
and causes us to believe is three things. Sin is real. Are you hearing me? Hell is real. And the resurrection of our Savior
is real. It's real. Do you believe in
God today? Do you trust Christ today? Can
I tell you it's a consequence of his resurrection? It's a consequence
of his cross work on Calvary. It's a consequence of God having
chosen you in Christ The only reason you and I can believe
and be persuaded that we are actual sinners is the Spirit
of God Persuade us in Christ that it is so and so again as
Paul says nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in
me in the life that I now live in the flesh I live by the faithfulness
of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Can
you say that I? I live by the faithfulness of the Son of God
who loved me and gave himself for me. You notice what Paul
is not doing? He is not detaching himself from union with Christ
in his new life. He is completely connected to
Jesus in every aspect of Christ's mediatorial work for him. He
knows that Christ is his sin bearer. He knows that Christ
is his atonement. He knows that Christ is his resurrection.
And he knows that Christ is his life. When we rejoice and we
worship and we thank God for the resurrection of the God-man
Jesus Christ, it is because we see ourselves resurrected in
Him. And by the way, this is the only
way we can preach a gospel that by nature and inherently offends
men. How do you preach a gospel that
tells men and women not only are they headed to hell, but
they can't stop themselves from going? They have no power to
turn away from hell's course. They have no strength in themselves
to come out of the damning judgment of God against their sins. We
are telling them some very bad news, aren't we? You can't save
yourself. You can't save yourself. Isn't
that what we're saying? What then is our confidence that
when we share the glorious gospel with many women who are just
as dead, dead, dry bones dead as the prophet Ezekiel saw, what
hope is there that God would save a person in such a condition?
The hope is this, that by virtue of the resurrection of our Savior,
God is pleased to send the Holy Ghost through the preaching of
the Word to get a hold of a hell-bound soul and raise him from the dead
in such a way that he says, I agree with you. I believe what you
believe. I see the glory of the Son of
God. He is my hope for glory too. We're hoping that God raises
our children from the dead, our grandchildren from the dead.
We know that the only way they will have hope for eternity is
to experience what we experience. God's got to lay you low before
he gives you the promises on high. And that's why we preach,
because we are persuaded, as the preacher said it again, Paul
in 2 Corinthians 4, he says, we believe, therefore we speak.
This is the word of faith that we declare to men and women as
God has revealed it into the world. And I submit to you, Jonah
was one of the Old Testament prophets, like all the Old Testament
prophets. And I'm here to tell you, all
they ever preached was Christ. That's the whole message of this
book. Lo, I come in the volume of the book. It's written to
me to do thy will, O God. It is the Father's pleasure to
reveal his glory in the person of Jesus Christ. Am I making
some sense? So if we're careful to observe Jonah, here's what
we will learn, that the whole of the book of Jonah is not about
Jonah, it's about Jesus. Now here's the glorious truth
about God and his mercy to you and me as we are contemplating
now the necessity of the preacher himself experiencing the resurrection. God has been pleased to save
us through preaching. Sometimes we play it down. Sometimes
we act as if the preaching of the gospel is not important.
God never has, heaven doesn't, and you shouldn't either. For
the same gospel that saves you is the gospel that keeps you.
It's the same gospel that recovers you when you get lost all over
again in our ignorance and our rebellion. Don't we get into
trouble sometimes? Now how is God going to deliver
his erring saints if he doesn't deliver his erring saints from
the same gospel that got them out of the pit of hell the first
time? He has to pull that heavenly tow truck up and get us out of
the ditch the same way he did the first time he dug us out.
