Morning, everybody. If you'd
like to turn over to Jonah chapter 3. Jonah chapter 3. If you remember, I think it was
two weeks ago, we looked at Jonah chapter 1. So I'd like to continue that
study and look at this third chapter this morning. Jonah chapter
3, and when you get there, just pick up there in verse 1. I want
to read the first two verses. Jonah 3 verse 1, and 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 remember when we looked at
chapter 1, there's been a lot of water under the bridge. The
Lord went to Jonah, his prophet, his servant, and he said, you
go down to Nineveh, and you preach to him. And Jonah refused. He disobeyed. He hated the Ninevites. They were Gentiles. He did not
want to see them saved. He said, I know exactly what
you're going to do. You're going to send me down there with a message. You're
going to bless these people. You're going to make it effectual.
And you're going to have mercy. And I don't want that. So I'm
skipping town. I'm getting out of here. He boards a ship going
to Tarshish, thinking he can escape the presence of the Lord.
Just the same thing Adam did, just as foolish. But the Lord
sent a storm, and it endangers the lives of everybody on that
boat. And in that one great moment, Jonah is that perfect type of
Christ. The mariners say, what do we have to do to you that
we might live? And he said, there's only one way. You have to cast
me overboard. I have to be sacrificed for you
all to live. That's the only way the storm will calm down.
And they did that, and they threw him overboard. And considering
all the disrespect and the disobedience and the unfaithfulness of Jonah,
had you and I been God, we would have let him drown in those waters.
We would have said, prophets are a dime a dozen, my friend,
and I will get me another one. And you just let him drown. That's
what I would have done. That's what you would have done. But that's not
what the Lord did. He prepared a fish, that's what
the scripture says. It was prepared, it was before
prepared just for Jonah to swallow him up. And there he stayed for
three days and three nights. And what was going on in that
whale's belly? Well, chapter two tells us all about it. He
was teaching Jonah and he was chastening Jonah and he was pruning
him. And once he was done teaching
him and Jonah had got the lesson that salvation is of the Lord.
I'm the one calling the shots here and you're gonna do what
I tell you to do. Lord commanded that fish to spit him out onto
dry land. And then he goes to him the second
time, and I'm so thankful for this, the second time. He comes
to his people the first time, and we're disobeyed. He comes
to us a second time, and then he comes a third time, and over
and over and over again. And I thought about when the
Lord said, I leave the 99 and 1, and I go after that one sheep,
that one lost sheep. And when I find him, I throw
him on my shoulder, and I come back rejoicing that I found him.
And that is the life cycle of the believer. That's exactly
how we live. The Lord sets our eyes on Christ,
we stray, we veer off course, and He comes and He gets us every
single time, just how He went and got Jonah right here. And
He throws us over His shoulder, and He packs us back and puts
us back in the fold. And we wander off again, and that is the life
cycle, over and over. And if you're looking for a point
in everything I've just said here, it's this. Thank the Lord
that our salvation is not based on how faithful we are to Him,
but how faithful he is to us. Jonah might have given up on
the Lord, the Lord never gave up on Jonah and never will give up
on any of his people. And you think about that. We
use that illustration of faith all the time. What is it? It's
clinging to Christ. Like a man clings to a buoy out in the middle
of the ocean. He's all I've got. But not about
you all. My arms get tired. They really
do. And unbelief creeps in all the
time. And I'm reminded of this. It's
not how tight a grip I have on him. It's how tight a grip he
has on me. And for all his people, he has
the tightest of grip. That grip cannot be broken. I'm thankful for the second time.
I look down here at verse 3. So Jonah arose. Look at that.
He's going to do what the Lord told him to. And went on to Nineveh
according to the word of the Lord. Now, Nineveh was an exceeding
great city of three days' journey. And so what that equates to is
to get from one side of Nineveh to the other is about 60 miles.
That's what a three-day journey is. It's a huge city. These were
Gentiles. This was the Assyrian capital.
And so it was an enormous city. And he's walking through there,
and it tells us this population was massive. We find out in Chapter
4, there are 120,000 infants in this city. People who can't
tell their left from their right. That equates to millions of adults
and young adults and things like this. An enormous city. And also
keep in mind this, this is enemy territory. As much as Jonah hated
these Gentiles, these Gentiles hated him. And he's going to
walk through this city from one end to the other, and he's going
to have a message for them. And it is a message of condemnation.
