Come into this house, gather
in. to this house, for everything
is made to worship the Lord. ? Worship my soul ? ? Worship my
soul ? ? So let's lift up holy faith in Jesus Christ our Lord
? shall be shall be He is He is all my righteousness, for
I stand in Him completely and worship Him. Good morning. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 42 together. Hymn number 42. All hail the power of Jesus'
name. Bring forth the royal diadem
and crown him Lord of all. Bring forth the royal diadem
and crown him Ye chosen seed of Israel's race,
ye ransomed from the fall. Hail Him who saves you by His
grace, and crown Him Lord of all. ? Help Him who saves
you by His grace ? ? And grant Him your word of all ? ? Let
ev'ry kindred, ev'ry tribe ? ? On this terrestrial shore ? ? To him all majesty I strive ?
? And crown him Lord of all ? ? To him all majesty I strive ? ?
And crown him Lord of all ? Oh, that with thunder's sacred
throng we at His feet may fall. We'll join the everlasting song
and crown Him Be seated we'll sing hymn number
256. 256 When peace like the river attendeth
my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll, It is well, it is well with my
soul. with my soul in Israel. Though Satan should buffet, Though
trials should come, Let this blest assurance control. Let Christ hath regarded my helpless
estate, And hath shed his own blood for my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. I sing, O the bliss of this glorious
thought. I sing, not in part, but the
whole. is no more. It is well, it is well with my
soul. ? My faith shall be sound ? ? The
clouds be rolled back as a storm ? ? The trump shall be sounded
? It is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. If you have your Bibles with
you this morning, I'd like to read from the book of Hebrews. I'll be reading Hebrews chapter
4. Hebrews chapter 4. directly before this unbelief is being spoke of. Chapter four, let us therefore
fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest,
any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was
the gospel preached, as well as unto them, but the word preached
did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that
heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said,
as I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest,
although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise,
and God did rest the seventh day from all his works. And in
this place again, if they shall enter into my rest, seeing therefore
it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it
was first preached entered not in because of unbelief. Again,
he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, Today, after so long
a time, as it is said, Today, if ye will hear his voice, harden
not your hearts. For if Jesus had given them rest,
then would he not afterward have spoken of another day, There
remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that
is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own
works, as God did from his. Let us labor therefore to enter
into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of
unbelief. For the word of God is quick
and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing
even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the
joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest
in his sight, but all things are naked and open unto the eyes
of him with whom we have to do. Seeing then that we have a great
high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of
God, let us hold fast our profession, for we have not an high priest
which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin.
Let us therefore come boldly into the throne of grace that
we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our most high and heavenly Father,
Lord God Almighty, we come boldly in thy presence by the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we thank you for your
word that has been preserved for us and has been proclaimed
to us and taught to our hearts to nourish our souls. Lord, we pray that you would
meet with us this day, enable Brother Aaron to stand before
us and boldly proclaim the gospel. to speak it freely and clearly. Lord, we ask that you would harden
not our hearts, open our hearts to hear thy word this morning,
that you would bless it to us. Lord, there are many here who
you have not opened hearts before. We ask that today might be the
day you would open their hearts. Lord, we pray for the many weak
and weary. Lord, you know all of our needs. We just read to
come to you in time of need. Lord, we need you every moment
of every day. I ask that you would be gracious and be merciful. Be pitiful to us. For without you, we are nothing.
But in Christ, we have everything. Lord, we ask that you would cause
us to honor and glorify thy holy name today. Cause us to truly
worship you. Keep the things of this world
and this flesh out of our minds for a little while, if it would
please you. Cause thy gospel to go forth
clearly. Pray for those who are traveling,
Lord, that you'd be with them, see them safely back. Father,
we ask that all things be done according to thy perfect will,
for Christ's sake. Amen. Let's all stand together as we
sing the hymn of the day in the Bulletin. Lord, with glowing heart I praise
Thee For the bliss Thy love bestows For the pardoning grace that
saves me And the peace that from it flows Thou must light the flame, or
never can my love be warmed to grace. Grace, my soul, the God
that sought thee, found me lost and kindly brought
me from the paths of death away. Raised with love's devoutest
healing, in mercy And the light of hope revealing
made the bloodstained cross appear. Lord, this bosom started to fear. ? My lips express ? ? Low before
thy foot ? ? Still kneeling deep ? ? Thy supplicant prayer to
bless ? ? At thy love thy soul's chief treasure ? We're pleased
to have Brother Aaron Greenleaf and his sweet family with us
again today. We're looking forward to hearing
what's on your heart today. You come and preach to us whenever
you're ready. Red button when you're ready
to start. Well, good morning, everybody. It's good to see you
all again. If you want to turn over to Jonah
chapter three. Jonah the third chapter. Been studying through Jonah a
little bit, enjoyed it. So this morning what I'd like
to do is let's look at chapter three and then tonight, Lord
willing if we come back, we'll take a look at Jonah chapter
four and see how the story ends. Look over here at Jonah chapter
3, and when you get there, pick up with the first verse. Jonah 3 and verse 1. And the word of the Lord came
unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go into Nineveh, that
great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. This is the second time, and
I'm very thankful for second times. What happened the first
time? If you go all the way back to
chapter one, the Lord went to Jonah, his prophet. Jonah's a
saved man, make no mistake about it. He knows God, and God knows
him, and he is God's prophet. And the Lord says, you go down
to Nineveh, and you preach. And Jonah says, no, I'm not going.