Am I telling the truth? So then here's the sign that
you can know that's being bestowed upon the Ninevites. The Ninevites
are a great nation. They were prophesied going all
the way back to Genesis chapter 9 and 10. God's bestowing his
love on them right now. In the account that we're dealing
with 800 years before Jesus, this one city, this great city,
this great nation, an annex to the Babylonian Empire, they are
under the Assyrian influence at this time, and they are great
in the eyes of God. How do we know when God loves
a nation? When he sends a preacher who
knows the truth about Christ to that nation that they might
come to know the glory of God in Christ. They are now about
to become the objects of God's loving grace in Jesus Christ. Point number three in your outline
then, the power of the gospel and the conversion of the Gentiles. The power of this gospel and
the conversion of the Gentiles now serve as a sign. I want you
to mark what happens. Verses 3 through verse 7. Watch this. So Jonah arose, went
unto Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Jonah was
in... Nineveh was an exceeding great
city of three days journey on foot. That's a fairly nominal
size city. And Jonah began to enter into
the city a day's journey. Now you know he looked a mess.
Whole day journey. And then he cried. Some folk
don't like crying preachers. The word means shouted out loud. It's actually the Hebrew term
for to preach. It's a word that's often translated
to call. And when God calls a sinner by
his grace, do you know how he calls him? Through the gospel.
It's a gospel call. It's the same call that God used
when he created the heavens and the earth. Did you know God preached
this universe into existence? He called this world into existence.
Do you know He's the greatest preacher in the universe? He
speaks those things that are not as if they were, called it
into existence. Do you know He called you from
your mother's womb? Called you. And do you know,
when you were walking in darkness, in the deftness of your hearing,
in the blindness of your sight, God called you by the gospel.
Opened your eyes, opened your ears, opened your heart. And
for the first time you heard God. Because when he calls, he
calls in power. He calls in power. You know how
you try to ignore God? You can't ignore God. How are
you going to ignore omnipotence? You can't ignore God. And so
what I'm getting at is while we'll enjoy the narrative of
Jonah, please understand that Jonah is serving as an intricate
web of redemptive truth in Jesus. Here is a Jew coming to a Gentile
culture. This is oxymoronic. But didn't
Jesus do that for us? Didn't Christ come to a God-hating
culture like us? In fact, the text says we weren't
even a people. In the national sense, we had
no existence. But do you know God knew us before
the world began? That we were in the covenant
of grace and redemption before he created the universe? Do you
know that God doesn't use a shotgun when he saves sinners? He uses
arrows. Can I tell you why? Because he's
specific about how he saves. You and I will use a shotgun
and hoping we get some but when God shoots his arrows of redemptive
truth out they are aimed at particular persons and He'll pierce you
and when he pierces you you may not even be conscious of it at
the moment But over a time that arrow will work its way into
your soul Start knowing at you And whereas you were rejecting
what that preacher said, you know what you start saying? That
preacher's starting to make some sense now. Jonah's preaching
to them, 40 days and Nineveh shall be destroyed. 40 days and
God will overthrow Nineveh. Now, that's not good news. That's not the way we preach
today, is it? 40 days and America will be destroyed. Can I share
something with you though? If God is in that preaching,
he will turn the whole nation around. If God would raise up
preachers that would preach His Word, being persuaded of His
Word, God could turn this nation around. He turned Nineveh around. Do you believe the same God in
the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament? He can
turn this nation around. He can turn this nation around.
But this nation will have to see God the way God sees God.
And Nineveh was high on the hog. They were the elite nation of
the world. They were proud, arrogant, idolatrous,
and self-righteous. But here comes the sign of the
preacher. Dead man preaching the dead men about a living God
Telling them you ain't got but 40 days to go now Saints when
Jesus says Jonah is assigned to the Ninevites He's saying
that he serves as a model of the Old Testament prophecy Which
according to do not Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 21 God said
in Deuteronomy 32 21 I will provoke my people to jealousy by people
that are not my people Nineveh would serve as a rod to provoke
Israel to return to Jehovah God. And Paul said in Romans chapter
11, around verse 11, that's exactly why God saves us Gentiles. He
saves us Gentiles to show the world that God is no respecter
of persons. And I guess that message is very
important to you and I, as we have an opportunity every year
to enjoy the message of redemption. Let me share this with you. Don't
think that anyone is out of the scope and reach of God's mercy.
