Allow me to read it as we begin this morning. Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time saying, arise. Go to Nineveh that great city and call out against it the message that I tell you. So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city three days journey and breath. But Jonah began to go into the city going a day's journey and he called out, yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least of them. The word reached the king of Nineveh and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles. But neither man nor beast heard 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 hand. Who knows? God may turn and relent. And turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish. When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way.
God relented of the disaster that he said he would do to them and he did not do it.
So reads the words of the living God.
I am a human being who struggles with my fallenness as do each one of you.
I must tell you, however, that while I openly acknowledge the reality of the fight and the failures that prove to be more common than I care to admit. As a man who has been made a Christian, I do long for the day when I will never sin again.
I don't need to sound unduly pious this morning friends are excessively spiritual, you don't need that for me. But the fact is what I've said is all together true and the very heart of my being, I long for the day when I will never sin again. I long for the day when every temptation to sin will have lost its allure and power. I long for the day when never again will I bring grief to the God who has created me and sustains me. I long for the day when in keeping with the words of the hymn writer I will be saved to sin no more. On that day my humanity will be restored to its original design. All the consequences of the curse and the fall will be put away and I will reflect the very image of the Son of God himself. Owing all to the grace of God existing exclusively for the glory of God. And on that great day those human aspirations to contentment and joy so utterly elusive in this life will finally take up their rule within me as the eternal and unconquerable dispositions of my heart. I long for that day but it is not yet. Is it? Until then, however, strangers it may sound. I get the nearest to those moments in this life when I'm repenting. As a Christian, I am the happiest, the most content and the most at peace when I find myself at the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ renouncing my sin. I know it sounds utterly paradoxical but it is true and the fact of the matter is friends it ought not to surprise you because the very reality of authentic Christianity lies in its paradoxes that the way down is up, that humility defines greatness, that the last shall be first, that death is the way to life. But self-denial is the key to blessedness. It is this paradoxical nature of Christianity that reveals itself then in the experience of repentance. I experience the greatest foretaste of eternity's joys when for God's sake alone. I turn away from my sin. When my heart is brought into alignment with God's and thus broken over sin, when the taste of repentant tears remind me that once again my rightful place is in full submission to him. Don't misunderstand me, beloved. It is not that the tears in and of themselves produce joy as though repentance is nothing more than a psychological upswing from an external display of grief. No cheap sentimentalism here. It's that real brokenness over my offenses against God reflects a heart that is finally at peace with him. And this side of heaven you see there is no greater joy than this that deep and abiding contentment that accompanies the experience of repentance.
Spurgeon said it very simply and very personally. I do not know when I am more perfectly happy. Then when I am weeping for sin at the foot of the cross, I take it that if you're a Christian that echoes your very heart this morning. One of my children asked me the other day, daddy why are you speaking so much about repentance? Maybe you've asked the same thing. The answer is very simple. It's because there is no authentic Christianity apart from repentance. We have seen it again and again and again the scriptures are legion. Here's what I've not mentioned yet. Luke chapter 13. You remember the scene perhaps? Luke writes there were some present at that very time who told him that is Jesus about the Galileans whose blood pilot had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answered them, do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all of the other Galileans because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you. Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Now it is amazing this attitude that Jesus is going after, this attitude that looks like this. Man, you know to meet with such a terrible end, those Galileans must have been sinners of the most foul kind. Well rather than lending his ascent to that self-righteous conclusion, Jesus pivots on them. What about you? What about your sin? In fact Jesus then leaves them with only two alternatives. Did you hear them? You can perish or you can repent, which I find to be very interesting. In order to make a proper contrast, you would think that Jesus would say you can perish or you can live, which of course is what he's really getting at. But Jesus so tightly associates the means to the end, repentance with the end itself, life, but he substitutes the means for the end. Hence as sinners he is saying to us, here are your two alternatives, eternal condemnation or repentance. Why repentance? Because repentance is the way to life, the polar opposite of eternal condemnation. He then goes on to say, or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam felled and killed them. Do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you. But unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. There it is again. In the mind of our Lord Jesus, two antithetical alternatives are set before every person, regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity, social status, or religious background. You may perish or you may repent. And my dear friends, you see when we seek to make known the gospel, these are the same two alternatives that need to be set before people without ambiguity so that they might rightly understand the implications of that to which we are calling them. The gospel task is incomplete until the real nature of these two alternatives has been defined. We are not calling our neighbors to economic prosperity. We are not calling our extended family members to healthy bodies and successful businesses and happy families, or one of the many roads to God. We are calling them to eternal life by the exclusive means of repentance. And we must do so, you see, in such a way that they clearly discern that to refuse this repentance is to choose eternal death. Now friends, to be sure, this is to be done with kindness and sensitivity and even affection, but don't be mistaken. It is neither compassionate nor loving to soften the distinctive, definitive alternatives of the gospel. You must turn from your sin and place your trust in Jesus Christ alone. This is the way to life. Why are you speaking so much about repentance? It's because we need it. It's because no one else is. It's because there is no authentic Christianity apart from it. And what's more, my friends? This includes that joy and contentment and peace of which authentic Christianity is the ultimate source. And this you see in part is why I've been saying to you again and again over the last few weeks. Repentance is not a single event. Repentance is not a momentary occasion, but it is rather an ongoing manifestation in the life of a true Christian. It is the regular practice of a Christian's life, his experience. Now of course, I admit friends that in saying this, I am making a significant presupposition about you, aren't I? But the fact is that the presupposition that is to be made about all Christians for the rest of your life, you will need to keep on repenting for the simple reason that for the rest of your life said to say, you will keep on sinning. Until you're finished with sinning, you'll never be finished with repentance. It is the former that necessitates the exercise of the latter. To stop repenting can only mean one of two things. Either you've ceased sinning, so you no longer need to repent, or you've ceased to be concerned with the fact that your sin offends God, so you no longer care to repent. Now assuming that you are not yet glorified, thereby eliminating the possibility of sinless perfection, and assuming that you have been born again, thereby eliminating the possibility of indifference towards sin, the only conclusion the Bible will allow us to arrive at is that a true Christian will be defined by an ongoing, never ending, life-long repentance. Beloved, allow me to say it one final time. There is no authentic Christianity apart from repentance, whether we're talking about how one becomes a Christian, or how one remains a Christian, or to use the words of our friend Dr. Garlington, how one gets in, or how one stays in. To cease repenting is to cease being a Christian, but all of that begs then the obvious question we've been asking. How do we know when repentance is real?
We're told, for example, that the rich young ruler after his encounter with Jesus was very sad speaking of his emotions, and we're told that the governor Felix was alarmed when he heard the preaching of the Apostle Paul, speaking of his conscience, and we're told that Judas changed his mind when he saw that Jesus had been condemned, speaking of his intellect. But is there anything in the text to suggest that any of these three displayed are repentance that secure the gift of eternal life,
not the slightest hint? How then do we determine when repentance is real? In Jonah chapter 3, God himself has provided us with a historical record that answers this question. Four features of real repentance emerge from this narrative. The first we considered two weeks ago, real repentance we said is aroused by a confrontation that is devastating. The confrontation that takes place in that ordained moment when the word of God finally collides with a sinner. That's what happens here. The commission, if you recall, was specific. Verse 2, arise, go to Nineveh that great city and call out against it the message that I tell you. And the summary of that message then appears in verse 4, get 40 days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. That's all it is. And what happens? Whole-sale repentance