If you aren't familiar with the book of Jonah, you can find on our church website the other two sermons on Jonah chapter 1, Jonah chapter 2.
And that brings us up to speed where we are today.
I'm going to read the entire chapter for us.
You can follow along in your Bible.
I'll be reading from the King James.
Then I'll be expositing a little bit from both, including the ESV.
I think it's helpful for us to hear God's word from a variety of different English versions.
And as I read this, remember that this is God's inspired, inerrant, infallible, clear, and sufficient word.
It's God's very own word for you.
If you believe that about the Bible and you receive it that way, after I'm done reading Jonah 3, I'll say,
This is the word of the Lord, and you respond, Thanks be to God.
Jonah chapter 3, verses 1 through 10.
Verse 4.
Verse 6.
Verse 9.
Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not?
And God saw their works, that they were turned from their evil way, and God repented of the evil that he had said he would do unto them, and he did it not.
This is the word of the Lord for the people of God.
Thanks be to God. You may be seated.
The Bible says that the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of the Lord endures forever.
Would you pray with me?
From Isaiah 55, 6.
For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there, but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth.
It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
May this be so today, Lord, through the ministry of your word, for the glory of King Jesus in this congregation, we pray. Amen.
Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, how do you receive the word of the Lord?
The word of the Lord goes out.
How do you receive it?
A freed slave is expected to cherish his freedom.
A pardoned criminal is expected to live a reformed life.
There is a term in criminal justice used to describe this human tendency to relapse into a previous mode of behavior.
Do you know what it is?
Recidivism.
I learned this week that Colorado has consistently been ranked as having one of the highest recidivism rates in the USA.
Almost half of those criminals released within about six months commit the same crime for which they were arrested.
Kids, what that means is for every two prisoners that maybe paid their time five years, they get released.
One of them has to end up right back in the slammer for another five years for committing the same crime.
See, Israel had been enslaved in Egypt.
The Lord delivered them out of there.
He said, I will be your people.
I will be your God and you will be my people.
And I give you my law and you will walk with me in a way that pleases me.
And Israel falls back into their bondage and their captivity.
Not to Israel, not to Egypt as a nation, but to sin.
And they turned to all the idols of the surrounding nations instead.
If Israel had cherished their freedom, then they would love God who set them free.
But Israel loved the idols of their own hearts and all the other nations more than they loved their Savior.
So at this time of the book of Jonah, God had sent two other prophets that were contemporaries of Jonah.
These were Amos and Hosea.
And Amos and Hosea are going throughout the cities of Israel declaring the word of the Lord
and calling the Israelites to repent to their God.
Amos chapter 3 verse 6, he says,
Is a trumpet blown into a city and the people are not afraid?
You hear the horn go off.
You should do something.
You should receive it and respond.
The trumpet is sounded.
And Amos and Hosea are preaching to God's people.
But it falls on deaf ears and hard hearts.
Amos wrote,
Does disaster come to a city unless the Lord has done it?
Israel, God will bring his disaster on you.
It will come from the hand of God.
Hear his word now and repent.
Repent.
And Israel is paralyzed, cold.
So the word of the Lord was proclaimed to Israel.
And they did not repent.
And I see the theme of chapter 3 of Jonah being the word of the Lord.
And it goes out.
And it causes a response.
How is it received?
The word of the Lord, that phrase is used in the Bible 446 times.
And four times right here in this chapter.
The word of the message of God.
So my prayer this week has been that we not be blind and hard hearted like Israel.
If the Lord has in fact delivered you from sin, Satan, worldliness.
He set you free.
Then we receive his word.
We don't fall back into the idols of our hearts.
We receive his word the way he wants us to receive it.
So I'm going to show you seven ways I believe this chapter teaches us to receive God's word.
Before we get going with that, let me just ask you to reflect.
How much has God forgiven you?
The one who's been forgiven much loves much.
The only fitting response to God's gracious word is gratitude.
I hope that comes through as a clear theme from this chapter.
Number one.
Jonah chapter 3 teaches us to receive the word of the Lord as God's gracious word to you.
So receive the word of the Lord, number one, as gracious to you.
You'll notice the way that this chapter begins in verse 1.
It's that the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time.
Chapter 3 is really just a mirror of chapter 1.