Don't think that any ethnic group is just so bad, so nasty, so
reprobate that God can't save them. In fact, this is how you
do it. Say this, if God can save me, he can save anybody. If God can save me, he can save
anybody. If God can take me and make me
an object of his mercy, he can make anybody an object of his
mercy. If God can take a cactus in the desert and put him in
paradise and put flowers on him and make him smell good and give
him a purpose, God can save anybody because you and I by nature are
cactuses. We belong in a desert, but God
has placed us in the paradise of the kingdom of God and he's
made us look good. Hasn't he done that? Salvation
does a little bit for a brother and sister, doesn't it? Now,
we ain't done yet. Don't, don't, don't boast. Well,
God has to fix us up with another great act. We call it the glorification. That's a day when God will act
mightily to rid us of our sin and all of our infirmities and
all of our weakness. But now we have the seed of grace
in us, don't we? We trust Christ, don't we? We're
so glad that that man, that God man, that old Jewish fellow walked
into our life through the preaching of the gospel. We are so thankful
for that. Jonah says and Jonah began to enter to the city three
days journey us a day's journey to cry get 40 days and Nineveh
shall be overthrown So the people of Nineveh what believed God? Remarkable You know and I know That we have
talked to people for years about our Savior haven't we And you
and I know that in talking to them, nothing occurred. In some
cases, they got worse. You love them. You tell them
about God. Now they're dogging you, talking
about you, ridiculing you. This is family members, right?
I'm talking family. They have events and they conveniently
fail to let you in on the events. I didn't call you at the last
second, hoping you don't come. This is the cost of telling the
truth. And we go up and down in our
weariness of God not saving them because he has yet to have saved
them. Because we know what salvation is. Salvation is a knowledge
of the true and the living God. I know sometimes we like to hope
God saves people. I think God might've saved them.
It kind of looked like he saved them a little bit. No, no, no,
no, no. When God saves you, we'll know
it. Because you'll say the same thing about the same God that
we saved. It may not be as extensive as ours because of our knowledge,
but it will be just as clear and sincere. And when salvation
occurs in the life, it's a radical change. God hating people turn
into God loving people and God loving people start to learn
what it means to love others. This is really true. This is
really true. And this is what we hope for
and desire for our family members. And Jonah is preaching to these
people. And in one second, they believe. Don't you doubt it for a moment
that they're believing the gospel was an appointment by God to
enter into Jonas preaching to help them to capitulate to a
true. If somebody had come to America
and said 40 days, you will be destroyed. You know what our
government would do? It would turn all of its nuclear arsenals
on that, that individual and annihilate him right away. Are
you hearing what I'm saying? Just get rid of this fella. They
would call him a terrorist a terrorist See they're trying to get Christians
on that list right now Because we are speaking against the ill
our role and agenda of the government Jonah preaches to this powerful
nation and the text simply said they believed God Let me share
with you this simple proposition When you become a believer in
Christ You become a sign of the sign of the sign. You and I who believe the gospel
are signs and wonders in Israel. You are an object of grace. That's
not an everyday occasion. The believer that goes into the
workplace or goes into school or goes into the gym or goes
wherever they go, they are in an environment where others are
not like you. You become a sign. I and the
children whom the Lord has given me, Christ and His church, are
signs and wonders. You are an object of the power
of the resurrection. You are an object of the power
of the preaching of the gospel. You are an object of the power
of the finished work of Jesus Christ. Are you guys following
what I'm saying? You are a sign. These people now will serve as
a sign. Our Lord said in Matthew 12, 41, and they will be a sign
for they believed the preaching of Jonah. Wow. What was our Lord saying to national
Israel? I have come a greater than Jonah and you don't believe
me. Jonah will rise up in judgment against you because they, I'm
sorry, Nineveh will rise up in judgment against you because
they believed the preaching of the gospel. By implication, here's
what this means. When the Gospel is preached to
you and I, every time we reject it, we are under the judgment
of God. Every time. It's incumbent upon us to consider
the great mercy of God in the preaching of the Gospel. Every
time Christ is presented to you in the faithful proclamation
of the Word, the mercy of God is extended to you. Even today,
the mercy of God is extended to you. It's extended in the
preaching of Christ. As you partake with us in the
celebration of His resurrection, though you are not saved, you
get to hear the hymns, hear the songs. Even some of our children,
we pray a great deal of our children are already endued by the grace
of God, so that as they grow up, they will merely affirm what
God has done in their life. You who are without Christ today,
this is a sign to you. These things are signs to you.
