Morning, everybody. If you would,
turn over to Jonah chapter 3. Jonah chapter 3. Happy Mother's Day to all the
mothers out there, especially mine. Hi, Mom. Jonah chapter 3, if you remember,
I was with you a couple of weeks ago. We consider Jonah chapter
one, and I want to continue that study a little bit this morning.
We're going to read through chapter three. Once you get there, Jonah
chapter three, pick up in verse one. Let's read the first two
verses. Jonah three, verse one. And the word of the Lord came
unto Jonah. Listen to this the second time
saying, arise, go into Nineveh, that great city. and preach unto
it the preaching that I bid thee." This was the second time. You
remember in chapter one, what happened, the Lord went to Jonah
and he said, you go down to Nineveh and you preach to him. And Jonah
said, no, I'm not going to go. Nineveh, it was the capital of
Assyria. That was Israel's enemies, full of Gentiles. Jonah hated
Gentiles. Gentiles hated Jews. And he said, nope, I know what's
going to happen. You're going to send me down there with a
message and you're going to save these people. You're going to
show the mercy. I don't want that. So he flees from the presence
of the Lord and he goes into a ship. It's going over to Tarshish
and the Lord sends this great storm, this storm that endangers
the lives of everyone on that boat. And the mariners, the people
in the boat, they said, General, what do we have to do to you
that these seas are calm to us? And he said, you've got to throw
me overboard. And what a type of Christ he was in that. You
throw me overboard. You throw me in those waves.
You throw me into that sea. You sacrifice me, and these seas
will be calm to you. And that's exactly what happened.
But the Lord does something amazing. He prepared a fish, a whale,
to swallow up the general. And you think about this man.
He was disobedient. He was sinful. He was unfaithful.
He was a merciless man. Didn't want to see these people
safe. Just a sinful man. And had that been you and me,
and we were God, and he said, no, I'm not going, we would have
cast him into that sea, and we watched him drown. Said, I'll
get me another prophet. I'll get me another preacher.
Won't be a problem. But the Lord had mercy. Jonah belonged to
him. He was the love of God. And the
whale was prepared. And that whale swallowed Jonah
up. And for three days and three nights, the Lord taught Jonah.
He had some things to teach him. He chastened Jonah. And once
Jonah had learned the lesson, he spit him up out on dry ground. He says, now, Jonah, the second
time, like I told you before, go preach to Nineveh. And you
think about that story in the scriptures, where it says the
good shepherd, he leaves the 99 and you go after the one.
And when he finds him, he fetches him, he throws him over his shoulder,
and he carries him back rejoicing. And that is the life cycle of
every believer. We're made to look to the Lord
Jesus Christ in faith. And what do we do? We wander. Just keep on wandering. And every
time, He comes back, grabs us by the neck, throws us by the
shoulder, and brings us back and points us to Christ all over
again. That's just the life cycle of the believer. And if you're
looking for a point in all that, it's this. Salvation is not based
on our faithfulness to Him. Thank the Lord. It's based on
His faithfulness to us. And the Lord is utterly faithful
to His people every single time. Here's the second time, Jonah,
I'm never gonna give up on you. Now go preach to Nineveh, I tell
you again. 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. What that means is it would have
taken three days to walk from one end of Nineveh to the other.
And a day's journey is about 20 miles. That means this city
was about 60 miles in stretch from one end to the other, right?
It's a huge city. We find out from chapter four
how much the population is. There's alone children, little
babies. There's 120,000 little babies
alone in this city. Kids that can't tell their right hand from
their left. So you think about what that means as far as teenagers
and young adults and older adults. There's probably millions of
people in this town. It's a huge town. These people were mean,
they were wicked, and they hated Jews. This was not friendly territory
for Jonah. And he's walking into this city
all alone with a message, and it's a message of condemnation.
And you'd have thought that one of these guys would have just
come up behind Jodah and clubbed him with a club and, you know, drug him into
an alley somewhere. But he didn't. The Lord preserved him. He preserved
him because the Lord had a message to send to these people and the
Lord's going to get his message delivered every single time.
Now let's look at the message. Look at verse 4. 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. Now, notice this is not conditional.
This is just a message of impending doom. 40 days, Lord's going to
wipe all of you out. That was his message. You say,
that's obviously this is a type of the gospel message. Doesn't
that seem odd? Conspicuously, what's missing?