And he disobeys, he's a rebel. He hops on a ship going down
to Tarshish, and he's floating away. He wants to get away from
the Lord. He wants to get away from this purpose. He does not
want to do what the Lord has sent him to do. And the Lord
sends a storm. He won't stop going after Jonah. He sends this great storm where
Jonah and everybody else on that boat finds themselves in danger
of their entire lives. And the men on that boat look
at Jonah and they say, what do we have to do to you? that we might
be saved. And he says, you throw me overboard,
that's the only way. What a picture of Christ he is
in that. Throw me overboard, it's the only way you can be
saved. And they do just that. They throw
Jonah overboard in the midst of those waves and those billows
and that wind and all that. And if you and I had been the
Lord, and that was our prophet, and you said, go down to Nineveh
and preach, and he said no, and tried to get away, you know what
we'd do? We'd let him drown. Prophets are a dime a dozen,
my friend. Clay pots, I can make me another one just like that.
You've made your bed, lie in it. But that's not what the Lord
did. He sent that whale, he prepared
a whale to swallow up Jonah. And for three days and three
nights, you know what he did? He taught him. Taught him over and over
until in chapter two, Jonah said these words, salvation is of
the Lord. That was the lesson. And he spit
him up on that dry ground. And if you're looking for a point
in all that, it's this as unfaithful as we are to him, he remained
a faithful to us the entire time he was going after Jonah and
he would not quit on him. He's going to have his man and
he's going to have his man do his will. And once he spits him
up on dry ground, he says, you talk, you get the message. Now,
like I said, Go back down to Nineveh and preach to them people.
I've got a message for them. Now take a look at what happens.
Look at verse three. 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. This is a big place. Three days
journey is about 60 miles. So to get from one end of the
city to the other, you got to walk about 60 miles. And in the end
of chapter four, the scripture tells us that there was 120,000
babies in that city alone. So if you got 120,000 babies
and toddlers and stuff like that, how much more teenagers and young
adults and full grown adults, probably millions of people,
the Lord said, I'm gonna send you down there and you're gonna
walk these halls and you're gonna walk these roads and you're gonna
walk these alleys and I'm going to give you a message, a very
simple eight word message. You're gonna repeat it over and
over and over again. Look at verse four. 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. Notice this is non-negotiable.
This is not 40 days and if you all don't clean up your act,
Nineveh's gonna fall. That's not what it says. You
all better clean things up. You better start doing right
or Nineveh's gonna fall. That's not what it says. You
got 40 days. 40 days and this place is over with. I'm wiping
it out. Now isn't this a type of a gospel
message? It absolutely is. You say, well, conspicuously
aren't there some things missing? Christ, His blood, the justification
found in what He did, righteousness for His people in Him. All these
things seem conspicuously missing. They're not. We just have to
dig a little bit to find it. He issued these people a warning,
and the gospel does come to God's people as a warning, and we'll
see that here in a minute. Let's see how they received it,
though. Look at verse 5. So the people of Nineveh believed
God and proclaimed to fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest
of them even to the least of them. Everybody in this town
believed God. Jonah walked around, he had 40
days, and Nineveh should be destroyed. And you know what? Everybody
in that town believed God. The question is why? Why did
they believe the message? Why did they believe the messenger?
Why did they believe God? Look at verse 6. 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
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 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. Here's
the reason they believe the message, and here's the reason they believe
God, because the king commanded it. Nobody in the town would
have believed God, and nobody in the town would have believed
that message until the king said, believe, and they received the
message, and they believed God, and they repented. And the king
follows up with a very curious statement. Look at verse nine.