And may I quickly say, you can become a sign too. If you will,
but believe that God raised Christ from the dead and trust him like
we have come to do. So let me help paint the last
picture of this sign to you. I said Jonah serves for us as
four signs, his own physical being vomited up on the shores
of Nineveh and therefore walking about as a man, as it were, having
been dead. The preaching that impacted Jonah's
own life so that now he's persuaded by the Spirit of Christ to do
what God called him to do, and that's preach to the Ninevites.
That's a sign. The Ninevites themselves now
becoming believers? That's a sign. But I want you
to see the most satisfying and gratifying sign of all of these
signs in our text. That brings us to point number
four in your outline. The process of their conversion
is the work of the spirit in glorifying Christ. This too is
a sign. I love this portion of scripture.
This won't take us long. I'm going to see if I can preach
it here in five minutes for you. And maybe the spirit of God will
do something for you. When the Ninevites heard the
preaching of Jonah, the text tells us in verse five, they
believed God. But the evidence saints of their believing God
is that they proclaim the fast. Oh, how great it would be if
our nation came to grips with the reality of its condition
before God and proclaimed a fast. Put on sackcloth means we take
this fasting business seriously. Now watch this. It was comprehensive
too. For the greatest of them, even
to the least of them, obeyed the command. Saints, slow down
now. Isn't that remarkable? Everybody in Nineveh, from the
top to the bottom, in one accord, in complete agreement, in faith,
yielded to the command to exercise the mourning of sackcloth and
ashes, recognizing that they are under the judgment of God.
Do you understand that one of the first signs of a revival
in any culture is that God shows you your need to cry out to God?
That's how you know. This is how we know God is doing
something here and not just with a few people in the corner. We
are sure that when the Spirit of God works, often he will work
in saving small people groups in Africa or the Middle East
or Central America or somewhere else. And we hear about those
revivals, don't we? But don't we want one here too?
Now, God can do it in small corners. I pray that he does it for our
nation. I was talking with one of my brothers this morning,
and he's one of the summit brothers with me. I kiddingly say that
many of us are now on the summit. You young people don't know nothing
about this. I'll just share with you. Those of us who are 50 plus,
we're on the summit. We're looking out over into eternity. I'm going to ask you to pray
for two pastors with me at the end of this. They are my peers.
But we are seriously looking into eternity. You young people
don't think of it the way we do. Tell them, old folks. They
don't think of eternity like we do. Eternity is way off. They got a lot of stuff to tear
up and fulfill before they face that. You and I are getting ready.