Christ, mercy, grace, justification for sinners. All those things
seem missing, but no, what this is, it's a warning. That's the
point of what Jonah has to say here. The Lord had a warning
to Nineveh. And we're going to talk about
that more in a second. We'll look down here and look
at verse six. Sorry, look at verse 5. 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 Jonah comes with
this message 40 days Lord's gonna wipe this place out and an amazing
thing happens Everybody in this town millions of people they
believe God They believe exactly what he said and they put on
sackcloth And you don't know what that is. It was the material
you use for a grain bag It was a garment of humiliation They
fast, they put on this sackcloth, they believe God. But here's
the reason they believe the message. The scripture points this out.
Look down here 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. Why did these people believe
the message? Why did they believe God? Because the king commanded
them to believe. You see, the king believed. The
king put on sackcloth. The king cried mightily. And
he said, you're going to believe this message. When the king commands
the message is believed, it's believed every single time. Now
the king makes a curious statement. Look down here at verse 9. He
says, who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away
from his fierce anger that we perish not? And what does he
mean? Is the king endorsing fatalism here? Well, the God of the Jews,
Jehovah, he's sovereign. He's in control of everything.
And he says that we're going to be wiped out in 40 days. So
who can tell? Nothing we should do. We'll just
wait and see what happens. No, it's actually he's endorsing
the absolute opposite. He's saying this, who can tell?
This God we're dealing with, this is a God who can do anything.
This is a God who is in absolute sovereign control. And that's
not a cause for fatalism. That's a cause to get up. That
is a cause to cry mightily unto God. That is a cause to believe
him and repent because he is that sovereign God. This is not
a time for fatalism. This is a time to do get out
there and cry mightily unto the Lord. And who can tell? who can
tell what this sovereign God is going to do. Now look at verse
10, how the story ends. 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 not. Now, interesting tidbit, what
we've just read here This is numerically the largest number
of people in the scriptures that have ever been saved at one time.
This is actually the largest revival, true revival, that has
ever happened in the scriptures. A whole bunch of Gentiles that
Jonah absolutely hated. Now, the question we always have
to ask when we're dealing with these Old Testament stories is,
where's the gospel in this? What is the teaching of this
story? Many things are taught in this
story, but here's the overreaching theme of this story. How does
the Lord save a man in his experience? And what does it look like when
he saves a man in his experience? What does that man do? How does
that man respond? That is the overreaching theme
in this story. Now, here's a question for you,
a question we should all ask. When are the Lord's people saved?
When? When are the elect saved? And
my pastor has had a great way of bringing this out in a way
that makes very good sense, and I'm going to use that as an outline
for a moment. I want to talk about three different
ways in which the Lord's people are saved at different times.
Number one, all the elect were saved in eternity past when God
the Father purposed to be merciful. and the Lord Jesus Christ agreed
to be the surety for those people. That's the first, when were the
elect saved? Here's the second one, when were
the elect saved? When the Lord Jesus Christ came
to this earth and the father took the sins of his elect and
they put them in Christ. And he suffered and died on that
cross. And he said those three words, which is the hope of every
believer. It is finished. And when he dropped that head
and he gave up that ghost, salvation was for those people accomplished. Done. Absolutely nothing left
to do. One of the elects saved. They
are saved when God the Holy Spirit comes to them with a message. The message of the gospel. And
he makes it effectual to them, actually breathes spiritual life
in them through that message, and they believe God. They actually
come to the Lord Jesus Christ, and they believe Him. That's
when the elect are saved, saved in their experience. And you
know what? In this life, we are being saved. The Lord does absolutely nothing
unnecessarily. Everything He brings our way,
All those little things we would call happenstance, a happening,
something happened, everything that happens, it's just pointing
us to Christ along the way, being pruned, being molded, going towards
the prize. And one day, we're going to be
plum-saved. We die, we're going to put down
this old man, this old man of sin, we're going to be perfectly
conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, and we're going to dwell
with him, and we're not even going to remember what it's like
to be a sinner. Now that's the when. When are
the elect saved? I want to deal with three of
those for just a moment. Number one, the elect were saved
in the eternity past when the Father willed to be merciful
to the elect and the Lord Jesus Christ agreed to be their surety. He agreed to stand up and do
everything that was necessary for them to be saved. Now look
back in your text and look at verse 10 again. And God saw their
works, that they turned from their evil way, and God repented
of the evil that he said that he would do unto them, and he
did it not. Now, I think it's interesting.