He says, who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn
away from his fierce anger that we perish not? The king is in no way a fatalist,
is he? Did he know Jehovah was sovereign? He absolutely did. We're in his hands. We're wearing
sackcloth right now. We're going to sit down in ashes.
We're in the hands of a sovereign who we have offended against,
and he can do with us as he sees fit. He absolutely knew that.
Did that inspire fatalism in him? Not in any way, shape, or
form. He says, today is the day of
action. Who can tell? Who can tell? Today is the day
to cry mightily unto the Lord. Today is the day to put on that
sackcloth. Today is the day to believe God.
No fatalism in this king right here. He knew God was sovereign,
and it was time for action. The kingdom of heaven suffereth
violence, and the violent take it by force. That would have
been his thing. Now look at all it ends, verse
10. 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. The Lord withheld his hand. He
said, no, I'm not going to destroy Nineveh. And as a point of interest
here, this incident, this scene in the scriptures, this is the
largest revival recorded in scripture. Numerically, this is the largest
amount of people who were ever saved in the scriptures at one
given time. It's right here by a man who
doesn't want to be there and a bunch of people who weren't
asking for a profit to begin with. The greatest revival in
human history. Now the question is this, what
is this all about? Where's the gospel in all this?
This is what this is predominantly about. This is what it looks
like when the Lord reveals himself to a man and saves that man in
his experience. It's how it works and how that
man receives it by the Lord's grace. Now, here's a question. I want to throw this question
out there. When is a man saved? When are the elect saved? That question has multiple different
answers, and I'll give you four of them, okay? Here's the first
one. The elect were saved, everybody God chose in divine election,
the elect were saved before the world ever began, when God the
Father loved them in Jesus Christ. And when he purposed them unto
salvation, and he entered in that covenant of grace with his
son, where they struck hands, and the son said, I'm going to
take full responsibility for these people. Everything you
require of them, you will charge to my account. I will do it all.
And if I do that, you'll be satisfied. And the father said, I will.
And they struck hands, and then every member of the elect was
saved. Couldn't be anything else, because the purposes of God can't
change. One of the elect saved. when
the Lord Jesus Christ went to that cross, bearing the sins
of his people, the wrath of God raining down on him, and he uttered
these words, it is finished. Every member of the elect, our
sins were gone, absolutely and utterly removed. We were completely
and utterly reconciled to God in that very millisecond when
the Lord Jesus Christ laid down his life for his people. That's
when the elect are saved. When are the elect saved? When
God the Holy Spirit comes to a man at God's appointed time
and he breathes life into him, he gives him a new man and a
new nature. And this is the evidence of that new man, that holy man,
the very nature of God dwelling in a man. He believes the gospel. He actually trusts the Lord Jesus
Christ. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. I can't see my righteousness
before God. I can't see my sinlessness before
God. I can't see my acceptance. I
have faith, trust in the Lord Jesus Christ alone, and that
is the evidence of all of it. When is he saved? When a man's
experience, the Lord comes to him and he reveals Christ to
him. The day we die, we're gonna put down this old man of flesh,
this old, wicked, sinful nature. And on that day, we're gonna
be plum saved. We're gonna see Christ face to
face being perfectly conformed to his image. We won't even remember
what it's like to be a sinner. The past deeds, the past things
of old, they will all be gone. We won't even remember them.
All we will know is the only reason I am here is because of
him. And we just want to tell his
story over and over and over again. Now, three of those concepts
I just told you about. One of the elect saved. I want
to deal with three of them, the first three. Now, this was the
first one. One of the elect saved. when,
before time began, God the Father purposed to be merciful to his
people. In divine election, he said,
I'm going to be merciful to these people. I'm going to save these
people. I've loved them and chosen them in my chosen one, in Christ. Now, I find this interesting.