We're going to see that here in just a second. He has nothing
nice to say to these people. And you would think at some point
somebody would come up behind him and club him with something
and drag him back into an alleyway or something like that. But that's
not what happens because the Lord preserves him because the
Lord has a message for these people and He's always going
to deliver that message. Now, 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. Notice that's unconditional.
I think it's interesting, this obviously is a type of the gospel
message, but what's missing? Christ? His sin-atoning blood? The mercy and forgiveness for
sinners that flows because of that. The call, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. We don't see any of that here.
You will hear in a minute. The point of this is this, He
sent Him with a warning. And the Gospel is described in
the Scriptures as a warning. We'll see that here in a minute.
But that's the point. This was a warning to these people. Now, look how
they responded to this message. Look at verse 6. I'm sorry, look
at verse 5. So the people of Nineveh believed
God. to fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them even
to the least of them." Jonah walks through with this message
40 days and Nineveh will be destroyed. And you know what happened? These
people believed God. They believed everything that
messenger said and they took off their clothes and they put
on sackcloth. You know what that is? It's a garment of humility
and humiliation, a grain sack, that barley sack we use, that's
what it was. It was the most common base fabric they had. And everybody put that on, that
garment of humiliation. And they fasted. They became
hungry. But here's the reason they did this. Here's the reason
they believed God. Here's the reason they put on the sackcloth. Look
at verse 6. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, arose from
his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with
sackcloth, and sat in ashes." And listen to this, "'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," singular, and from the violence that is in their
hands. Why did these people believe
the message? Why did they put on the sackcloth and why did
they go on this fast? Because the king did. That's
exactly why. The king did this and then he
said, now all of you are going to do the exact same thing I
did. You're going to believe God. You're going to believe
this message. You're going to put on the sackcloth. You're going to fast. It became effectual when the
king gave the command. Now, King makes a curious statement
here, verse 9. Who can tell if God will turn
and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish
not? Now, is the King encouraging
apathy and fatalism here? Who can tell? This Jehovah, this
God of the Jews, He's sovereign. He's in control, and He's gonna
save whoever He wants, and He's gonna damn whoever He wants.
And nothing can change that, so let's not do anything. Let's
just wait the 40 days out, and we'll see what's gonna happen.
Obviously not, because He said, you put on your sackcloth, and
you believe God, and you cry mightily, and you turn from your
evil way. He's in no way encouraging apathy
and fatalism right now. He's encouraging action. Because
Jehovah is who he is, because he is the God who he is, the
time right now is for action. It is time to take action because
of who he is. And this is where we end, verse
10. 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 this is interesting. In the
scripture, numerically, this is the largest amount of people
that have ever been saved in one given time in this Gentile
city of Nineveh. In the scriptures, this is the
largest one. If you want to talk about a true
revival and what that looks like, it looks like this right here,
a whole bunch of people who hated God. The Lord sent His messenger
down there with a message, and He made that message effectual,
and all these people were converted, and all of them believed God.
The greatest revival that we have an illustration of in the
Scriptures. Now the big question, what's
the point? What's the point of this story? Our pastor has an
outline for something that I really enjoy, and it's been helpful
to me over the years, and I'm gonna use that for part of the message today.
But I wanna begin by asking you this question. When are the Lord's
people saved? When are the elect saved? There's
a couple of different senses, a couple of different ways we
can look at that. Number one, every member of the elect was
saved when God the Father purposed to show them mercy, and God the
Son agreed to be the 100% surety for those elect people. As soon
as that pact was ratified, they struck hands. This is what we're
doing right here. Salvation was done because God
can't purpose something and it not come to pass. If it could,
he would cease to be God. But as soon as that pact was
ratified, salvation was a done deal. It was over. Secondly,
when were the elect saved? Every member of the elect was
saved when the Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth, and he was
made the sins of his people, and he suffered under the wrath
of God, and before he died, he said, it is finished, and he
gave up the ghost. And in that time, right there,
you're looking for a time in time, it's right there. When
he said, it is finished, everybody he died for, 100% saved, nothing
left to do, it is over with. Done, that which was purposed
before eternity or in eternity past had to be carried out in
time and that time was the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. One
of the elect saved. They're saved when God the Holy
Spirit crosses their path in this life with the gospel. that
message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And through that message
He actually does something supernatural. It is the most supernatural thing
that happens in this world and none of us know what is going
on when it happens. He actually breathes spiritual life into
a man. A spiritually dead man is given
life and he is given spiritual faculties that he did not have
before. He can believe He does believe. He believes in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He repents. He repents of all his dead works. He actually loves God. There
is a new man inside of him, and this is what this new man does.