How does our story end? It ends with the Lord showing
mercy to the people of Nineveh. But in the order of salvation,
that is actually where salvation begins. It begins with the will
of God, the love of God for a people, and his purpose to show those
people mercy. See, what does Salvation by a
Quirk say? It says, you do this, this, and this, and at the end,
you get the forgiveness of sins, you get the mercy of God. Does
the Lord look at me and say, well, he believes, and he repents,
therefore, I'll show him mercy? No. The Lord purposed before
time began to show a man mercy. And everything that happens after
that, everything, The faith, the repentance, all that, all
those gifts, it is all because in eternity past, God the Father
willed the salvation to be merciful to that man. Now, something that's
interesting that's said in here is this, and God saw the works
that they turned from their evil way. And I'm going to dabble
in eternal things for a moment, so I don't really understand
what I'm saying. I'm just going to give you what the scripture says,
what I believe. God saw their works. What are the works of
every single believer? All the elect. They are the very
works of Jesus Christ. Right now, if you're a believer,
you know what that means? When God looks at you, He sees Jesus
Christ. He sees perfect works. He sees
holy works. He sees sinless works. He sees
all faithfulness, all goodness, all righteousness, because that's
what Christ did. And through our virtue of being in Him, that
union with Him, everything He's done, we've done. But we're talking
about eternity past, before the foundations of the world were
ever built. And this is what Hebrews 4.3 says. It says, the
works were finished from the foundation of the world. How can we understand that? It's
understood by this. It's when the Lord referred to
himself this way in Revelation 13, 8. He's the lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. I don't understand these things.
This is what the word says. I'm just going to preach it to
you. Before there was ever a sin, before there was ever a sin,
Christ was the surety for his people. He was the lamb slain
from the foundation of the world, and all the works, all the goodness,
it was already done from the foundation of the world. The
elect have always been in Christ. We've always had that union with
him. That means we've always been acceptable before the Father.
We've always had the mercy of the Father, because Christ has
always been our acceptable and sufficient sacrifice. Where does
salvation begin? It begins with the will of God,
the will to show mercy. And everything that happened
after that, because of that purpose and because of that good will.
That's first, when the sinner is saved, when the elect is saved.
Here's the second one. Every member of the elect is saved
when Christ went to that cross and he said, it is finished. And we have a very beautiful
picture of the cross in our text. Look at verse six. It says, for
the word came unto the king of Nineveh. What did the king do? And he arose from his throne,
and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth,
and sat in ashes." What a type of Lord Jesus Christ. Word came
to him. Word came from his Father. They're
yours. I command you, you go, you do
everything that is necessary to save them. He said, I will.
And then the time came. The time to carry out the surety
ship has come, and you see the king rising from his throne. The king stands up, not nervous,
not scared, calmly gets up in full confidence, and he gets
up from his throne. It's time to go to work. It's
time to carry out that surety ship. And he laid that robe,
that kingly robe, That real garment, he laid that off and he put on
the garment of humility and he sat in those ashes. You say,
what are you talking about? But made himself of no reputation
and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the
likeness of man and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled
himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. God became a man. He humbled
himself, put on sackcloth, laid down that kingly garment, and
put on a man's body, altogether God and altogether man, having
the nature of God. Not having the nature of man,
that fallen, sinful nature, but having the limitations of a man.
What humility. And then he bore sins in his
body, the sins of his people. What humiliation. And then he
died under the wrath of God. He sat in those ashes. And through
that death, he said, it is finished. Every member of the elect was
saved. through that singular action. And finally this, finally
this, when is a man saved and being saved in his experience? What does that mean? What does
that look like? It's when the Lord crosses his path with the
gospel, the message of the gospel, and he reveals himself to that
man in power. He makes that message effectual, and through that message
he gives that man spiritual life, and that man comes to the Lord
Jesus Christ. He actually believes God, and
he believes on God. Now, I want to talk about that
because that is the main focus of our text. How does the Lord
reveal himself to his people? I'm going to read you this. 1 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's
saying? That's saying God has a plan, a purpose in how he's
going to reveal himself to his people. And you and I can't figure
this thing out on our own. We can't go to the Bible. We
can't just read, oh, I see who God is. I see what the gospel
is. I believe this and move on. That's not how it works. The
Lord always does this the exact same way. It is through the foolishness
of preaching. If the Lord is going to save
a man in his experience, he sends him a preacher with his message,
and he makes that message effectual. You think about the Apostle Paul,
that man who was taught directly by God, who was raised up in
the third heaven, and the Lord taught him. Before he did that,
you know what he did? He sent him a preacher named
Ananias. You know how many times you hear about Ananias in scripture?
