This morning in the book of Jonah,
if you would like to turn there in your Bibles with me. We've
come to the chapter 3. And once again, I'd like to read
this entire chapter through and then we'll come back to verse
1 and take a look at some points in a summary fashion. Jonah chapter 3, verse 1. And the word of the Lord came
unto Jonah a 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 40
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 unto the least of them. For the 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 caused it to be proclaimed
and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and
his nobles saying, let neither man nor beast 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 everyone 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 this first
anger that we perish not? And God saw their works, and
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. Let's go back to verse one now.
And I want to make sure we're very clear on this point. This
is not talking about God having a plan A as he told Jonah to
go out the first time. and preach unto Nineveh. God's
plan was plan A from the beginning. There is no such thing as plan
B. Every single thing, just like
we sang in the song a moment ago, He is holy, holy, holy,
Lord God Almighty of everything. We sing the song, He is Lord
of all. That's everything. Every single
little thing. Every little bird, every worm,
every piece of dust. Pastor Gene once gave a description
of the dust that we might see. Even though we've cleaned the
church, you'll still see afterwards a little dust floating in the
air through the sunlight. Our Lord controls even that. Look back at chapter 1, if you
would, verse 4. But the Lord sent out a great
wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea
so that the ship was like to be broken. Our Lord sent that
wind. He's Lord of all. Look at verse
17 of chapter 1. Now the Lord had prepared a great
fish to swallow up Jonah. It was plan A from the beginning.
It's always been plan A. Look at verse 10 of chapter 2,
and the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon
dry land. Our God works all things out
according to his will. Our God is in the heavens, and
he does whatsoever he pleases. Jonah was sent by God a second
time because he had to learn a lesson in the first time. God
allowed things to go exactly how they went because that was
His plan. So Jonah could come before the people and declare
salvation is of the Lord. As we read in verse 9 of chapter
2. God's preachers are sent out
by God Himself. They either go out with God's
message in their hearts, placed there by God, or they go out
with nothing at all. And they preach God's Word. They
preach the whole counsel of God. Judgment is coming. I remember
a message your brother Mike brought not too long ago where he focused
on that very thing. Judgment must be preached. And
the reason for that is because there will be judgment, we need
a Savior. If you don't know that you need
a Savior, if you don't know the judgment's coming, you don't
know that you need that Savior. How are you going to know about
Him? How are you going to call upon Him unless you know about
Him? We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God, every
single one of us, even my grandmother. Even my mother. My wife, who
I love very dearly. We have all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. We deserve God's wrath. We have
earned judgment. We preach the whole counsel of
God. Once you take into consideration in verse 2, we read that the
city of Nineveh is a great city. Now Nineveh was an exceeding
great city of three days journey. Consider how far you can walk
in a day. 20 miles? Okay. I'm a little on the heavy
side. I might not walk more than five.
Think about that for just a moment. Let's say it was 10 miles. Three
days journey. That's 30 miles across. You know,
it's only 15 miles across from West Sacramento to Rancho Cordova. 15 miles. It's only 27 miles from
my house to here. I wonder if I could walk here
in a day. That's a pretty good-sized city, isn't it? Consider that
for a moment, because we're going to see in this verse 3, or verse
4, I believe it is, and Jonah began to enter into that city
a day's journey. So he's only gone into the city
a third of the way. Imagine how many people are in
there. That's almost the size of L.A. If you really think about
that for a moment, L.A. is pretty big. There's a million
people living down there. Oh, how many people there might
have been there that same day. So here, he's only into it for
a day, and he's crying out, yet 40 days and none of us shall
be overthrown. We also see in verse 4 that that's
his message. Robert Hawker wrote this, his
message was short and sharp. There was not a word of mercy
in it. There was nothing to distract the attention from the hearers
from the one point and that one subject, judgment. There is a great deal in that,
for we may sometimes say too much in a single sermon and give
our hearers a field of wheat instead of a loaf of bread. I
thought that was well said. But Jonah said what he was bidden
to say, no more, no less, which is yet 40 days, and Nineveh shall
