from our study through the books
of the Bible to the book of Jonah this morning. Now, everybody
here knows the story of Jonah. It's a very familiar, one of
the most famous stories in scripture. In our lesson this morning, I
want to deal with the last two chapters, chapter three and four,
to see if the Lord would be pleased to teach us something about repentance
and attitude. That's the title of the lesson,
repentance and attitude. Now, the reaction to of Nineveh
to the preaching of Jonah is given to us as an example of
repentance. If you look at Matthew chapter
12, I know that so because our Lord told us it is. This is an
example of repentance at the preaching of Christ in Matthew
12 verse 41. Our Lord says, the men of Nineveh
shall rise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn
it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And behold,
a greater than Jonah is here. Now there is, this story of Jonah
is a picture of the one who's greater than Jonah. And I want
us to look at how, what happened here with Nineveh and their repentance
at the preaching of Jonah. See if we can learn something,
first of all, about repentance. Now first, if a sinner is going
to repent, somebody's got to preach Christ to them. They've
got to hear the preaching of Christ. Look at chapter three
of Jonah, verse one. The word of the Lord came unto
Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that
great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.
Now look back in chapter one of Jonah. You know, when the
Lord first commanded Jonah to go to Nineveh, he didn't tell
him preach. He told him go cry against the
city. Look at that chapter one, verse one. Now the word of the
Lord came unto Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go
to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their
wickedness has come up before me." Now, it doesn't take much
ability. It doesn't take much understanding.
It takes no compassion whatsoever to just cry against something.
But it sure takes all that to preach. You've got to experience
mercy as a sinner before you can preach with any understanding,
any compassion, any knowledge. You've got to experience mercy
as a sinner before you can preach about God's mercy to sinners.
And this is our commission. Our commission as a church from
God Almighty is to preach Christ. We're not to just go out here
to cry against everything that's wrong. You can find plenty of
stuff to cry against, but that's not our commission. Our commission
is to preach Christ. And this couple of weeks ago
in Mexico, I got a very good illustration of this. Brother
Walter Gruver was showing me the courtyard they have behind
the church there in Mérida. And there's walls around everything
there. Dan said that's good they've got walls around everything.
It makes good neighbors to have these strong rock walls everywhere. On the other side of the wall,
behind that courtyard, there lives the archbishop of the Catholic
Church for all of Yucatan. And Walter said, I'd like to
set some speakers up there and just let the gospel sound go
over and it made that man hear something. And one of the men
said, wouldn't it be something if that man would visit? He'd
hear it, he'd come over here and visit. Walter was quiet for
a little bit. And he said, I know what text
I'd preach. He said, I'd preach there's one
mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. That's
what I'd preach. Now you see that? Given the chance to preach
the archbishop, Walter would preach Christ. He wouldn't cry
against Catholicism. He'd preach Christ. And that's
what we're to do, to preach Christ. And after Jonah spent some time
in the belly of that fish, after he spent some time in adversity
and the Lord delivered him out of it, Jonah learned salvations
of the Lord. Now he's ready to preach. Anybody
can go cry against the wickedness of Nineveh, but now Jonah's ready
to preach. And before anybody ever repents
and turns to Christ, God's gonna prepare a preacher, just like
he prepared the whale. We'll see, all through this book,
God's preparing things to accomplish his will. God's gonna prepare
a preacher, and he's gonna send them, and he's gonna prepare
somebody with a heart to believe. Look at Romans chapter 10. You
know, this matter of hearing and preaching the gospel is so
important because how can we repent and turn to Christ until
we hear of Him? Look at Romans 10 verse 13. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call
on Him in whom they've not believed? And how shall they believe in
Him of whom they've not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher And how shall they preach, except they be sinned?
As it's written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach
the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things.