The description of what happens is almost word for word.
How the book began in Jonah chapter 1 with where we're at now happening a second time in Jonah chapter 3.
Someone said it's like we got to that point in the story where Jonah got swallowed and then spit back up.
Now the tape got reversed, got rewound all the way back and we're starting a second time.
That's God's grace to Jonah.
Notice how God did not stay silent toward Jonah.
Despite Jonah's rebellion and disobedience, Jonah had disqualified himself.
He should not be considered a prophet.
He has no humanly right to be considered one who would receive the word of the Lord to go declare it with authority.
Jonah disobeyed God's command to go to Nineveh and preach the word I give you.
And yet the word comes to Jonah a second time.
See how gracious God is?
We read in chapter 1 verse 3 that Jonah fled.
What did he flee?
He fled the presence of the Lord.
That's why he's trying to get out of town.
And he ran not toward Nineveh, the exact polar opposite direction.
He ran to Tarshish.
And the city port there is Joppa.
And in chapter 1 we see this literary theme of going down deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper.
It's a downward spiral of sin and rebellion in Jonah's life.
Jonah chapter 2 verse 10.
We're toward that the word of the Lord then came to the depths of the ocean.
And it was the word of the Lord that made that fish spit Jonah out.
You see the word of the Lord is what carries power here.
In Jonah chapter 1 we read how Jonah went down to Joppa.
Then he went down onto the ship.
And he went down into the inner part of the ship.
Then they threw him down off the ship into the water.
Then the fish swallowed him and took him down to the depths of Sheol.
He calls it hell on earth.
And he's down in the deepest part of the fish now.
That's how deep his rebellion was toward the Lord.
But it was from the depths of that fish's stomach.
With the smell of rotting fish and the acid of the stomach working on his hair, on his body and covering him.
And the Lord even provided oxygen inside the stomach of the big fish for him to breathe in
and cry out a prayer of repentance himself.
And then the word of the Lord caused Jonah to be vomited up on the beach.
Jonah's going to march from Joppa all the way across Israel.
And then beyond Israel all the way to Assyria.
To the capital of Assyria.
And this second time now in chapter 3 he receives the gracious word of the Lord.
Jonah was a reluctant prophet.
Jonah was a rebellious soul.
Jonah was a disqualified minister of the word of God.
And yet the word of the Lord came to him and the word of the Lord was gracious to Jonah.
And the gracious word of the Lord made Jonah a gracious soul.
Thomas Brooks pointed out that a gracious soul may look through the darkest cloud
and see God smiling on him.
Has God made you a gracious soul?
Is God teaching you that?
Maybe right now.
Despite your previous sin and mine,
the Lord graciously keeps giving you and me his word, doesn't he?
He keeps speaking to us.
His word keeps coming to us.
Time and again.
It's considered child abuse when a parent gives one of their children the silent treatment.
When a parent stops talking to their child for extended periods of time,
it's considered emotional abuse.
Isn't it comforting that the Lord Jesus Christ,
the living word of God,
he never is silent.
The word of the Lord is gracious.
It keeps coming to his children.
It comes a second time,
a third time.
It comes day after day,
week after week.
The word of the Lord comes to you graciously.
Notice how Jesus is described in Luke chapter 4, verse 23.
God the Son took on flesh,
walking the earth,
revealing who the Father is.
And here's the description.
Quote,
all spoke well of him
and marveled,
listen to this,
at the gracious words
that were coming from his mouth.
The word of the Lord
from the lips of Jesus
is a gracious word to you.
How much has God forgiven you?
The only fitting response
to God's gracious word
is your gratitude.
Receive the word of the Lord
as gracious.
toward you today.
Number two,
receive the word of the Lord
as unbending.
Receive the word of the Lord
as unbending.
Notice in verse two,
the word of the Lord
told Jonah,
arise,
go to Nineveh,
that great city,
and call out against it.
Not a compromise message,
not a softer version,
but call out against it
the message.
It's the same message.
The message will not change,
Jonah.
You can be rebellious,
you can try to flee.
My word will not return void.
Go declare my message
like I told you.
See,
nothing changed about Assyria.
Assyria still had the same number
of inhabitants.
It was still the same metropolis
of the Assyrian Empire.