be overthrown. Judgment was declared our just
reward. Verse five. 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. Let us not
look past this very important point. The people of Nineveh
believed God. The world teaches that all you
have to do is stop the foolishness, or in other words, start doing
the smart thing and believe God. Make a decision. Quit doing those
foolish things you've been running around doing in the world. Come
to church on Sundays. Be smarter. Let God into your
life. Make your decision for Christ
today. Follow Him. But what they don't tell you
is the things of God are foolishness to the carnal mind. They don't
tell you that you can't believe God, because you're dead to spiritual
things. This is why our Lord said to
the Jewish ruler that came to Him in the cover of darkness,
thou must be born again, for faith is a gift of God. Ephesians 2, 8. The whole city believed God. Interesting. Jonah only made
it in a third of the way. They didn't have cell phones
and all the media that we have today to spread the word. It
spread by mouth like wildfire. The whole city believed God and
was moved by God to act. And we see their acts in 6 through
8. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he rose from
his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with
sackcloth and satin ashes. And he caused 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 Let man and beast be covered
with sackcloth and cry mightily unto God. Yea, let them turn
everyone from his evil way and from the violence that is in
their hands. Jonah was only a third of the
way into this great city, yet the word spread like wildfire
all the way to the king's throne. Our brother Russ read this morning. from Psalms 41, allow me to read
again those words that he read. I waited patiently for the Lord
and he climbed unto me and heard my cry. What made David turn
from whatever it was that inspired him to write this psalm? It was
Christ, it was God himself. God turns the hearts as he does
rivers. He brought me, in verse 2, up. He, our Lord, brought me up also
out of the horrible pit, out of the miry clay and set my feet
upon a rock. That's where Nineveh was. They
were in their evil ways. They were wicked as could be.
They had turned from God. God turned them back. He gave
them the gift to believe. He set my feet upon a rock and
established my goings and He had put a new song in my mouth
even praise unto our God, may shall see it, and fear, and shall
trust in the Lord. Blessed is the man that maketh
the Lord to his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn
aside to lies." Verse 17, it says, but I am poor and needy,
yet the Lord thinketh upon me. Thou art my help, my deliverer. Make no tarrying, O my God. Jonah
was only a third of the way into the city. crying out, in forty
days, and none of us shall be overthrown. Yet everyone turned. Everyone turned from the ways
of their wickedness and turned to God. Verse 9, there's an interesting
point. Jonah preached judgment, yet
the people looked to God for mercy. What put that search for mercy
in their hearts? The same one who gave them the
faith. And then we read in verse 10,
and God saw their works and 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. As I said in the beginning, there
is only one plan A, folks. Nothing changed God's mind. Do
not be deceived. God's will does not change. Just
as the wrath of God is turned away from all of His children,
it is not for anything that we have done. It was not because
of what they had done there. No. It was for Christ's sake. God's wrath is turned because
of what Christ did. This mercy is because of His
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Because He stood in our place.
Because He who knew no sin was made to be sin for our sakes. Because His blood was shed for
our sakes. Because He took the wrath that
we have earned and He took it into the grave. And He left it
there to be remembered no more. We who Christ died for are spared. He repents from His judgment
against us. just as he repented from the
judgment against Nineveh for Christ's sake. Oh, for the mercy
of God in his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Would you look into your
bulletins that we have today? I'd like to close with the article
that is underneath, Food for Thought. Not sure who the writer is, but
he says, Jesus Christ is Lord of all. We read that in Acts
10, 36. He is sovereign, the sovereign
monarch over this whole universe and everything in it. Absolutely
nothing, human or otherwise, can thwart his will or stop him
from doing what he has purposed. The biblical meaning of the word
Lord is supreme controller. The majority of profession Christians
blatantly deny that glorious biblical truth. When you say
it is my will, not God's will, that brings salvation upon you,
then you are denying the Lordship of God Almighty. Therefore, they have not confessed
with their mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord of all. They are still
spiritually dead, dead in trespasses and sin. Nothing stood in the
way, not even Jonah running from the Lord, from the Lord saving
his people in the city of Nineveh. Would you stand with me please?