How shall they preach, except they be prepared? And how shall
they preach, except they be sinned? If somebody's going to repent,
they're going to hear the preaching of Christ. Second, where there
is repentance, there's God-given faith. Now we've got to believe
Christ for return to him, don't we? Repentance and faith always
go together. They always arrive at the same
time. They're both God-given. Look here at chapter three, verse
three again of Jonah. 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 Noah began
to enter into the city a day's journey and he cried and said,
yet 40 days in Nineveh shall be overthrown. Now Nineveh was
a very large city. It would take a person three
days to walk across that city, 60 miles. They would calculate
a person could walk 20 miles in a day. I don't know how many
steps that'd be on your Fitbit. It'd be a lot. But you can walk
20 miles in a day. So this city, across it, 60 miles. I mean, huge city. And Jonah
went through that city, telling everybody, God's going to destroy
this city in 40 days. Now that's all we have recorded.
But I think Jonah said more than that. And we'll see this in a
few minutes. I think he said more than that.
Jonah was there preaching. He didn't want to be there. He
did not want to be preaching to those Gentiles. He did not
want to see God be merciful to these people. But he's preaching
anyway because God taught him something. He's there preaching
because God told him to. And it could be somebody heard
Jonah say, God's gonna destroy this city in 40 days. It could
be somebody said, well, Jonah, is there any way the Lord spares?
And Jonah would have had to tell them about the mercy of God.
Jonah just experienced it, didn't he? Jonah had a story of mercy
to tell. And Jonah knew full well that
mercy is the character of God. Look at chapter four, verse two.
And Jonah prayed unto the Lord and said, I pray thee, O Lord,
was not this my saying when I was yet in my country? Therefore
I fled before unto Tarshish, for I knew that thou art a gracious
God and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness and repentance
thee of evil. Jonah knew that's the character
of God and he just experienced God's mercy. Could be he told
them about it. Now here's God giving faith.
And verse five of chapter three. The people believed God when
they heard Jonah preach. So the people of Nineveh believed
God and they proclaimed to fast and put on sackcloth from the
greatest of them even to the least of them. You see where
there's repentance, there's always faith. Faith simply believes
God. Faith just believes everything
in God's word. They heard God's word and they
believed it. They hear God's word and we say,
well, I never heard that before. I never thought about that before,
but I believe it because God said it. Faith believes even
when I don't understand. There are many things I read
in God's word I don't understand, but I believe them because it's
in God's word. Faith believes. Faith believes
everything that God says about himself. God says he's just and
he's holy. And God says he's merciful to
sinners. Faith believes that. Faith clings to that. That's
God's character. Faith believes everything God
says about me. I'm a sinner. I'm undone. I need mercy because everything
I do, everything I think, everything I say is sin because I'm a sinner. And faith believes that God in
justice should destroy me. That's what I deserve for my
sin. If God destroyed me, he'd be right. Faith believes that.
Thirdly, where there's repentance, there is humility before God. Look at verse six. For the 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
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, herd nor flock,
taste anything. Let them not feed or 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's in their hands. And nobody's
going to be saved until they admit their sinner who needs
a savior. The well don't need a physician.
The well don't go to the doctor. Sick people go to the doctor.
Well people, righteous people, they don't go to the Savior.
It's sinners who go to the Savior. And only a sinner who can't do
one thing for himself will go to the Savior who does everything
for him. And this repentance and this humbling, this humbling
to admit, I need somebody to do for me what I can't do for
myself. Now that's humbling. And this repentance and this
humbling is for everybody. It began here with the king.
And the king is no better off than the pauper. Everybody's
in sackcloth and sitting in ashes. And the reason for that, Paul
tells us in Romans 3, there's no difference. For all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. All of us have sinned and
should be humbled. All of us sinned and must repent.