Nineveh was the great seat
of the greatest monarch on earth.
But now Jonah
has been a changed man.
His fear of this great city,
Nineveh,
has been displaced
by a greater,
more reverent,
more holy fear.
The Lord taught him
the fear of God.
And the fear of God
replaced in his heart
and his soul
that fear of man.
Now Jonah went knowing
the mighty God,
the true king.
And the king himself
really is the message
for Nineveh.
Jerry Bridges pointed out,
the object of our faith
is not the mere content
of the message,
but the one
whom the message
is about.
Jonah's going to declare
God
to the Ninevites.
Jeremiah 10.10 says,
the Lord is the true God.
He is the living God
and he is the everlasting king.
Why would you fear
the king of Assyria
who lives in Nineveh?
Now,
what we know of Assyria,
you can visit
the British Museum
and you will be
blown away
by two empires,
the Babylonian
and the Assyrian Empire.
And historians,
secular historians,
tell us that
everything about Nineveh
was set up
to put terror
in all of the visitors.
You've probably watched
some R-rated movies
for violence
and you can see
like these,
you know,
brave heart images
of torture
and just cruel treatment
of the human body.
And so,
as you would enter Nineveh,
there would be spikes
of decapitated victims
of kings and generals
that had been defeated.
So,
welcome into Nineveh.
This is the fear
they're trying to strike
in the heart of man.
So,
here comes Jonah
straight out of
the belly
of the big fish
marching into
this big city
commanded by
the true king,
the God,
the creator of heaven
and earth.
I know that the fear
of man is real
in my heart,
but I look around
our cities today,
it's pretty soft.
It's pretty soft.
We're afraid
of this man?
I mean,
look at Nineveh,
look at these great
empires of the ancient
world,
of the Middle Ages.
Think of the physical,
literal torture
God's people have been
called to march through
over the centuries.
We better not be soft.
We better be called
out of this culture.
We better have
at least the same
reverence for God
that displaces
that fear of man
in our hearts.
I'm preaching
to myself here.
God says,
arise and go.
Call out
God's message.
God is against
the great violence,
the wickedness,
against the evil,
against the sin.
God is ultimately
against Satan
who is behind
all of this
that attacks
the image bearers
of God
in this awful city.
You know,
God forgives
these Ninevites,
these wicked,
violent men.
God forgives them.
How much
has God forgiven you?
The only fitting response
to God's gracious
word in our life
is gratitude.
gratitude.
Receive the word
of the Lord.
It is an unbending word.
God won't bend His word.
We're the ones
who better bend ourselves,
submit to Him.
Number three here
is receive the word
of the Lord
as that which you will
immediately obey.
Receive the word
of the Lord,
number three,
as that which you will
immediately obey.
Notice in verse three,
this time around,
the second time,
Jonah arose
and went to Nineveh
according to what?
Look in your Bible,
verse three,
according to
the word
of the Lord.
Now Nineveh,
we're told,
was an exceeding
great city,
three days journey
in breadth.
Well,
God had used
Jonah's affliction
to sanctify Jonah.
God had disciplined
Jonah
and He had done it
as a loving father
to restore
Jonah's
wandering soul.
Jonah was
straying from his father
and the father
used that discipline.
He took him
to the pit
of death itself
and then brought him
out of that
to correct Jonah
until Jonah learned
to obey
the word
of the Lord.
And this time,
Jonah does not delay.
As John Gill put it,
under the influence
of God's power
and grace,
this word of the Lord
that sends him,
Jonah stands
not consulting
with his flesh,
but immediately
arises
as God commanded him.
Verse four says,
Jonah began to go
into the city.
So we can picture Jonah
approaching the outskirts,
seeing it,
smells hit his nostrils,
the sounds.
One thing the Ninevites
repent of
is their violence.
It was in your face.
It was everywhere
you looked.
And God had given him
a message.
And as he walked
through the city,
he would call out,
yet 40 days
in Nineveh
shall be overthrown.
Can you picture
that scene
in this ancient city,
this prophet
of weak little Israel
walking
wherever the people
are gathered,
wherever there's
a big intersection,
repeating this message,
over and over.
And the language
here tells us
he had barely
gotten into the city,
this great city,
declaring this message.