The order of things in this story. In verse 10, what happens? In
verse 10, the Lord shows mercy. And it comes at the end of the
story, after he had sent his prophet. after the message is
preached, after the people were commanded by the king to believe
God, and they did that, after they repented, after all this,
they are met with mercy. That's given to accommodate our
human intellect, and the fact that we like to see things in
chronological order, because in the true order of salvation,
in the reality of things, you know where mercy fits in the
equation? In the beginning. It all began
with God the Father and his purpose to be merciful to his people
in that covenant of grace with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
where salvation begins with God's purpose, his purpose of mercy,
his purpose of love for his people. If you think about the world's
religion, how do they say it? Mercy comes at the end. You gotta
do this, you gotta do that, you do this other thing. And if you
do these things that I'm prescribing to you, at the end you will have,
you will have earned the mercy of God. That's not how the Lord
works and that's not how his salvation works. It begins with
mercy, a purpose to show mercy. And everything that happens after
that is because of that purpose to show mercy. And the point
I'm getting to is this. the elect, we have always been
eternally secure, eternally saved in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I'm going to give you some
scriptures here. I'm talking about eternal things, which means
these are not things I understand. These are simply things that
I glory in and I wonder in. It's what the book says. Let
me read this to you. Hebrews 4.3 says this, the works
were finished from the foundation of the world. That means everything
that was necessary for the elect to be saved, it already took
place in the heart and mind of God before the world ever began.
This is how Christ is referred to in Revelation 13 8, the lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. He has always been
the acceptable sacrifice for his people. He has always been
the lamb slain in the eyes of his father. That means we have
always been accepted in him. There's never a time for us that
our souls hung in the balance. There wasn't a fight against
good and evil just going at it. Maybe Christ will win. Maybe
the devil will have him. That's not true at all. The fact
of the matter is we have always been secure in the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Secondly, when are the elect
saved? When the Lord Jesus Christ went
to that cross and he died and he said, it is finished. If you want a wonderful type
of the cross, look down at verse six again. 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."
That's talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. That which was
purposed in eternity past had to be carried out in time, in
God's time. Word came from the Father, it's
time. It's time for you to do what you promised you would do.
Go and be the surety. Go and live. Go and die. Suffer
under my wrath. Be raised again. It's time to
do it. And I love this picture here.
The king on his throne. He's not anxious. This isn't
hurried in any way. He's not fearful in any way.
The king, Christ, he slowly gets off his throne. He rises to his
feet, expecting to do his work, excited to do his work, glorifying
his father, glorifying the Godhead, saving his people, rising to
the occasion, not fearful, not frantic, not scared, rising to
do the thing that he promised his father he would do. And I
love this, he took off his kingly robe. Didn't he? He took off
his kingly robe and he took on mortal flesh. He came to this
world, inhabited the body of a man, lived 33 years perfectly
the entire time, and then he put on sackcloth and sat in ashes. He took the sins of his people,
he bore them in his body, and the fire of God came down on
him. The wrath for sin came down on him. He sat in those ashes,
that wrath came down on top of him. But when the smoke cleared,
what was left? A savior and no sin. That's what
was left. You've heard this several times.
He was this particular sacrifice, the only one in history, the
sacrifice that actually swallowed up the fire, not the fire consuming
him. He sat in those ashes, and in
that moment, every member of the elect was saved. Sins put
away, full reconciliation being made with the father. It is finished,
was his cry, because it surely was. Take a look real quick over to
chapter 2. I love chapter 2. You can read
this in the Messianic. These are all the words of Christ
from the cross. But if we want to have some understanding
of what he was actually experiencing and what his thoughts were from
the cross, just read chapter 2. We'll see what it is. Look
at verse 1. 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 hell, cried I. And thou heardest my voice. What
did the Lord Jesus Christ suffer on that cross? The equivalent
of an eternity in hell times 10,000s and 10,000s and 1,000s
and 1,000s. That's what he was going through.
Verse three, for thou hast cast me into the deep. In the midst
of the seas and the floods compassed me about, all thy billows and
thy waves passed over me. Then I said, I am cast out of
thy sight, yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. He never stopped believing his
father. He never stopped trusting him. He says, your waves and
your billows are coming over top of me. He is being crushed
under the weight of God's wrath for the sins of his people that
were made his, and he says, I'm gonna look again to his holy
temple. This man believed God. He believed God when God was
raining down his fire upon him, when he had been completely and
utterly forsaken by God. I remember what he said. He said,
if I did this, if I suffered, I died, he would be satisfied
and he would raise me from the dead. And in the midst of all
that being forsaken, he never stopped believing his father.
Verse five. The waters compassed me about,
even to the soul. The depth closed me round about.
The weeds were wrapped about my head, just like that crown
of thorns those Roman soldiers placed on his head. Verse six,
I went down to the bottoms of the mountains. The earth with
her bars was about me forever. Yet hast thou brought up my life
from corruption, O Lord my God. When my soul fainted within me,
I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came in unto thee, into
thine holy temple. They that observe lying vanities
forsake their own mercy, but I will sacrifice unto thee with
the voice of thanksgiving." Everything he did, he did willingly, and
in thanksgiving he was doing what he wanted to do. I will sacrifice unto thee with
the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. He
paid his vows. I vowed that I would do this.