He believes God. That's when the elect are saved.
And in this life, past being given that spiritual life, we're
being saved. And Todd used to say that, and
I kind of struggle with that, and I understand it now. we're
being saved. What's about the only thing,
well many things we can count on, but one of the big things
we can count on in life is this. Trouble. Right? We're all going
to have trouble. I take comfort in this, the Lord
doesn't do anything unnecessarily. Everything he does, he is doing
to prune and refine and teach and chasten his people. We are
being saved, we are being taught. Just as Jonah was in that whale's
belly, he was being chastened, he was being taught. And all
these trouble, all these hardships, they come, why? Why this? Because
it was necessary. Every minute of every day is
absolutely necessary. It's what it takes to save me.
And we are being saved. And one day, when we lay down
this old man in death, we're going to be plumb saved. No more
sin, no more old man, no more unbelief. We will wake in the
very likeness of Jesus Christ. What that's like, I have no idea.
Absolutely no idea, but it sounds good, doesn't it? It sounds real
good, and we will not even have a recollection of what it's like
to be a sinner. Now, when were the elect saved?
Those are the answers right there. I want to focus on three of them
for just a moment. The elect were saved in eternity
past when God the Father purposed to be merciful to the elect.
And God the Son agreed to be the 100% surety for them. Look at verse 10 of your text
again, please. 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. How does our story end? It ends
with the Lord showing mercy to these people. And I find this
very interesting. Where our story ends in this
chronological order It's actually where salvation story begins.
This story ends with God showing mercy, but salvation story begins
with God the Father in an eternal purpose to glorify His Son, and
through that, He will show mercy to the elect. This was His eternal
purpose, and it has always been that purpose. And because of
that purpose, everything else happened to secure that purpose. Let me ask you this, is it this,
is it I repent and I believe and then the Lord looks on that
and says, all right, I'll show him mercy because he repented
and he believed. Did I get the order right there? The Lord shows
mercy for Christ's sake because Christ is your eternal surety. He shows mercy for Christ's sake
and you know what you do because he's purposed to show you mercy?
You repent. and you believe. It all began
with that purpose to show mercy. Look at verse 10 again. It says,
and God saw their works. What are the works of every believer? works, righteous works, works
that are acceptable to God. What are those works? They are
the very works of the Lord Jesus Christ. What He did, we did. We own them. When the Father
looks at us He says, His works are your works. I see absolutely
no difference. And this is what Hebrews 4.3
says. It says, the works were finished from the foundation
of the world. We are dabbling in eternal things.
So forgive me for not having perfect understanding. But this
is how Revelation 13, 8 describes the Christ eternally, the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. Before this place
was ever built, before any of us were ever animated and born
into this world. We already had a righteousness
established. We already had a slain lamb, an acceptable sacrifice
before the Father. Therefore, we've always been
secure and complete in the Christ. There's never been a time when
the Lord's people were our souls hung in the balance. Maybe they'll
be saved, maybe they won't. No, this was the eternal purpose
of God and He is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
The works are finished. Done. Everything that was necessary
for salvation was completed eternally, because Christ is the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. Secondly, every member of the
elect was saved when Christ offered himself on that cross for his
people. And we have a beautiful picture
of that cross in our text. Look at verse six. 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. Word came to the king. Word came
from the father to the son. It's time. That surety ship that
you agreed to, that covenant we entered into, it's time. That
which we purposed in eternity past has to be carried out in
time, and the time is now. It's time for you to die. What
does it say the king did? He rose. No hesitation whatsoever
in the king. No fear whatsoever. An eager
rising, a calm rising. It's time for me to do what I
said I would do. And he takes off his robe. That
kingly robe, that thing that distinguishes him as the king,
he took off the robe and he put on the garment of humility and
humiliation. and he sat in ashes. What's that
talking about? The Lord laid his robe down,
his kingly robe, and he became a man. Altogether God, and yet
altogether man, put on that garment of humility, made flesh, and
dwelt among us. And then he sat in ashes. What
did that look like, being made sin? wrath of God the Father
coming down on him for the sins of the elect that were made his,
pouring down on him. You can visualize that in your
mind. You've seen a fire pit before. You've seen fire burn
all the way down. There's nothing but ashes left
there. He lay in the ashes, but it didn't destroy him. He rose
from the ashes, the champion. the one who got the job done.