Once. He was a nobody. Nobody ever
heard him before, nobody ever heard him again in the scripture.
But before he brought up Paul and he was going to teach Paul
directly, he sent him a man with his message. And that's how he
saved Paul. Just like he saved all the rest
of his people. That's how he saved Nineveh.
Look at your text and look at verse 1. It said, And the word of the
Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go into
Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it. Preach what? Preaching that I bid thee. Jonah, I'm going to give you
a message, and you're going to deliver that message. Now, I
ask you to consider two things for a moment. Number one, consider
the messenger in this story, and consider the message. Who's
the messenger? It was a man named Jonah. What
was Jonah like? Jonah was a complete heel. A
man was unmerciful. He didn't want to see none of
us saved. That man warred against God, got mad at God all the time
because of his good providence. That man disobeyed God. He wouldn't
go where he was sent to go. He was completely unreliable
and unfaithful. You know what he was? He was
a sinner. That's exactly what he was. What does the Lord use to convey
his message? He is a sinner. He sanctifies
his preachers. You know what that means, to
sanctify? You take something common and ordinary and you set
it apart for holy purposes. He takes a common and an ordinary
sinner. And he raises him up, and he
uses him for a moment as his bullhorn. That's it. He gives
him his message, and he speaks through that man. And when he's
done, he sits him back down. He's just a common and an ordinary
sinner. Nothing special about him. He's just been raised up
to deliver this message for that period of time. And this is what
it says in 2 Corinthians 4, 6, and 7. It says, For God, who
commanded the light to shine out of 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
great treasure, this gospel treasure, this message, we have this treasure
in earthen vessels. You know what an earthen vessel
is? It's a clay pot. Is there anything
attractive about a clay pot? I got tons of clay pots around
my house. I don't pay any attention to them whatsoever. They're fragile.
They're prone to cracks. They're prone to breaking. They're
temporal. The only thing that's special about these earthen vessels,
that message, that treasure that they carry. The Lord has designed
it this way. You're going to hear the gospel.
You're going to hear it from a fellow sinner. He's designed it this
way. This is the end of the verse, that the excellency of the power
may be of God and not of us. That preacher, he's going to
be nothing to look at, nothing special about him. And you might
know these things are being said. That's not him. That's the Lord.
The power is of the Lord, the message is from the Lord. This
is just the vessel, this is just the bull horn he happens to be
using for today, and that's it. The messenger of no consequence.
The message is the great treasure, what gives light and life. Secondly,
Jonah's message. 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. Now this is a type of the gospel
message. And like I said before, doesn't
seem odd. Just an unconditional message of impending doom. 40
days, you're done. That's the end of it, right?
Conspicuously, what's absent? Christ. Justification by blood. Union with Christ, salvation
for sinners, the call, come to Christ, believe on him, where's
all that? Here's the point of all this. Jonah was issuing a
warning, and there's a very real sense in which the gospel message
is a warning to all men. Now I wouldn't have said that
unless it's in the scriptures, so I want to show you where that
comes from. Turn to Ezekiel chapter 3. Ezekiel chapter 3, once you get
there, look at verse 16. I'll give you time to get there,
because I want you to see this from the Scriptures, you know what I'm telling you,
right? Ezekiel 3, and pick up in verse 16. And it came to pass, at the end
of seven days that the word of the Lord came unto me, Ezekiel,
saying, Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house
of Israel. Therefore, hear the word of my
mouth and give them warning from me." Here, the gospel preacher
is referred to as a watchman. He's to watch over the souls
of those the Lord has given to him. Now, look at verse 18. He has a warning. Here's the
warning. When I say unto the wicked, thou
shalt surely die, and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest
to warn the wicked from his wicked way to save his life, the same
wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require
at thine hand. Now, this message, the gospel
message, it is a warning. You want to talk about a sobering
passage of scripture for a man who wants to preach. Where is
that blood found? It's on your hands. You don't
give this warning right if you don't get this right. Now, here's
a few things about this message I noticed. Who is this message
to be preached to? He says you say this unto the
wicked. You know what that tells me?