Of course we should be humble. We don't have anything to be
proud of. The only thing we've got of our own is shame. Of course
we should be humble. And true repentance will always
produce this humility before God. Fourthly, where there is
repentance, there will be a strong cry for mercy. The king said
in verse eight, let every man cry mightily unto God. Yea, let them turn everyone from
his evil way, from the violence that's in his hand. Your repentance
is a turning. Repentance is not just being
sorry. Repentance is a turning. That's why the king said, let
every man turn from his evil way. Turn, turn to the Lord. And when a sinner turns to the
Lord, there will be a strong cry for mercy. We'll cry for
mercy with all of our might, with everything we have. Now
remember, faith and repentance always come together. Faith believes
everything that God says about himself. God says he's merciful
to sinners. Faith believes it. So I cry to
God for mercy. I believe I'm a sinner. I believe
God's merciful and I'll cry to him for mercy. Now you cry to
the Lord and you beg him for mercy like your life depends
upon it. Because it does. Your life depends
upon it. And you cry to God like that
and he'll have mercy. There are many examples of this,
but let's look at one in Luke chapter 18. Many examples of
this in scripture, but Luke chapter 18, verse 10. The two men went up into the
temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The
Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. God, I thank thee
that I'm not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers,
or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week. I give
tithes of all that I possess. There's no humility there, is
there? I mean, wow, he's proud of himself. There's no humility. And since there's no humility,
there's no turning to the Lord. He's praying with himself. He's
not praying to God. Nobody will beg for mercy until
God shows them they need mercy. This man doesn't need mercy.
That's why he's not crying for it. But look at verse 13. And
the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as
his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God
be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down
to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone
that exalted himself should be abased. and he that humbleth
himself shall be exalted. See, this is a cry of a sinner
who needs mercy. He's so humble, he won't even
lift up his eyes to heaven. He's looking down, he's just,
oh, he's humble. He wouldn't dare look at God. I bet that Pharisee lifted up
his hands and his eyes as he's praying, don't you reckon? That's
why he's praying with himself. But the publican, earnestly begged
for mercy. He smote upon the problem. Problem
is my heart. The problem is not that I don't
fast twice in the week and I'm not an extortioner, I don't do
all these things. The problem is my heart. I've got a sinful
nature. And the Lord heard that cry and
justified that sin. Well, the only reason for it
is mercy. He begged for mercy and God gave
it. Where there is repentance, there
will be a strong cry for mercy. Then fifthly, when there is repentance,
there is acknowledgement that God is God. Now this is what
I mean by God is God. I acknowledge that God is God. He's in control of everything
and he does not have to have mercy on me. God doesn't owe
me anything, nothing but wrath. And where there's true repentance,
there's a belief, salvation's of the Lord. Where there's true
repentance, there's no more arguing about the sovereignty of God.
Of course He's sovereign. Salvation's up to the Lord. My
salvation depends upon the will of God and the mercy of God and
the doing of God, not my decision. The Lord does not have to have
mercy on me. But Cecil, I'm gonna ask Him
for it anyway. I'm just gonna beg Him for it anyway. Look at
verse 9 back in our text of Jonah chapter 3. This is what the people
said. Let's call on God for mercy,
cry mightily. Who can tell if God will turn
and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish
not? Who can tell? Who can tell if the Lord will
have mercy on me or not? Who can tell if the Lord will
have mercy on you or not? I can't tell you. But I can tell
you this, there's just one way to find out. Go to him and see. Call on him and ask. I'm gonna
go begging for mercy. I know this is God's character
to show mercy. I know God's the only source
of mercy. Then I'm gonna go begging for
it. Who can tell? Now that's repentance. Now there's
one last thing I want us to see here about repentance. Repentance
is not a one-time thing. Repentance is continual for the
believer. Repentance is not an act or an
experience, it's an attitude. Repentance is a way of life.