God the Father raised him from the dead because he took it.
He took the punishment, he swallowed it up, he paid for all the sins
of all his people and they're gone. It is finished. That's where salvation was accomplished
in time. It's done. If you're a sinner,
it's done. Understand that. There's nothing left to do. It's
just rest. And finally this, this is what
our text is all about. A man is saved. When God the Holy Spirit crosses
his path with that gospel message, he breathes life into him, and
that man believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, how does he
reveal himself? We've already looked at this,
but I'm going to read it to you from the scripture. It says 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 belief. That scripture tells
us three different things. Number one, God has a purpose. He has a way, a particular way
that he saves people in their experience. You can't figure
this out on your own, and neither can I. You can't just go to the
Word and be like, I'm going to find out who God is. I'm going
to find out how He saves. It won't make any sense to you.
I have to have a preacher. You have to have a preacher.
By the foolishness of preaching, He was pleased to save them that
believe. Now, look at verse 1 of your
text. This is proven in our text here
in the Old Testament. And 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."
That's a good description of gospel preaching. Jonah, you're
going to go, and I'm going to give you a message, and you're
going to say exactly what I tell you to say, nothing more and
nothing less, that preaching that I bid thee. And I ask you
to consider two things in this text right here. Number one,
consider the messenger, and number two, consider the message. Who
is the messenger to Nineveh? His name was Jonah. What was
he like? He was a merciless man, hated
the Ninevites, didn't want to see them saved. He's a disobedient
man. The Lord told him to go preach
and he wouldn't do it. He fled from the presence of God. He
was unreliable. He was unfaithful. This man was
a sinner. That's exactly who he was. You know who the Lord uses to
preach His gospel? Sinners. I was reading this morning in
Leviticus when it talks about Aaron being selected, and the
house of Aaron being selected to speak for Moses. And it says
the Lord sanctified him, sanctified Aaron to speak. You know what
this means. What does sanctified mean? It
means to take something common and ordinary and set it aside
for holy purposes. That's what the Lord does with
the preacher. He takes a common and an ordinary sinner. Nothing
special about him whatsoever. sets him apart, and he gives
him a message. And he is a bullhorn, nothing more. He is just going
to say exactly what the Lord told him to say, and he is going
to sit back down. And there is absolutely nothing special about him. This
is what 2 Corinthians 4 says about it. You are familiar with
this, "'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 in earthen vessels.'" What's an earthen vessel like?
It's fragile. It's temporal. nothing special
about it. You don't enjoy looking at it.
It is prone to cracks. It is prone to breaks. It is
just a clay pot. There is nothing special. The
only thing special is the message that is carried in that pot. And this is completely and utterly
by the Lord's design. Because here is how the passage
ends, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not
of us. He uses sinful earthen vessels. Why? So you would know that ain't
Him talking. I know that guy, that ain't him.
The Lord gave him that. The Lord's speaking right now.
He's just a bullhorn. He's just a microphone right now. That the excellency
of the power, this is the Lord's work right here. It has nothing
to do with man. Now, you considered the messenger, now consider the
message. Look again at verse four. Jonah began to enter into the
city a day's journey, and he cried and said, "'Yet forty days,
and Nineveh shall be overthrown.'" Like I said before this seems
odd. This is a type of the Gospel message. Where is Christ in all
this? Where is His shed blood? Where is His law keeping? Where
is mercy and forgiveness for sinners? This is just a message
of condemnation. It doesn't sound a lot like the
Gospel. It does. The point here is He
is issuing a warning. message is described as a warning.