That tells me that this gospel message, it is to be preached
to every man. This is a message to all of humanity. It's to be preached to everybody
because every one of us, every man, woman, and child born into
this earth, save the Lord Jesus Christ, fits that bill, whether
we know it or not, wicked. This is what the scripture says.
The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately, Wicked,
who can know it? Who can plumb the depths of the
wickedness of the human heart? Because the heart is evil, the
seat of all things, because it is evil in every man. That means
the works, the deeds, they are evil. They are not pleasing to
God. They cannot be pleasing to God. Who's the message for?
It's the message to all men, because all men are wicked. And that's what the Lord said.
He said, 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. This is
a message we preach to everybody. What's the message? This is the
message. Thou shalt surely die. Doesn't that sound interesting
and very close to what Jonas said? Yet 40 days and none of
us shall be overthrown. Unconditional, a message of impending
doom, a warning, thou shalt surely die. The soul that sinneth shall
surely die. What's this talking about? This
is talking about how holy and just God really is. Each one of us has to die, and
I'm not talking about physically. Each man, because every man sins,
he must be punished by God. The justice of God demands it.
This is the only question. Am I going to stand on my own?
Am I going to receive that punishment in my body, on my own, in hell
for eternity, or have I already been punished in the person of
Jesus Christ? But every soul that sins has
to die. Everyone has to experience this wrath of God. The only question
is, am I going to get it on my own or did I already get it in
Christ? And he swallowed up that wrath
and he has put it away and I will never feel it. That's the question.
The soul that sinneth shall surely die. He says, here's the reason.
He says, it's your way. You will not turn from your wicked
way. Notice when he says way. It's
not ways, it's way, one singular way. And you remember the King
of Nineveh said that. He said, turn from your evil
way. What is this way? Let me give
you this scripture, and this will clear it up. Proverbs 16,
25, there is a way, a way, singular, that seemeth right unto a man,
but the end thereof are the ways, plural, of death. What is that
way? The way that seems right to a
man, that way he loves, that way he will not divert from naturally,
is the way of salvation by works. Now, there's only two religions.
There's salvation by grace. Salvation for a man being totally
dependent on what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for that man.
And there is salvation by works. And it can be summed up like
this. If you will, God will. Something you need to do. There's
something God demands of you in this covenant between you
and him. You have to bring something to the table. And if you will,
if you hold up your end of the bargain, God will hold up his
end of the bargain and you will be saved. That is salvation by
works. That's the way a man will not
turn from naturally. He loves that way. And there's
many ways in that way. There's Catholicism, there's
Buddhism, there's Hinduism, there's free will Baptist. There's all
kinds of ways. But it all boils down to this
one way. There's something you need to
do to be saved. There's no salvation in that
message. We're all wicked. We're all sinful. The Lord will
not accept anything from us if you come that way. If you come
by law, this is what we're talking about. If you come by the law,
the law has no power to save. Because you can't keep the law,
all you'll hear is condemned, guilty, that's it. Over. The way, he says, you will not
turn from this way. Why won't a man turn from this
way? Why is the natural inclination to follow this way? It's very
simple. In that manner of salvation,
where man has to do something, he has to come up with some of
the goods, man's in control and man gets some glory. That's it. That's what men want. They want
control and they want glory. If salvation is dependent on
me holding up my end of the bargain, that means I'm in control. I
do the thing, God owes me. I'm the one who is the master
of salvation. Two, I get some glory out of
it. I end up in heaven, it's because I did what I was supposed
to do and this guy didn't, so all hail me, I get all the glory.
That is the way that a man will not turn from. He says you won't
turn from your wicked way, this way of salvation by works, you're
going to die. But, we don't stop there. We don't stop by giving the false
way. You can't preach the false way
without giving the true way. And it's very simple. It could
be a very simple scripture. Jesus saith unto him, I am the way,
the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the father,
but by me. There's one way. There is one
way of acceptance with God, and that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. We can't say that with too much
emphasis. It is in Christ. This is the
truth concerning salvation. I must be in Christ, so much
so that he brings me before the Father, and I am in him. And
when the Father looks at him, he looks at me, and he looks
at me, and he looks at him, and he sees no difference. that His
works are my works, that His sinlessness is my sinlessness.