Yes, I've repented, but I need to repent of my repentance. We
need to pray that the Lord will not just set a watch on my tongue,
but also on our attitude. Because look at chapter four
of Jonah, verse one. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly. Well, in verse 10, well, you
know the story. God saw their works, and he turned from his
evil way, and God repented him of the evil that he had said
that he would do unto them and did it not. And that displeased
Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. And he prayed unto
the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying
when I was yet in my country? That's why I fled before on a
Tarshish, because I knew that your gracious God, and merciful,
slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentant of the evil, Therefore
now, O Lord, take I beseech thee my life from me, for it's better
to die than to live. That has to be one of the most
shocking statements of scripture. And it just reveals a whole lot
about our flesh. Jonah was mad that God showed
mercy to Nineveh. What an awful attitude. Oh, what an awful attitude. I
think as Matthew Henry said, Jonah is the only preacher that
ever got mad that God gave him a successful ministry. I mean,
who can figure? Jonah was so prejudiced against
those Gentiles, he did not want God to show mercy to him. That's
why he said, I told you, if they begged for mercy, I knew you'd
be merciful to them. It just makes me mad. Can we fall into that attitude? You bet we can. Every time we
steer clear of an unbeliever or someone who's very difficult
and we don't tell them the truth and we just think, I'm not going
to waste my breath on them. We've done the same thing Jonah
did. Every time We start making fun of free wheelers here. They've
got these big buildings and all this crazy stuff. And every time
we make fun of them and don't pray for them, don't pray, God
be merciful to them, we've done the same thing Jonah did. Same
thing. You know, most of the writers
say this, that Jonah was more concerned about his reputation
than he was the Lord's reputation. Jonah said, here I'm going through,
and everybody sees it's going to be destroyed, and then it's
not destroyed, and people are going to think I'm a false prophet.
Well, somebody might think that. Somebody always thinks you're
a false prophet if you're preaching the truth. But let me ask you,
isn't it better that our Lord be glorified and showing mercy
to sinners than I be proved right? Yes, it is. Does it really, really,
does it really matter if somebody thinks I'm a false prophet? What
really matters is God's mercy to sinners. That's what matters. It doesn't matter what somebody
thinks about me. What think ye of Christ? That's
the issue. Well, can we fall into that attitude
that Jonah did? You better believe we can. When
we want to see our doctrine proved, more than we want to see Christ
be merciful to the undeserving, More than we want to see God
be glorified in saving a sinner who doesn't deserve it. More
than we want to see, well, I want my doctrine to be proved. More
than I want to see God save a sinner who disagrees with me, I fall
into the same attitude that Jonah had. When our doctrine is more
important than mercy, we're no better than the Pharisee. Now
that's something important about our attitude, isn't it? It's
not about us. It's about the Savior. It's about
Christ. And if you apply that to everything
you do, your attitude will be better all through the rest of
your life. It really will. Look at verse four. Then said
the Lord, doest thou well to be angry? Jonah, is this the
right attitude? And it's so obvious that this
is the wrong attitude. Jonah doesn't even bother to
answer, does he? Verse five. So Jonah went out of the city
and he sat on the east side of the city and there made him a
booth. and sat under it in the shadow
till he might see what would become of the city. And the Lord
prepared a gourd and made it to come up over Jonah that it
might be a shadow over his head to deliver him from his grief.
So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. Now Jonah's sitting
there on a hill over the city watching. He's watching to see
maybe God would destroy the city. That's what he's hoping to see.
Jonah's sitting there, pouting at God. Your children ever done that
to you, sit and pout at you? When they do that, do you run
and give them a treat? Give them a piece of candy or
give them? No, we don't, do we? Jonah's sitting there pouting
at God. And God prepares a gourd. A gourd, it's a weed is what
it is. And it's got some sort of palm
leaf or something over it to shade Jonah from the heat. Isn't
God good to his people? Aren't you thankful he blesses
us when we don't deserve it? There, Jonah is pouting and God
gives him this blessing, a little weed to give him some shade from
the sun. And Jonah was glad for it. Verse seven, but God prepared
a worm when the morning rose the next day and it smote the
gourd that it withered. And it came to pass, when the
sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind, and the
sun beat upon the head of Jonah that he fainted, and wished in
himself to die, and said, It's better for me to die than to
live. Now Jonah had this shade, but the next day, God took away
Jonah's shade, had this worm destroy the weed, and then God
cranked up the heat, he had the wind blow and just cranked it
up. It's God that gives every physical blessing, And it's God
that sends every trial. It's God that turns up thee.