And I want to show you from the Scripture so you know I'm telling
you right. Turn to Ezekiel chapter 3. Ezekiel chapter 3 and look
at verse 16 please. 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." Now here the preacher
is described as a watchman. He is to watch for men's souls
and He says, warn them, give them a warning from Me. What
does it look like? Look down here at verse 18, 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 Now, that's a sobering
passage for the preacher. You're to warn, and you better
get it right, and you better be accurate, because if not,
the people who heard you, their blood's on your hands. I don't
know what that means. I don't like it. And I want to
get this right. So a few things I notice about
this warning. Number one, who is it addressed to? He says,
you say this to the wicked. The wicked. This is what Jeremiah
17, 9 says. It says, the heart is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Whose heart is he talking about?
Us. Humanity. human nature, we all
have the same wicked heart. We can't even plumb the depths
of how wicked that heart actually is. Self-serving motives, self-serving
intentions, evil motives, evil intentions, self-glorying in
every way, shape, and form. The heart, it's wicked, but he
says, you preach this to the wicked. You know what that tells
me? It tells me this message is to be preached to everybody.
Everybody we come across is to be preached to everyone and the
Lord said that. He said in Mark 16, and he said
unto them, go ye into 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 that
is for everyone. And this is what he says. What's
the warning? Thou shalt surely die. It sounds a lot like what
Jonah said. Yet forty days in Nineveh shall
be destroyed. Unconditional, unwavering, simple,
matter of fact, thou shalt surely die. What does this mean? What
are we supposed to say in this warning? This is a warning of
how holy and how just God really is. The soul that sinneth shall
surely die. God's just and He's holy and
He's not going to allow one sin to go unpunished. Understand
this. Every man born a woman, we all have to be punished. Everybody
born a sinner, everybody has to be punished. The soul that
sinneth shall surely die. The question is only this, either
I will be punished in my own person when I leave this world
or I have already been punished in the person of my Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ." Everybody has to be punished one way or
the other. It's just a question of how. In my own person or in
Him. That's it. But this is the warning.
God is just and He's not going to let any sin go unpunished. And He gives the reason that
a man will stand and be punished in himself. He says, you will
not turn from your wicked way." Notice that that is singular
way. I'll give you Proverbs 16, 25. There is a way that seemeth right
unto a man, a way, singular, but the end thereof or the ways,
plural, of death. What is that way that seems right
to a man? Todd's told us so many times,
there's only two religions. or salvation by grace, a man's
salvation being determined 100% by what Christ has done for that
man. And then there's works, which is everything else. That's
the way. And notice he said, there is
a way that seemeth right. That's the way that every man
is born in this world thinking. We're conditioned, this life's like
that. If you're gonna have anything in this life, you're gonna have
to work for it. And in salvation, that is the natural way a man
thinks. I gotta earn it. There's something I need to do. And there's many ways that make
up that way. You can be Buddhist, Catholic.
You can believe in free will. You can think that you have to
say 10 Hail Marys a day to be saved. There's something I need
to do to be saved. That's the way that seems right
to a man. And it's summed up like this.
If you will, God will. If you'll do your part, whatever
that Part of false religion tells you your part is, if you do your
part, God will respond by doing your part, his part, and you'll
be saved. And men love that. That seems
right to them, and they will not flee from this way. Why?
Because if that's the case, if that's the reality of the situation,
that means man is in control. My salvation or my damnation
is completely up to me. completely and utterly. I have
to do my part, and as long as I do, God is then obligated to
save me. That means I also get some glory
in this, right? I did something other people didn't do, so I'm
elevated. I get glory out of this. He loves
this way, the Lord said, you won't flee from your wicked way. You won't leave this way because
you love this way, because of what you think it means to you.
We do not preach the false way without preaching the true way.