I vowed I would be the sin bearer. I vowed I would lay down my life.
He did exactly that. And because of that, every member
of the elect is saved, eternally secure in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now finally, third, when is a
man saved? When are the elect saved? When
God the Holy Spirit comes to that man in the Lord's appointed
time, and he breathes life into that man, and he reveals the
Lord Jesus Christ to him in a saving way. Now, how does that happen? Let me give you a scripture here.
First Corinthians 121, for after that, in the wisdom of God, the
world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. You know what that means?
That means you and I can't figure this out on our own. We can't
just go to the scripture, a natural man can't just go to the scripture,
well, I see what it's saying here, that must be who God is,
and from that, say, I believe, great, I have spiritual life
now. That's not how it works. No man will receive this. He
may be able to intellectually understand what's being said
in this book, but if he can intellectually digest it, he will simply hate
what he reads. because by nature he hates God.
You and I can't figure this out on our own. When the Lord saves
a man in his experience, he does it the exact same way every single
time. Through this thing he calls,
and I love it he refers to this way, the foolishness of preaching. It's silly, I'm gonna take one
of y'all, just an average one of y'all, and I'm gonna raise
him up, and I'm gonna give him my words, and he's gonna say them
to you. And from that, I make those words effectual to my people,
and I actually give them life from that message. And that is
everybody. You think of the Apostle Paul,
right? This man was brought up into the third heavens, he was
taught directly from God himself. But prior to that, you know what
happened? The Lord sent him a man named Ananias. You know how many
times Ananias is mentioned in the scripture? One. A nobody from nowhere go down
and preach to Paul, he prayeth. And he went down there and preached
the gospel to that man, and he saved Paul the exact same way
that he saves every sinner, by the preaching of the gospel.
And after that, he brought him up into the third heaven, and there
he was taught directly from God. But it's always the same way,
through the foolishness of preaching. And that's what's going on in
our text, isn't it? You have this man, Jonah, he has an eight-word
message, and he goes and he preaches that message. The message is
always the same, over and over and over again. No matter where
you're coming from in the scripture, it's the same message. Christ
and Him crucified. Salvation for the elect. Salvation
for sinners. Come to Christ, it's always the
same message. And he had that same eight-word message, and
from that, the Lord blessed it to these people, and He calls
them to believe God, and He calls them to repent. This is a beautiful
thing. Now, I direct your attention
to two things real quick. Number one, the messenger, and
number two, the message. Who did the Lord send? Who is
the prophet that he chose for this job? His name was Jonah. Jonah was a merciless man. He
did not want to see these Ninevites saved. He's a disobedient man. The Lord told him to go down
there, and he refused to go. He was rebellious. If you read
through this book right here, the book of Jonah. What you'll
find is he spends the most of it angry at the Lord and manifesting
that anger with. He's really angry prayers. You
know what this man was? He was a sinner. He was a safe
center, but he was a sinner, just like every other center.
And that man who's preaching the gospel Lord raised up to
preach to you. He's gonna be sinner, and he's gonna suffer
with the same infirmities you suffer with. He's gonna deal
with unbelief and all these other things. He is just a simple earthen
vessel. This is what the scripture says,
2 Corinthians 4, 6 and 7. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of the darkness, hath shined in our hearts to
give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure, this
message, in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power
may be of God and not of us. That's how the preacher's referred
to. He's an earthen vessel, clay pot. You know what clay pots
are like? They're very temporal. They can
break. They can shatter. And eventually,
there is absolutely nothing to them. I don't know how many of
you all have clay pots in your house, right? Some of you may
have some. You may not even know it. And I'm sure when you come
back from work, come back from the store, you're not thinking
about, man, that clay pot. I just can't wait to go home
and take a look at that thing. Nobody cares, right? It's a clay pot. It's a common, ordinary thing.
What makes it special? What's in it? What's in the vessel? Well, if that man has the message,
that's what's special, the message from God. And the Lord does it
for this way, that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. That's why he uses no buddies.
The man, now the message. What was Jonah's message? This
is an eight word message. Yet 40 days and Nineveh shall
be overthrown. This is non-negotiable. And this
is a warning. And the gospel does come as a
warning. Let me give you a scripture that
kind of explains this. Turn over Ezekiel chapter three. Ezekiel chapter three. When you get there, look at verse
16. Ezekiel 3, 16. And it came to
pass at the end of seven days that the word of the Lord came
unto me, saying, Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto
the house of Israel. Therefore, hear the word at my
mouth and give them warning from me. He's talking about the preaching
of the gospel. He says, this is a warning. I'm
giving them a warning, but what's the warning? Look at verse 18.