Aren't we getting ready? We working on seeing our way
through Jordan into glory. We want our eyes fixed. We want
our mind fixed. We want our heart fixed. We want
our thoughts fixed. Because we know we got to meet
our God in a minute. I'm talking to one of my brothers
on the summit. He said, pastor, man, I don't really think our
country going to make it. I don't think we're going to
ever recover from this. I said, brother, you better stop talking
like that right now. See, when we talk like that,
we're being selfish. I learned long ago that God is
the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the 12 tribes, David, Solomon,
Rahab the harlot you hear what I'm saying all the way down to
our Lord Jesus Christ this generation for 2,000 years has been blessed
by the God of Generations the God of people groups the God
of children's children's children's Generation of them that love
me and keep my commandments. So I have stopped talking as
if the world's gonna end with me Because to do so is to be
utterly selfish to our grandchildren How about say this? We are in
some bad times now and we need to be for the year 2013 thankful,
grateful, considerate, content, waiting on God, asking God to
keep us in a place where we can keep our focus on him while we
go through the storm. Keep us from being distracted,
tossed to and fro, losing our sight of the most important thing,
and that's the glory of God in Christ. Get us through this tribulation
so we can be a model to our children and to our children's children,
so that they can remember the storm that we went through, and
they didn't know much about it because they were too young,
but they can remember looking at mom and daddy and grandmom
and granddaddy and said, you know, they rode that storm out
pretty well. They kept singing the praises of God. They kept
worshiping their God. They kept preaching Christ. And
now I know what it means. I'm talking about great-grandchildren,
of what it means to trust in the Lord with all your heart,
leaning not on your own understanding, but acknowledging Him in all
your ways. all your ways. That's what we
learn as we pass these things on to our children. So I'm here
to tell you that God could very well be gracious to our nation
and we ought to pray that way. I want my kids to have a, a well
balanced life. I don't want so much trouble
in their life that they can't lift their head up and look to
the true and the living God. Here's what I do know though.
God has to bring trouble for us to call on his name. See Jonah
ain't even preaching. until he went through that, what
we used to call whale belly seminary. See, now he believes the gospel
and he's ready to share it with people. And sometimes we wait
for our families to go into crisis mode to share the gospel with
them. And if they should believe, watch
this, ladies and gentlemen, they would see the glory of God. I
want you to see the glory of God in this next portion of scripture. Point number five in our outline,
a greater than Jonah is here. Listen to it, verses six through
verse eight. I want you to see it. For the
word came unto the king of Nineveh. Do you see that? So Jonah's preaching
not only talked to the common lay people, his preaching went
all the way to the echelon of government and it reached the
king. Does God love the king? Does he love the king? Does the
father love the son? Does he love the king? Yes, he
does. And I'll tell you what, the word
must go to the king before it gets to the people. Watch this
now for the word of the Lord came unto the king of Nineveh
and he arose from his throne and He laid his robe from him
and he covered him with sackcloth and sat in ashes Do you see the
power of the gospel to take a pagan? regal monarch Who believed that
he was God? moved him from his throne to
take off his robe and to humble himself in the dust. Do you see
that, ladies and gentlemen? You and I could nary think that
that would happen with any of our rulers. I'm just talking
about governors of the state, let alone the president. This
was a king whom the Spirit of God moved to leave his throne. You know what he had learned
by the power of the gospel? He wasn't worthy to be on that throne.
He wasn't worthy to lead those people. He wasn't worthy to govern
those people. And in a spirit-aided brokenness,
this man is sitting on the ground in the dust and ashes of absolute
open repentance because he believed God. All right, take your glasses
off and put the other ones on. Because see, we're not talking
about Jonah, nor are we talking about the King of Nineveh. We
are talking about the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings.
His name is Jesus Christ. Before the world began, Jesus
Christ was the king, the monarch that God set up over this universe.
And God had a people who were more desperately headed to hell
than the Ninevites, for which the King of glory, Jesus Christ
himself, watch this now, left his throne in glory, descended
to this earth, having humbled himself to take on a human nature.
disrobed himself of his explicit glory as God Almighty in the
flesh, he manifested himself as a man, a servant, a slave. He identified with you and I
as hell-bound sinners. Look at what the king is doing.