It is impossible to do that. And what is the one and true
way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father except
by me. There's one way. The way is simply
this, it is in Christ. I wanna make this as simple as
I can. For a man to be saved, He has to be in Christ, and He
has to have always been there. There is no beginning point for
union with Christ. It is an eternal thing. I have
to have always been there, a part in union with the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's where the Father elected a people. He elected
them in Christ. Those joined to Him were the
ones who were elected. Christ went to the cross, when
He kept the Law, when He died for particular people it was
His elect, those who have always been in Him. Where He sits right
now making constant intercession for those people. He is making
intercession for His elect, those who have always been in Him.
He's the way. The only way I can stand before
this holy and just God is This one, if he sees a speck of sin,
he will rain down his wrath upon you. The only way I can stand
before him is if I am in Christ and he walks into the Father's
presence perfect, and I go in there too in him, and I'm perfect
in his perfection. That is the only way. And someone
scrambles around and says, how do I get into Christ? That's
not the question. I don't have that power, and
you don't have that power. The question is, am I there or
not? That's it. Now how can we possibly
know? Look at verse five again of your text. So the people of
Nineveh believed God. How can I know whether I'm in
Christ or not? Everything I just told you. You're wicked, evil,
You can't bring anything before the Lord that He would accept.
Your only hope of salvation is that you're in Christ, that He
represents you right now, and you've always been there. You
believe that? I believe that. I believe Him,
what He says. I believe everything God says.
And Todd said this before, and it resonates very well with me
now. Even the things in this book that he says that I don't
understand, Whatever he means, that's what I believe. I believe
God in whatever form it takes. Whatever he means by that is
exactly what I believe. I believe God. Everything he
says, I also believe in him. He said this, this is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into this
world to save sinners of whom I am chief. And you know what?
I fit that description. That's me. That's me. I'm a sinner.
I'm an evil man. I'm a wicked man down in my core. That's exactly who I am. And
He has promised that that's exactly who He died for and it is finished. And you know what? I'm holding
on to Him. That's all I've got. That's it. It's for me. He's told me I believe
Him and I believe on Him. I'm clinging to Him. All I have
is Christ. And I'll tell you what. I'm not
going to say it's easy, but this is when you will cling to Christ,
is when you have no other options. Like being in the middle of the
ocean with a life raft, and you don't have any strength to swim.
That's all you've got. You just get in the life raft,
and that's where you sit. That's the end of it. I believe
Him, but I believe in Him, trusting Him. And I tell you what, folks,
if that's how you respond to this gospel message, salvation
is only found in Christ, it's for you. You've always been there. You've always been part of this
body that shares this eternal union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, why did these people do
this? We're gonna look at some other
things they did, but they believed God, why? It wasn't until the
King of Nineveh commanded that they do it, that they did. Now,
we preach this message, and we're going to preach this message
to every man on the face of the earth. Every creature, preach
to all of them. And every one of them are going to reject that
message unless the King says, Believe it. Unless God the Holy
Spirit makes it effectual to your heart and does a work of
grace in your heart, every man is going to reject that message
until the God the Holy Spirit says, Believe. And you believe
God. And what else did they do? These
people put on sackcloth, that garment of humility. Now think
about this for a minute. Millions of people in this town
of Nineveh, right? Place of great commerce, right? A lot of wealthy
people there for certain had really nice threads, really nice
clothes. And what did they do when they
heard this message? They took off those beautiful clothes,
those things that they found so charming, and they put on
grain sacks. They put on garments of humility. What happens when
you hear this message? You find out that you're not
wearing fancy duds. You find out that you're wearing
your stinking self-righteousness, and it's putrid, and it's disgusting
before God. you find that you're actually
wearing a garment of humiliation. All those things that I thought
were so useful to the Lord and earned me so many points with
Him, turns out they were absolutely and utterly offensive. I was
wearing a garment of humiliation and I didn't know it until now.
And they proclaimed a fast. All these people stopped eating.
What happens when you stop eating? I love how logical the scripture
is. You get hungry. They all became hungry. When
this message is made effectual to you, you get hungry. You get
hungry for grace. You get hungry for Christ. And
the only thing that will satisfy that need is this, Christ and
Him crucified, the crucified Savior for sinners. That's it.