When I say unto the wicked, thou shalt surely die, and thou givest
him not warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked
way. Notice it does not say wicked
ways, not plural, wicked way, singular. To save his life, The
same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will
I require at thine hand. A few things I noticed here.
Number one, who is this message addressed to? Who is it to be
preached to? He said, you go tell the wicked.
That means this message is to be preached to everybody. Every
human soul, we preach this gospel to everybody who will listen
to us because we're evil. This is what the scripture says.
It says, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked. Who can know it? Who can plumb
the depths of how wicked and evil this heart actually is?
And this applies to all men. All men are born just after Adam,
with Adam's fallen, sinful nature. He says, you say this to the
wicked, that means you go out there and you preach this message
to anybody who'll listen to you, because we're all wicked sinners. And
he says this, this is Mark 16, 15, and he said unto them, go
ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth
not shall be damned. Preach to everybody. Don't hold
back once. Anybody who will listen to you
preach this message to you. What's the message? This is what
he said. Thou shalt surely die. Sounds a whole lot to me like
yet 40 days in Nineveh shall be overthrown. Non negotiable. Thou shalt surely die. You're
in dire straits. Just talking about how just God
really is. He is a God of perfect and utter
justice, and we are wicked. We have sinned against him. You
know what that means? Folks, that means we all have
to be punished. Every single one of us has to be punished.
The soul that sinneth shall surely die. The only question is this. Are you going to stand and be
punished in your person? Or have you already been punished
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ? It's not a question of
whether you're going to receive punishment. We all have to be
punished. We serve a just God. The question is, on my own or
in Christ? That's the question. And I find
this interesting. This man who dies in his sins,
this man who is not saved, the writer here gives a reason as
to why. Go look at verse 18 again. It says, when I say unto the
wicked, thou shalt surely die, and thou givest him not warning,
nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way. Now notice, here's what he did
not say. These men are gonna end up going to hell because
God's sovereign, he didn't elect them and he didn't love them.
That's not what it says here at all. You know what it says?
It says these men are going to go to hell, they'll be damned
because they will not forsake their wicked way. That's the
reason. What is that wicked way that
he's talking about? Notice not ways, but way. This is Proverbs
16, 25. There is a way that seemeth right
unto a man. One way. But the end thereof
are the ways, plural, of death. You know what this way is he's
talking about? This is salvation by works. It's a matter of approach. Lord, you should save me because
I did this, this, this, and this, whatever this may be. And there's
a whole lot of ways that are incorporated in that way. You've
got to make a decision. You've got to read your Bible
more. You have to volunteer at a soup kitchen. You have to do
your best. All these other things. This,
this, this, and this, Lord save me because I did this many ways,
but it's all part of one way, the natural man's approach, this
way of salvation by works. He says you love this way. This
is the way that makes sense to you. You like this way because
in this manner of salvation, you get some glory in it. If
I did this, this, and this, that means at least part of the glory
in my salvation comes to me. That's why the natural man loves
this way. And he says, you won't forsake
your wicked way. You won't come to Christ. You won't trust him.
You're holding on to what you do. They will not forsake their
wicked way. That's why they won't be saved.
Now, we can't give the warning. and show the false way without
showing the true way. What is the true way? The Lord
himself said this. I am the way, the truth and the
life. No man cometh unto the father
except by me. This is the truth. The only way
a man will be accepted by the father is if he is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. I had to be in him when he came
to this earth and he kept that law because that means when he
kept it, I kept it perfectly. I had to be in him when he went
to that cross because I have to be punished. My sins have
to be punished. I had to be in him. My sins lifted
out of me and put in him and he suffered and he died. That's
where I died. That's where I was punished.
I got to be him in the resurrection, in him. in him right now as he
stands before his father, having perfect acceptance with him.
I have to be in him right now. And here's the kicker in all
this. Someone may ask, sounds great. How do I get into Christ?
And here's the reality of the answer to that question. You
don't have that power. And neither do I. The only person
who can put you in Christ is God the Father. And the reality
of the situation is you have to have always been there. That's
the only way. The elect have always been stored
up in Christ. We have always been eternally secure in Christ.