He has to bring me before the Father in Him, and I can only
be accepted in Him. And here's the thing, I have
to have always been in Him. This is not a law of getting
into Christ. You're either there or you're not. Before the foundation
of the world, I had to be in Christ. So I was part of that
body that was chosen by God, because He chose the elect in
Christ. I had to be in Christ because it was for the elect
that Christ agreed me to be the shirt he shipped for. I had to
be in Christ because when Christ went to that cross, he went with
his people, the sins of his particular people, in his body, bearing
them on that tree. And it is even now that he sits
at the right hand of the Father. And in him, we sit in him as
well, and he makes constant intercession for his people, those who are
in him. The question is not, how do I
get in Christ? You are either there or you are not. The Father
has to put you in Christ and you have to have always been
there. But here's a good question. Am
I there or not? That's an excellent question
to ask. Go back to your text. Look at verse five. Jonah three verse five. Listen
to what these people did, how they responded to this message.
So the people of Nineveh believed God. Lord had a message for them,
and you know how they responded to that message? They believed
God. How do you respond to what I
said? You're a sinner before God. You cannot save yourself. He is in absolute sovereign control.
Your only hope is that you're in Christ and He has done everything
that is necessary to deliver you before the Father acceptable. How do you respond to that? I
respond in two ways. I believe God. I do. I believe everything He says. He says you're a wicked sinner.
Yea, Lord. Yea, Lord. You're right. I can't
accept anything from you. You can't earn your way in acceptance
with me. You send away all your rights.
Yea, Lord, you're absolutely right. If salvation is in any
way dependent on me, I'm sunk. That's the end of it. Your only
hope is that you're in Christ and you've always been there.
Yea, Lord, that is my only hope. I believe everything the Lord
says, but also this. I believe all in Him. I believe
on Christ. He says this, he came into this
world to save sinners, and that's exactly how I identify. Therefore,
I say this, I believe God. I believe exactly what he said.
And if I'm a sinner, that means I've always been in Christ. I
believe on him. My only hope of salvation. I
am, I say this as honestly as I can, I am trusting Jesus Christ
with every aspect of my salvation, fully expecting that he is going
to bring me before the Father, acceptably, because he said he
would. Because he is the only hope, and because he said he
would, and God is utterly reliable. I believe God, and I believe
in God. I trust Jesus Christ. And everybody
who hears this message, and the Lord makes it effectual to them,
that's exactly what they do. They believe God, and they believe
in God. But notice what else they do,
go back to verse five. So the people of Nineveh believed God
and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest
of them into the least of them. When the Lord makes this message
effectual, what else happens? You believe God and these people
put on garments of humiliation. Now you think about Nineveh for
a second. This was a huge city, very affluent
city, lots of commerce, probably some very rich people in that
city with some really fine threads. Really nice clothes. And you
know what they did? They took off all those really nice expensive
clothes and they put on grain sacks. They put on garments of
humiliation. When the Lord makes this message
effectual, those fancy clothes you thought you had, that personal,
stinking self-righteousness you thought was so beautiful before
God, you look down and what you see is you're wearing a grain
sack. You're wearing garments of humiliation. What are my good
works before God? They're that which I should be
ashamed of. They're that which I must repent
of, because we're those for the reason by which my Savior had
died. We take off the garments of self-righteousness, and we
put on the garments of humiliation. Lord, I'm a sinner before you.
And they fasted. What happens when you fast? Scripture's
so logical, I love it. You get hungry. You find yourself
in need. When the Lord makes this message
effectual to you, you hunger for this. You have a need. I
have a need for this gospel, what this Christ did in this
gospel, for Him to do that for me. And you know what? I can't
have any other way. You preach that way of salvation
by works. There's something you need to
do. I can't eat that. There's no satisfaction in that.
There's no hope for that in me. If there's something I need to
do, there's nothing for me. But this message of salvation,
completely and utterly dependent on Christ alone, that feeds me. And this is an interesting thing.