And God's word
caused an effect
on the Ninevites.
They realized
this is not a,
this is clearly
not the threat
of a military conqueror.
This is not
a mighty general
trying to threaten
some political thing.
Here's a man
who died,
essentially died,
and is living now,
telling them
of a coming judgment
unless they turn.
And the word
overthrown,
yet 40 days
Nineveh
shall be overthrown.
It's the same word
that is used
to describe
the judgment
God brought
on Sodom and Gomorrah.
Nineveh
will be overthrown.
It can also be
translated
overturned.
The people of Nineveh
will turn
in 40 days.
This whole city
will turn.
That's what he's declaring.
Just as Amos
had trumpeted
that message
to the Israelites,
no response.
Now this
reluctant prophet,
Jonah,
the loser,
the one who's
disqualified himself,
he's going
and doing the exact
same thing
to the Gentiles.
Not just any Gentiles,
the most wicked
of all the Gentiles
on the earth
right now,
and the most
to be feared.
He's trumpeting,
you will be turned
over
in 40 days.
The fact that
there's a 40-day delay
is also interesting
because it's
eliciting a response.
It's saying,
there are 40 days here.
This is not today.
It's not tonight.
You have 40 days,
Ninevites.
How will you receive
this word of the Lord?
You see,
that's the message.
How do you receive
the word of the Lord?
You will be overturned.
We don't know
what the overturning
will look like
in our lives,
but most of us
can look back
just a few years
or a decade
and you can see times
where God has
overturned you.
He's overturned
parts of your life.
Amen?
When he overturns us,
he's turning us
back to himself
to make a connection
with where we're at
in the Gospel of John.
If God is pruning you,
it's so that you
will bear more fruit.
If God is disciplining you
as a loving Father,
it's so that
the fruit of Christ
will be multiplied
in your life.
If God is humbling you
like he humbled Jonah,
it's to make you ready
like Jonah
to obey him immediately.
Obedience can be
as simple
as moral law.
It's the moral law
of God in my life.
I need to take
that step of obedience
right now
with what he's shown me.
He's made his will
to us very clear.
The will of God
in your life
is your sanctification.
Don't put off
obeying him
as the Spirit
convicts you.
Jerry Bridges said,
it's love
that provides
the motive
for obeying
God's moral law
and it's his law
that provides
the specific direction
on how to exercise
that love.
how much
has God
forgiven you?
Has he put
his love
in your heart?
Is he putting
more and more
and more
of his love
inside of you?
Love for God
and love for others?
Then the only
fitting response
to God's gracious
word
is gratitude.
Receive the word
of the Lord
as that which will
bring
immediate
obedience
in your life.
Don't negotiate
with your flesh.
You receive it
to obey it
right now.
Number four,
the word
of the Lord
we see in this passage.
We're to receive it
trusting that it
will accomplish
God's purpose.
Receive the word
of the Lord,
number four,
trusting that God's
word will accomplish
his purpose.
In verse five,
we read that the people
of Nineveh
believed God.
they believed
this word
that Jonah preached
to them.
They called
for a fast.
They put on
sackcloth,
not just a few,
all of them
from the greatest
to the least.
Verse six says,
the word
reached the king
of Nineveh.
You see the word
of God going forth
all the way
to the top
and he arose
from his throne.
He removed
his robe.
He covered himself
with sackcloth
and he sat
in ashes.
What happened
in Nineveh
is an illustration
for us
of that promise
of Isaiah 55,
six.
The word of the Lord
goes out
from the mouth
of God
and it shall not
return empty.
It shall accomplish
that which I purpose.
It shall succeed
in the thing
for which I sent it.
Here's an illustration
of that happening
right before their eyes.
I was trying to picture
what this would be like
right here
in Colorado.
Would you like to see
a reform of Colorado?
This is Reformation Sunday.
You want to see
Colorado be reformed,
turning and repenting
to the Lord?
It's okay to respond
with a little bit
of volume in your mouth.
Do you want to see that
or not?
Oh, amen.
Well, I mean,
picture like
the wickedest day
that Denver
has come up with.
Everybody's out
on the streets
celebrating sin
and wickedness.
And picture
the prophet of the Lord
marching in
and saying,
in 40 days,
this city will be overturned.