It is done. For who? For sinners. You preach
that to me, that will satisfy me every time. And there's a
strange duality in this. The more I eat it, the more I
want. The more satisfied I am with this, the more I just need
more of it. over and over and over again
because I'm still wearing that garment of humiliation. I still
have to be clothed over and over again with the righteousness
of Christ. I have to hear it over and over again. And the
king says this, he said, cry, cry loud unto the Lord. And you
know, that's where we stay, crying unto the Lord. Have mercy on
me. Have mercy on me. Have mercy
on me. That's the daily prayer. Why? Because I need mercy again
today. It's got to be new every single
day. You live in that perpetual state.
I love this. I love thinking about this. Who
cries for mercy? Man who already has it. Why do
we cry for mercy? Lord, save us. Save me, the sinner. Have mercy on me. Why do we do
that? Because we've already been shown mercy. because Lord has
saved us. That's why we cry for him. And
he said this, the king said, turn from the violence that is
in your hands. Now when this message comes in
power, what I say happens, you're given a new man, a new spirit.
This one who you hated before, you now love. Now that old man,
that spirit we're born with, what does it want to do more
than anything else? We prove it on the cross. It wants to
kill God. That's what that natural man wants to do. Not his idol,
but the God that is spoken of in this book, that Sovereign,
that Holy One. What is the natural inclination
of man? What does he want more than anything else? He wants
to kill God. There's a violence in his hands. We proved that
when we murdered God's Son on the cross. But this is what happens
when this message comes in power. There's a new man there. And
this one you hated? And all his attributes you hated? You now
love. His sovereignty, His holiness,
His power, His omnipotence, love Him. And all His offices absolutely
love Him. And then we're left with this
curious statement again in verse 9. Look at it again. The king said, who can tell if
God will turn and repent and turn away from His fierce anger
that we perish not? Now once again, as he trying
to get everybody to just be fatalistic, we'll just wait, you know, see
what happens. No, absolutely not. He's saying it is now a
time for action. But, what does this mean? Why
is he saying this? Who can tell? This is our attitude
in approaching the Lord for mercy. What did the leper say? Lord,
if thou wilt. Salvation's up to somebody's
will, it's just not mine. If thou wilt, thou canst make
me clean. We don't approach the Lord saying,
give me what I deserve. Give me what I got coming to
me. No, who can tell? I'm a needy, empty-handed sinner,
and I'm coming to you for mercy, but you don't owe me a thing.
This is the attitude of the man who's heard the message in power. But if for a second anyone preaches
out of this that you can come to Christ seeking mercy and not
get it, It's a crap shoot, maybe he will, maybe he won't. That
is a false message, do not believe that, man. I would say it's the most reliable,
but that's a very high position. One of the most reliable things
on the face of this earth is this. If you come to Christ,
a needy, empty-handed sinner, seeking mercy, you will receive
it. That's not who can tell. Now,
who can tell? Maybe he will, maybe he won't.
He doesn't have to. No, this is his promise. All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me
I will in no wise cast out. That is a promise made by God.
That means if he goes back on his promise, he ceases to be
God. That's how much rides on this. What's more reliable than
that? The sun coming up tomorrow morning
at exactly 6 a.m.? No, that if you come to Christ
seeking mercy, you will have it. But my final thought on this
is this, and this was an encouragement to me. The king says this, he
said, who can tell? I'm looking at some people right
now, and many of you have loved ones who, by your own estimation,
as far as you can tell, the Lord hadn't done anything for them.
He hasn't revealed himself to them. They don't seem to have
any interest in the gospel. And that hurts, doesn't it? It
hurts your very core. And you pray for these people,
and you don't see anything happening over there. Well, here's some
encouragement right there. The king says, who can tell?
You don't know who the elect are. Is anything too hard for
the Lord? No. That one that seems so far
away, seems so out of bounds, can the Lord reach out and grab
him tomorrow and bring him and deliver his message and save
him in his experience? He absolutely can. So this is
not the time for fatalism, and this is not the time for apathy.
This is the time to do. You love that person, you preach
the gospel to them. You love that person, you bring them to
church. You love that person, you pray for them over and over
and over again without ceasing. And who can tell, folks, nobody
is outside the Lord's reach. That's a comforting thought,
isn't it? I'm just going to leave you all there.