And Jonah was so miserable, he said, I wish I'd just die. Now,
not only did God not destroy the city, God destroyed the weed
that gave me shade. It just made him so mad. Jonah
said, I'd rather God destroy the city and leave the weed so
I'd be a little cooler. Jonah's so self-centered. That
remind you of anybody? That's me. That's the way we
are in it. Now, verse nine. And God said
to Jonah, doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And Jonah
said, I do well to be angry even unto death. Now, this is what
we're all prone to do in a time of trial. Question God. And Jonah's attitude has gotten
so bad. Not only is he questioning God
for destroying the gourd, he's questioning God's mercy. to sinners. Verse 10. Then said the Lord, thou hast
pity on the gourd for the which thou hast not labored, neither
made us to grow when it came up in a night and perished in
a night. And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city wherein
are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between
their right hand and their left hand and also much cattle? Now
God's exposed Jonah's attitude. This is the problem of attitude.
This is why I pray that God would keep us from an attitude of being
so selfish and self-centered. Jonah cared about that weed.
He didn't put any effort into it, but he cared about it. God
just made it grow. Jonah didn't care anything at
all about that city full of people, and he'd spent some time and
effort on them. He'd spent some time and effort
preaching in that city, but he didn't care about it. All he
cared about is that weed that he didn't have anything to do
with. Jonah cared a whole lot about a weed that just lived
for a day. And you know, if that weed lived
a long time, it's just going to live a few days. He didn't care
anything about that city that had been there for hundreds of
years. He cared about a weed. He didn't care about people. You know, we're not in the doctrine
business. We're in the people business,
preaching Christ to people. This would be like us caring
more about our doctrine than lost people. It'd be us caring
more about our reputation than the souls of lost people around
us. The six score thousand here didn't know the right hand from
their left, that's 120,000 children, babies. You know what God's teaching
Jonah here? He's teaching him to be merciful. As your father,
which is in heaven, is merciful. And God spared Jonah by the exact
same mercy he spared that city. You don't think we've ever gotten
beyond needing mercy. We need God's mercy just as much
as anybody else. And then the book ends with a
question. A question that Jonah doesn't
answer. Now maybe he doesn't answer because the answer is
just obvious. But maybe he doesn't answer the
question, so we'll be forced to answer some questions ourselves.
I've got a few questions for us to think about our attitude.
Cause us to pray that God give us the right attitude. Is it
right for me to question God? Is it right for me to ask, God,
why you bless this ministry over here, but not this one? Well,
no, it's not right, is it? Of course it's not right. They're
all God's people wherever they're found and God's going to save
his people wherever they're at. He's going to save them and he's
going to save them for his glory, not mine. Next question. Is this my attitude? Do I think
I want God to be merciful to me, not them. Is that my attitude? Well, if
it is, we need to learn something. You just rest assured about this.
There's enough mercy to go around. God has enough mercy for us and
them too. God has enough mercy for every
sinner that needs mercy. So let's not want God to be stingy
with his mercy. He's rich in mercy, let's pray
that he would. And then my last question is
this. Do I weep enough for the lost? It's easy for me to weep when
God destroys my weed. Some little trinket, you know,
that I've become attached to. It's easy for me to weep about
that. But do I weep enough for the eternal consequence of the
souls of men and women who do not know Christ? Do I? I'll tell
you this. I believe this is so. That we'd
see a whole lot more of God's glory if we're less concerned
about how things directly affect us and we'd be more concerned
with the glory of God and Him showing mercy for the good of
His people. I believe if that's the thing
we are more concerned with, we'd see more of God's glory in saving
sinners. And I pray God will give us that
right attitude, that He'll grant us repentance and faith, and
that He'll set a guard over our attitude, that it not be dishonoring
to Him. All right, I hope Lord God will
bless you.