16th Street Mall,
people take off
whatever they were wearing
and instead
they cover themselves
with ashes
and sackcloth.
And they're saying,
Lord, forgive us.
Have mercy, Lord.
What a scene.
The word of the Lord.
It goes forth
with power.
Can't think of
a better sermon text
for Reformation Sunday
for those of us
where God has planted
right here in Colorado.
Now, we don't need to guess
at what was going on
in Nineveh
because the New Testament
interprets it for us.
In Matthew 12,
39 through 41,
we read that
Jesus,
he explained
why this happened
ultimately.
He said,
evil and adulterous
generation,
you seek for a sign
but no sign
will be given to it
except the sign
of Jonah.
What do you mean,
Lord Jesus?
Just as Jonah
was three days
and three nights
in the belly
of the great fish,
so will the Son
of Man
be three days
and three nights
in the heart
of the earth.
Now, listen to this.
Jesus said,
the men of Nineveh
will rise up
at the judgment
with this generation
and condemn it
for they repented
at the preaching
of Jonah
and behold,
one greater
than Jonah
is here.
our Lord Jesus.
He took on
the sin
of his people
and he nailed it
to the cross.
The Lord Jesus
was taken down,
dead,
and he was buried.
The Lord Jesus
transformed the grave.
He transformed
that grave
into a womb
and Jesus rose
from that grave.
He was born again,
the first man.
Just as Jonah
essentially died
inside the belly
of the fish
and was vomited out,
a new man,
newness of life.
Jesus Christ
appeared to over
500 witnesses.
He says,
one greater than Jonah
is here
and he's giving you
the word of the Lord.
How do you receive it?
Repent and believe.
We saw in chapter 1
the name Jonah
means dove
and a dove
is an emblem
for Israel
of peace.
Jesus is the prince
of peace.
He comes to inaugurate
the new creation.
Jonah was cast
into the waters
of God's judgment
and the Lord
settled the waters.
He brought peace
by dying
on behalf
of those Gentiles
in the boat.
Jesus Christ
passed through
the waters
of judgment
and he rose up
alive
to bring peace
on earth,
the peace
from heaven.
See,
Jonah was a shadow.
Jesus Christ
is the substance.
When Jonah
comes a second time
now,
this is an image
for us
of the resurrected
Lord Jesus Christ.
And when the Gentiles
repent and believe,
this is foreshadowing
the ingathering
of all the Gentiles.
That's us.
Believing now.
Jesus Christ,
one greater than Jonah,
he is here.
How do you receive
his word?
When you receive Christ
as the living word
of God,
the greater Jonah,
you want to eat up
all of the Bible.
Show me,
Lord,
this is who you are.
Show me more.
Spurgeon said,
eat into the very soul
of the Bible
until at last
you come to talk
in scriptural language
and your spirit
is flavored
with the words
of the Lord.
Don't you want
to receive God's word
that way?
Well,
the Ninevites did,
at least temporarily.
How much more
should we
with the spirit
regenerating us,
causing us
to love God,
giving us a hunger
for his word?
If you've been
forgiven much,
the only fitting response
is to receive
God's gracious word
with gratitude
and eat it up.
Receive the word
of the Lord,
trusting that it
shall accomplish
his purpose
in your life.
number five,
receive the word
of the Lord
as his powerful
means for changing
your heart.
Receive the word
of the Lord,
number five,
as his powerful
means for changing
your heart.
we need our hearts
to be changed.
We need to be overturned
time and time again.
A second time,
the word of the Lord
graciously comes to us
to turn our hearts
back to him.
A third time,
a hundred and fourth time,
the word of the Lord
keeps graciously
coming to us.
Notice how the word
of the Lord
makes its way
all the way
to the king
of this great empire
of Assyria.
In verse seven,
he issued a proclamation
and published
through Nineveh
by the decree
of the king
and his nobles,
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 let them
call out mightily
to God.
Let everyone
turn from his evil way
and from the violence
that is in his hands.
Who knows,
God may turn
and relent
and turn
from his fierce anger
so that we
may not perish.
Do you see how
they received
the word of the Lord?
They didn't take this
as a military threat.
They took this
as God himself
is not pleased
with our sin.