God's choice of his people has always been in Christ. There's
only one place of safety. It's in Christ and him crucified
alone. That's it. And I can't tell you
how to get into Christ, but I can tell you whether you're there
or not. And I think that's a very important question. I bet everybody
in this room would like to know right now, am I in Christ? Go back to your text for a moment. Look at verse five. So the people of Nineveh believed
God. This is how they responded to
this message. They believed God. This is the message. You're a
sinner. You don't have any merit before
God. You have no power before God. You're completely and utterly
lame like Mephibosheth. But for sinners, Christ died
to save sinners. And for sinners, he accomplished
their salvation. If you're a sinner, you have
absolutely nothing to worry about because Christ paid your debt
in full and you owe absolutely nothing. Now, my question is,
number one, do you believe that? Do you believe that the only
way of acceptance with the Father is in Christ and him crucified
alone, your works excluded? I do. I believe in Him. I believe everything He says.
I believe that to be true. Also, too, I believe on Him.
I'm trusting Him to do that. Lock, stock, and barrel, my hands
are off this thing. I have no plan B. I have no safety net.
All my hope is this man, Jesus Christ, carrying me before the
Father and me being acceptable in Him. The Father saying, I
don't see any sin. I don't see any rebellion. I
don't see any disobedience because it's not there because his death
actually put it away and his life really is my life. I am trusting him to do that.
Am I allowed to do that? Am I one who has the right to
believe on this man and to trust this man? First Timothy 115,
this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that
Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners of whom I am
chief. I fit the description. Sinner,
chief thereof, nothing to bring before God. That means Christ
died for you. That means you're actually in
him. Now I find this interesting.
These people heard this message and they believed God. Why? We talked about it a few minutes
ago. Because the king commanded them to. A natural man is going
to reject this message every single time. It offends his sense
of being good. Speaks of total depravity, got
no goodness before God. Offends his sense of control.
You don't have any. Lord's in control. Offends his sense of
glory. You don't get any. Christ does
all the work, he gets all the glory. No man will receive this
message. But when a man does, it is supernatural.
There's nothing natural about it. And it's only for one reason.
It's because the king commands it. He says, believe, and you
may be sitting under the sound of the gospel for years, for
decades, things like that, but one day this message comes in
power and the lights come on. And you believe, you actually
believe God. And there's some other things
that happen along here too. I'll point them out to you. Here's
the second thing that happened. These people took off their garments
and they put on sackcloth. Now, Nineveh, think about this
place. This is an industrious place, right? You've got millions
of people living here, obviously some good job opportunities,
probably some pretty wealthy people in this city, right? Really
nice clothes. Everybody took off those fine,
threaded garments. They put them off, and they put
on these robes of sackcloth, these robes of humiliation. This
is a burlap sack. Everybody was wearing the exact
same thing. When you have Christ revealed
to you, When you stand in the light of His Holiness, what do
you see? I'm not wearing a fine, fancy
robe of my self-righteousness. It's a burlap sack. It's sackcloth. It is a garment of shame and
humiliation. Take that off. Get rid of that.
I want absolutely nothing to do with my works. Take my rightful
place at a sinner as his feet. expecting and hoping to have
the very righteousness of God and to be draped in that, so
much so it really is mine. Here's the next thing they did.
They fasted. You see how logical the scripture is. What happens
when you fast? You get hungry. You know, when
the Lord reveals himself to you, you get hungry. You get hungry
to hear this over and over again. It is finished. And you can't
get enough of it. and you won't stand for anything
else. You preach that works to me.
You gotta do this, this, and this. Nope, that doesn't satisfy
my hunger. Keep those husks away, that's not for me. Tell me it's
finished. Tell me Christ died for sinners. Tell me there's
nothing left to do. I'm hungry for that message.
And the more you eat, the hungrier you get, the more you want. He
said, cry mightily unto God. This is what happens when the
Lord reveals himself to you. You find yourself crying to God.
And here's the things you say, have mercy on me, save me, forgive
me, give me faith, give me grace, give me a new man, create in
me a new heart and a new spirit. You start asking for all these
things and the reason you're asking for them, it's funny,
it's because you already have them. If you ever find yourself
begging the Lord for mercy, it's for one reason, you've always
had it. And if you ever find yourself begging the Lord to
save you, it's because he did. If you ever find yourself starting
to ask for a new heart and a new nature, it's because he's given
you one. That's why you are asking for those things, and you will
always ask for those things that you already have. And he said
this. He said, turn from the violence
that is in your hands. You know, when the Lord gives
you that new nature and that new man, and he reveals Christ
to you, that one you hated, that sovereign that you hated, I want
to be in his hand. That holy one you hated is too
strict. I don't want anything to do with him. That violence
that is in your hand, because that's the natural man. It's
what we all want to do by nature. We want to harm God. That is
our natural instinct. We don't want to do that no more.