He's leaving his place of authority and he's identifying with the
people, is he not? He's making himself one with
the people. This is how our mediator and
our savior is for us. He leaves glory, he comes down
here and he takes on our burden. He takes on our issue. He takes on our, in fact, as
we learned on Friday, the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us
all. And there's a real sense, ladies
and gentlemen, that the wrath of God that was placed upon our
Savior is such that you and I will never ever experience. See, you
and I are sinners, but the weight of God's judgment on Christ makes
it to where if you believe on Him, you will never have to experience
what He experienced for you. You will never have to experience
the weight of condemnation, the weight of guilt, the weight of
obligation, the weight of God's wrath on Him, on you, because
He died in your place. What a condescending mercy. Do
you see that in that text? coming all the way down, humbling
himself, taking his place with the people. But not only that,
you know what the next verse says? He had his model and demonstration
of humility and submission to God published all over the city. Do you see it? Look at what the
text says. Verse seven. And he caused it
to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree
of the king and his nobles. Do you see it? saying, let neither
man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything, let them not
feed nor drink. What is he doing? He's first
modeling faith in Christ. He's modeling his recognition
of his sin. He's modeling repentance. He's
modeling humbling himself. See, that's what leaders have
to do, model it, right? And then he publishes it. And everybody
in lock, stock, and in complete conformity follows suit. Do you
see it? They all follow suit. Every one
of them. Now watch how serious the Ninevites
were. They even had their animals. Now you serious about God changing
your life when you put your animals under repentance? You serious,
aren't you? You listen, you're giving it
all to God now. You're giving your whole economy
to God. You're giving your whole industry to God. That's what
that meant. God, we repent as a nation. We turn from our devices. We turn from our wisdom. We need
your grace, your power, your wisdom to govern everything we
do. See, they seriously repented. This is a model of our Savior
and his humility and his condescending love towards us. And may I submit
to you now as we wrap this up, that when it comes to repentance,
repentance is a gift from God. Do you believe that? Let me affirm
you on four things real quickly here. How did they come to believe? They came to believe because
the word was preached to them. Do you believe that faith comes
by hearing? Hearing by the Word of God. Do you know that you
don't have faith in yourself that faith is a gift of God Do
you understand then that faith and repentance are two sides
of the same coin? That you can't say you believe
God and get you live a life of non-repentance Do you understand
that faith and repentance are two sides of the same coin and
that God has to grant you both? Do you believe that? You remember
the day that you thought about repenting, but you never did.
And you come to understand you can't without the grace of God.
Can I share something with you? It takes the revelation of the
glory of God and the person of Christ and his atoning suffering
revealed to your heart to break your rebellion against God. See,
every subject, every person that lived in Nineveh was just like
the king. We're all, as it were, a little
autocrats in our own right. We're all little gods in our
own right. God has to break every one of us. And the way he breaks
us is by revealing to us the one who was broken for us. The
way he shows us that faith is a necessary virtue for you to
have a relationship with God is to show us the one who believed
in God for himself. The way God brings you and I
to a place of repentance and salvation and trust in God is
when he reveals to us that he was willing to offer up his only
darling son to bring you out of hell. This is what's gonna
call you to do what he did. Now watch what the text says.
Absolutely remarkable. He says, let man and beast, verse
8, be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily unto God. Do
you see that? Cry mightily unto God. We got
an echo going. Jonah's crying. Now the people
are crying. Isn't God good? I don't mind
a crying preacher if it results in crying people. I don't mind
a crying mama if it results in crying children. I don't mind
a crying daddy if it results in crying sons. I don't mind
a crying church if it results in a crying city. I don't mind
a crying Savior if it results in a crying salvation. I don't
mind. I don't mind. These people are
now experiencing the power of it. See, a lot of times we're
so religiously cool. Lost, but cool. Our God cried. The apostles cried. The prophets
cried. And the spirit of adoption cries. to the souls of men, to break
our hearts and bring us to the place where we cry to God. They're
crying. They're crying. They're crying
because they've got a revelation of the Savior. Do you see the
Savior now? Do you see Christ high and lifted up? Do you see
Him coming down off of His throne in glory? Do you see Him being
clothed in your humanity? Do you see Him bearing your sin?
Do you see the wrath of God on the Son of God in your place?
Do you see it? Does it mean anything to you?
Does it mean anything to you? Does it mean anything to you?