See,
the law of the creator
was written
on their hearts.
They knew
their acts of violence
deserve judgment.
They knew that.
This most wicked,
most pagan,
most sin-enslaved people
repents.
And God captures
this whole story
in his word.
I looked this up.
I'm going to read it
from my phone for you
because I believe
this is true.
Why?
Here's the question.
Why now?
Why do we have this?
One commentator
believes that
this repentance
of the Ninevites
is a foil.
A foil
is when a character
or one people
is set up
in contrast
to another.
It's typically
a contrast
against the protagonist
in order to better
highlight
and differentiate
certain qualities
of the protagonist.
So contrast
means differences.
And let me give you
an example
from literature
that might be
more familiar.
In Romeo and Juliet,
Shakespeare has
Benvolio
and he has Tybalt.
Benvolio is passive.
Tybalt fights.
Benvolio is even-keeled.
Tybalt is quick-tempered.
Benvolio is very loyal
to his friends.
Tybalt is more loyal
to his family.
So you see the contrast
set up.
One is a foil
to the other.
Ninevites were a foil
to the protagonist,
which was the people
of God.
It was Israel.
We need a contrast here.
We need to see
what are the traits
of the Ninevites
that need to expose
the sins
of God's own people.
Expose their hypocrisy.
That's why
the word of the Lord
does this.
And it foreshadows
what God's going to do
to the ends
of the earth.
Brian Estelle commented,
Ninevites are a foil
to God's people.
God is rebuking
Israel's lack
of repentance
from the prophetic
preaching of God's word
to them.
You ignored Amos.
You ignored Hosea.
Fine.
I'll take the reject.
I'll take Jonah.
And I'll show you
what, not him,
but what my word
will do.
You give me
the hardest city
in the world
to turn over Nineveh?
Fine.
I'm going to send
Jonah to Nineveh
to show you
the power
of the word
of God.
Augustine said,
God's promised
forgiveness
to your repentance.
God has promised
if you repent,
he will forgive.
And that's what
the king of Nineveh
was counting on.
Lord, if we turn,
maybe you'll withhold
your wrath.
But Augustine said,
God has not promised
tomorrow
to your
procrastination.
Israel,
learn this example.
The way I made
my word,
made Nineveh respond,
you need to respond
that way.
We're no different.
We're no better
than the Ninevites.
We're no better
than Israel.
If you have been
forgiven much,
the only fitting
response is to
receive God's word,
his gracious word
to you again today
with gratitude.
receive the word
of the Lord
as his powerful
means for changing
your heart.
He did it to Nineveh.
He can change
that hard heart
in your family,
of that co-worker,
maybe your own
heart right now.
His word works
powerfully
to change hearts.
The reason for this
is number six.
We receive the word
of the Lord,
trusting that he
is glorified
when he proves
himself true to it.
God is glorified
when he proves
to you,
I was true
to my word.
That's why we receive
it, trusting he
will bring glory
to himself
through his word.
Look at verse 10.
When God saw
what they did,
how they turned
from their evil way,
God relented.
The King James,
God repented
of the disaster
that he had said
he would do to them
and he did not
do it.
Well, this brings up
a big question
about God.
Recently,
there's been
wrong teaching
on this topic
that God doesn't
even know the future.
He created possibilities
and the future
will unfold
based on human choices.
So, this is tricky.
Did God repent here?
What does this mean?
Did God change his mind?
Or did God decree
everything that will
come to pass
in the future?
What's at stake here
is sovereignty.
Who is truly sovereign
over what comes
to pass on earth?
Is it God
or is it man?
This is a tricky passage.
We have a hermeneutical
principle.
In Sunday school,
we've been going through
different tools
we need to use
to correctly understand
all of God's word.
The hermeneutical principle
in this case
that's helpful is this.
What the Bible reveals
about God's essence,
his nature,
his attributes,
who God is,
that clarifies for us
other language
that describes
God's actions
or feelings
because we know
from the Bible
that God is not
a creature
with human passions.
He's not.
What does the Bible
say about God's essence,
God's nature?
That comes first.
Psalm 33, 11 says,
the counsel of the Lord
stands forever.
The plans of his heart
to all generations.
Romans.