That one we hated before, now we love. Don't you love everything
about him? The attributes of God, his sovereignty,
his holiness, his righteousness. I love the fact that he's slow
to anger. I love the fact that he's long-suffering with his
people, that he delights to show mercy, and he does in a way to
where he remains completely and utterly just. Absolutely love
everything about his character. When the Lord reveals Christ
to you, that one you used to hate, you now love. And finally
this, the king makes this curious statement. He said, who can tell?
Who can tell? Read that again. Look at verse
nine. Who can tell if God will turn
and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish
not? Now, what's he saying here? Is
he saying, well, we're gonna come to Christ, we're gonna beg
for mercy, and we're gonna do all these things, and maybe he'll
show up, maybe he won't. No, absolutely not. Please understand
this. I'm gonna try to drive this home
as hard as I possibly can. Jesus Christ is more willing
to save you than you are willing to be saved. And that is the
truth of the matter. If you come to him seeking mercy
and grace and forgiveness, you will have it, because he promised,
all that the father giveth me shall come to me, and him that
cometh to me, I will in no wise, for no reason whatsoever, cast
him out. That's not what he's talking
about here. He's talking about the attitude of every believer.
When you know Christ, this is your attitude. You don't owe
me anything. You remember that leopard? Lord, If thou wilt, thou canst
make me clean. I know exactly who you are. You're
the Lord. You're the almighty. You're the deity. You're the
sovereign. I'm in your hands. And a decision has to be made
on this thing of my salvation. It's not mine. It's yours. It's not a question of whether
I'll accept you or not. It's a question of whether you'll accept me or
not. But I know this. If you're willing, you're able.
You've got all the power in the world. And everybody who comes
that way, he says the exact same thing. You're clean. Go your
way. This is an attitude before God. But also too, and I'll leave
you with this thought, who can tell? We've been talking about
the message of the gospel. Doesn't that give us an encouragement
to go preach this message to every single living creature
that'll hear us? Who can tell? You and I don't
know who the elect are. They don't wear some sort of
name badge or anything like that. You have absolutely no idea who you're
coming across on a daily basis. And who can tell who the Lord
is going to save? We've got family members. We've got people we
love. And it appears that they're so far gone, want nothing to
do with the gospel. Don't want to come to church. You send them
bulletin articles, send them all these things. They don't
want to hear it. They reject what you're going to say. Who
can tell? The Lord saved you. Saved me in the exact same circumstances.
Don't despair of any man. So preach this gospel to everybody
who will listen, because who can tell? I've enjoyed being
with you this morning. We'll leave you there. Let's bow our heads in prayer.
Our most high and heavenly Father, Lord God Almighty, once more
we come to you through your blessed Son. We thank you for this message
that we've just been blessed with. Such a comfort and peace. Blessed assurance found in Christ.
Lord, we ask that you would bless this to our hearts continually.
Keep it fresh and new. Lord, we ask that you would bless
our day as we go forth. Bless our fellowship. Cause us
to gather once more this evening to hear your word again. Lord,
thy will be done for Christ's sake. Amen. Let's all stand together
and we'll sing hymn number 474. 474. Not have I gotten, but what I
received. Grace hath bestowed it, since
I have believed. Though steeply excluded, mine
I am based. I'm only a sinner saved by This is my story To God be the
glory I'm only a sinner Saved by grace Once I was foolish and sinful,
my heart Causing my footsteps from God to depart Jesus hath
found me, helped me, my case I now am a sinner, saved by grace
Only a sinner, saved by grace Only a sinner, saved by grace
This is my story, to God be the glory I'm only a sinner, saved
by grace Tears unavailing, no merit that I'd Mercy had saved
me, or else I must die Saint that alarmed me, there in God's
face That now I'm a sinner, saved by grace Only a sinner saved
by grace Only a sinner saved by grace This is my story to
God be the glory I'm only a sinner saved by grace Suffer a sinner
whose heart overflows, Loving his Savior to tell what he knows. Once more to tell him what I
embrace, I'm only a sinner saved by grace. I'm only a sinner,
saved by grace Only a sinner, saved by grace This is my story,
dear God, be the glory I'm only a sinner, saved by grace We'll
meet again this evening at 6 p.m. more grilling.