I'm completely satisfied with this, and I'm ravenous for more. Give me more. This is what satisfies
me. But keep on feeding me this message
I got to hear over and over again. And once again, why do these
people receive this message? Why do they believe God? It was
because the king caused it to be proclaimed. This message is
to be preached to all men, everywhere. All men will reject this message,
except when the king takes that message, and he delivers it,
and he makes it effectual to the hearts of his people. then
that message is always received, every single time. I think it's
interesting. There's other things the king
told them to do. He said this. Verse eight, the king commanded
they cry mightily unto God. What happens when the Lord makes
this message effectual? You cry mightily and you cry
for mercy. But I find it interesting, this
is not a once and done thing. This is where you stay. You cry
my name every single day. Lord, have mercy on me. Have
mercy on me. And I don't mean that we are
constantly in prayer all day long, begging for mercy. This
is constantly in the background. Lord, have mercy on me. I needed
it yesterday. I need it today. And we never
graduate past that. You never graduate past being
a sinner. And I love this point. You know
who begs for mercy? A man who already has it. The
only reason a man ever truly begs for mercy is because he
has already been shown mercy. A natural man can't beg for mercy.
If you're begging for mercy, it's because you've already been
shown that mercy. If you're begging for grace, if you're begging
the Lord to save me, it's because he's already done it. He always
causes us to ask for what he has already done. And he says
this, he says, the king commanded, turn from the violence that is
in your hands. Now, what's he talking about
there? That's talking about our natural inclination toward God.
What is the natural man's inclination toward God? We proved it. It's to kill him. It's to murder
God. In that natural heart, there's
a natural hatred from God. When the Lord takes this message,
and he makes it effectual, when he breathes life into you, that
one you hated before, and you wanted to do violence to before,
you love. All those things about him that
made you so angry, his sovereignty, his holiness. I don't have any
control, I don't get any glory. You'll love all that now. It's
your only hope. It takes a sovereign God to save
me, that one you hated before, because you'd be given this new
nature you now love. And this is the attitude of everyone
who receives this message. Look at verse nine. The king of Nineveh says, who
can tell? if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his
fierce anger, that we perish not. Now we have to think about
that for a minute. What's the king saying? Is he
saying, well, you're commanded to come to Christ. Senator, you're
commanded to believe on him. And you come to him. And he may
save you, and he may not. You know, it's up to him. He's
sovereign. You know, he may save you. He may not. That's fatalism. There's absolutely no hope in
that message and it's dishonoring to God. That's not it. Folks, I can tell you this. The
most reliable thing in this world is this. If you come to Christ,
a needy sinner, and you beg for mercy and you trust him, you
will have it. What's the most reliable thing
we know? The sun rising every morning? It's more reliable than
that. The scripture is this, John 637,
all that the father giveth me shall come to me and him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. I believe God. God said that. God said, for
no reason whatsoever will I cast you out, will I cut you to the
side. That means if you come and you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, you will be saved. And that is the most reliable
thing in this world because it's a promise from God. But what's he saying here? Who
can tell? This is the attitude of every
believer. Remember that lever, he said, Lord, if thou wilt,
Thou canst make me clean. You don't owe me anything. This
is the attitude of every believer. We don't come saying, well, I'm
casting all my cares on you. I'm trusting you, so give me
salvation. You owe it to me. No. Who can tell? Lord, I'm in
your hands, and you can do with me as you see fit. But I think
this is wonderful. Everyone who comes and, by their
own estimation, doesn't deserve it actually does deserve it and
gets it. And everyone who comes in their
own estimation deserving it actually doesn't deserve it and doesn't
get it. But the most reliable thing in this world, you come
to Christ, he will show you mercy. But this is also a word of comfort
to us in this world. This is a call to action. The
King said this, who can tell? Who can tell if the Lord will
be merciful? You probably have family members,
people you love, who it does not appear the Lord has saved
them. It doesn't appear that they have any interest in the
gospel whatsoever. And you very desperately would
love for the Lord to do something for them. And here's some encouragement
in all that. Nothing is too hard for the Lord.
Who can tell? We don't know who elect is and not. So we go out
to every creature and we preach the gospel to them. Is Lord going
to save my barber? Who can tell? I'm going to preach
the gospel to him. Is he going to save my mechanic?
Who can tell? I'm going to preach the gospel
to him. And if you want the Lord's, he'll make that message effectual
to him and he'll save them in his experience. The family members
I love that doesn't appear they're saved, I want to bring them to
hear the gospel every single time I can. Who can tell what
hope we find in this? There's no one who is beyond
hope because who can tell is God who can do all things. That's
a wonderful story. I'll leave it there.