Brian Estella,
again,
helped clarify,
Scripture speaks to us
in terms of
analogical discourse.
To say one thing
is like another thing.
It's a way of communicating
to help us understand
and make sense
based on what we can relate to.
John Calvin said,
God talks to us
in baby talk.
He accommodates
his truth
to work
in us
that which we are capable
of making sense
and receiving.
So,
this language
is not describing
God as he is
in himself,
but it's describing
God as he seems
to us.
We know from the Bible
that there is no shadow
of turning in God.
To say that God
repented in this case,
it means that
God revealed
that his action
would be changed
toward them.
He had warned them
40 days.
God knew
that this was
his decree
all along.
he knew
they would repent.
His word
would cause them
to repent.
And he knew
that he would not
destroy them now
in this moment.
So,
the word of the Lord
going to the Ninevites
is what made
their repentance happen.
It's actually
reinforcing
the divine decree.
Because Israel
refused to obey God,
see,
God,
he would bring
unrepentant Israel
into exile
for his glory.
Because he would also
bring them back
out of exile
into their land
with Ezra and Nehemiah
and rebuilding
and setting the stage
for the coming of Christ.
All of this
for his glory.
He's teaching his people
who he is.
He is just.
He has wrath
towards sin.
But God is long-suffering.
He is patient,
desiring that none
should perish.
All of this is true
of who God is.
And he reveals this
to us
in this story.
In Genesis 1 and 2
we have a pattern
established
for the word of God
going out
and creating
that which he intends.
This is one more example
of how God does that
in time.
The word of the Lord
goes forth
and he brings
into creation
that which he decrees.
He creates order
out of disorder.
He creates life
out of chaos
and death.
And here with the Ninevites
his word goes forth
and it brings about
that which God decreed
all along
foreshadowing
the work of his son.
And the purpose
for all of this
is the glory
of God alone.
Does Jonah get any glory
in this story?
Jonah gets pushed
lower and lower.
Do the Ninevites
get glory for repenting?
No.
They're so wicked.
God was gracious
to them.
It's the word of the Lord
that brings glory
to God alone.
How much has God
forgiven you?
The only fitting response
to his gracious word
to you yet again today
is gratitude
for his glory alone.
You receive it.
The Lord receives you
and you receive his word
trusting that he is glorified
when he proves himself
true to his word
in your life as well.
I've got one last point here
and this is not even
from Jonah
but it's what this
all points to
which is the fulfillment
the final word
of the Lord.
How do you receive
the Lord Jesus himself?
That's number seven.
Receive the final
and full word of God.
Our Lord Jesus Christ himself.
When you receive
the word of the Lord
when you receive Jesus
he changes you.
You receive Christ
with life changing gratitude.
The Lord had promised Israel
in Exodus 34
that the Lord is a God
merciful and gracious
slow to anger
abounding in steadfast love
and faithfulness.
That's who God is.
That's who God has proved himself
to be once again
with the Ninevites repenting.
We're told in John 1 14
that the word became flesh
and dwelt among us
and we have seen his glory.
God's only son
full of grace
and truth.
Have you received
the final
full word of God
Jesus Christ himself?
Hebrews 5 8 says
although Jesus was a son
he learned obedience
through what he suffered
and being made perfect
he became
the source
of eternal salvation
to all
who obey him.
A freed slave
is expected
to cherish his freedom.
A pardoned criminal
is expected
to live
a reformed life.
In Christ
you have been
forgiven much.
Receive him.
Receive God's
gracious word today
with life changing
gratitude
for the glory
of God
alone.
Would you pray with me?
Oh Lord
your word
is gracious
like you say
in Proverbs 16 24
your word
is like a honeycomb.
It is sweetness
to the soul
and health
to the body.
Lord we see
through your word
that even our suffering
like Jonah
if it leads to repentance
it's gracious.
As hard as it is
for us to accept
that and understand it
we thank you
that you have
revealed
your steadfast love
your mercy
your grace
to us.
Lord we testify
like Jonah
you are
so slow
to anger
like the Ninevites
Lord
you do abound
in steadfast love
and faithfulness.
Please teach us
Father
to receive
your word
to receive
Jesus Christ
and to obey you
now
to abide in you
every day
and forever
for your glory
in our midst
we ask
Amen.