Why would God do such a thing for hell bound undeserving sinners
like us? Only one reason. The love of
God. The love of God. Listen to the
commandment of the king. He's only a typical picture of
our savior. But here's what he says in verse
nine. Who can tell? Who can tell? if we turn every
man from his evil way and from the violence that are in our
hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away
from his fierce anger that we perish not? You know what he's
saying? I believe that preacher. I believe that preacher that
just got spit up on the shores of Nineveh looking like a dead
man. I believe his message that in 40 days God will destroy us.
But I also believe that God can show mercy. Can he show mercy? Has God shown mercy to you? See,
so we understand God's holy, but we also understand He's what?
Merciful. I mean, exceedingly merciful.
And what we cast ourselves on is the mercy of God. This is
what the king is doing. This is what he's doing. Who
can tell if God will repent and turn from the fierce anger against
us? And look at verse 10. Show you
two glorious truths and I'm done. And God saw their works. Do you see that? God saw their
works. What works did God see? He saw
the work, watch this now, of the people's repentance, of their
humility, of their brokenness, of their public acknowledgement
that they are under the wrath of God. He saw that because he
saw them looking to the king who did it first. Stay with me
now. He saw their words because they
saw his words. Are you with me so far? Why would
God see my words? Because I see Christ's words.
Why would God regard my humility? Because I regard Christ's humility.
Why would God regard my repentance? Because I regard Christ's suffering
in my behalf. In other words, God sees Christ
and his work and therefore he sees us in our work. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
The king says it might be that God might turn and I'm here to
tell you the reason why God turns from sinners is because he turned
to his son Jesus Christ. He's got to turn somewhere. He's
got to deal with your sin somehow. He's got to deal with my sin
somehow, doesn't he? Our sin's got to be punished.
The wages of sin is death, right? God's a holy God. And if God
doesn't turn from us to another object that can handle our sin,
then God must punish us for our sin. The glory of our text is
this, that God sent a preacher who preached about the greatest
preacher in the universe. whose life preaches to us the
love and grace of God. And the power of that life preached
to us changes our life. The reason why we believe in
the resurrection is because the scripture said Christ literally
rose again from the dead. We believe in the resurrection,
ladies and gentlemen, because we have experienced the power
of it in our own life. God's raised us from the dead,
has he not? He's seated us in heavenly places in Christ, has
he not? He's made us sons and daughters in God, has he not?
He's given us faith when we didn't have any faith, has he not? And
he's caused us to believe, watch this now, that Christ is coming
again one day. Do you believe that? In fact,
I am so persuaded that all this mess that we are in won't get
fixed until Christ comes again. And the hope of the believer
is rooted in this reality, that as he came the first time, he
will come the second time. Only the second time without
sin unto salvation to everyone that are looking to him. Are
you looking to Christ today? Are you at this moment trusting
Jesus Christ as your only hope for glory? Do you see the God
man coming down, dying? being buried and raised again
for your justification? Do you see him ascending into
heaven, seated on his throne in glory? Do you see him calling
men and women from every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue? If
I be lifted up, I'll draw all men unto me. Do you understand
you and I are objects of the lifting up Christ? the Christ
that was lifted up. Do you understand that the magnet
that God uses to bring people from every nation, kindred, tribe,
and tongue is the crucified, dead, buried, risen Son of the
living God? Do you understand all over the
world men and women are rejoicing in the resurrection of our great
God and Savior Jesus Christ? And do you know there's a day
coming when the Son of God will break the heavens? and he will
call us the voice of the archangel and the trump of the living God
shall shout and break and rend the heavens and those of us who
are alive will be caught up in the air, be glorified together
with God, made to look like Christ, think like Christ, act like Christ,
so that we, without spot and blemish or any such thing, can
be with our God for all eternity, all because God raised Him from
the dead. He raised Him from the dead.
He raised Him from the dead. He raised Him from the dead.
gave him life, gave him glory, gave him power, gave him authority,
gave him control over all things that he might quicken whom he
wills. And I'm so glad he quickened
me. Aren't you? Thankful, thankful, thankful,
thankful, thankful. Let's have the offering and closing
a word of prayer. Thankful.