breaks out. Whole-sale repentance. Fascinating, don't you think? No media? No concerts? No campaigns? I'm not suggesting that there is not a place for such things, but beloved, if you've read the Bible and the record of church history, then you're well acquainted with the fact that how this repentance is birthed here is how God most often brings about repentance. He speaks his word through the mouth of a man. A few weeks ago, when I was speaking to a group of preaching students at Master Seminary, one of the fellows asked about this business of passion in preaching. He said, how do you generate passion in preaching? And we talk about several things, but one of the things that I said to him, friends, was simply this. I believe that preaching is God's ordained method. I am absolutely rock solid, unquestionably committed to the fact that this is God's name. I believe that this is what he uses. That's what happened here. When God speaks his word to sinners in this manner, it proves devastating. It humbles, it convicts, it slaves, it arouses repentance. The second feature of this real repentance, we looked at last Lord's day. Real repentance we said is displayed in a Reformation that is thorough going. And we stress this, friends, not primarily because of what we might define as the breath of this repentance that it encompassed all of the Ninevides from every social stratum, including the livestock of all things, but rather because of the depth of this repentance. The Reformation it aroused was so thorough going. As we discovered for one, it reached the heart as evidence in the sack cloth and the ashes and the fasting and the passionate praying. Moreover, however, we saw that it altered the behavior, the turning away from all sins generally and the turning away from one sin specifically. No stone left unturned, no island of autonomy left untouched. It was a repentance that expressed itself in a Reformation inclusive of action and attitude. Return to me with all of your heart God says in Joel chapter 2, with fasting, with weeping, with mourning, and ren your hearts and not your garments. That's what this is. If you like the old Puritans, it's the difference between a legal repentance and an evangelical repentance. Not merely the right actions with a resentful attitude, a combination so utterly distasteful to God, nor the right attitude apart from the appropriate actions, a colossal expression of hypocrisy, but a Reformation that proved its integrity by radically authoring both duty and disposition. This frames us how we know when repentance is real, how we know that repentance has been offered by the grace of God. It displays itself in a Reformation that is thoroughgoing, thirdly now, and for the remainder of our time this morning. Real repentance is evidenced by a disposition that is dependent. Real repentance is evidenced by a disposition that is dependent. I think this may be the most magnificent thing of all in this chapter. Take another look, friends, at this edict from the king. Take note of its structure. Look at it. First, there is the authorization for seven by the decree of the king and his nobles. Second, there is the salutation, that is the people to whom it is addressed. Man, beast, herd, flock. Then this is followed by the exhortation, the exhortation, proper, the decree, proper, six specific commands, three negative, three positive. Let neither man nor beast, herd, nor flock, taste anything. That's the first. Let them not feed. That's the second. Here's the third. Let them not drink water, three negative. Now, three positive. But let each man and beast be covered with sack cloths. That's the first. Here's the second. Let them call out mightily to God, and here now is the third. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. You have authorization, salutation, exhortation. But now listen very carefully to the justification. The rationale for this decree, who knows, God may turn and relend and turn from his fierce anger, literally from the burning of his nostrils so that we may not perish. I think it's the most important verse in the chapter. Do you hear it in the King's tomb? He doesn't assume anything. He doesn't expect anything. He doesn't anticipate anything, much less does he demand anything, no name it and claim it here. The King. The King puts himself in a position of dependent. Dependence upon the sovereign freedom of God to extend mercy to whomever he pleases. Who knows? God may turn. We may not perish. You get the very same idea back in chapter one, verse six, from the sea captain. Do you remember the ship captain? He wakes Jonah up, arrives, call out to your God, perhaps. We need to pray with more perhapses. Perhaps the God will give a thought to us that we may not perish. He recognizes the sovereign freedom and independence of God. That's the same thing that the King does here. And you know, friends, I want to tell you, it is amazing to me that such good theology comes from the pagans in this story. It is amazing to me that these guys have absolutely no compunction, no reservation, about openly acknowledging that nothing we do can ever merit or guarantee God's mercy and forgiveness. God is God. And by virtue of being God, the pagans know that he is under no obligation to perform on demand that is God. He is absolutely free to do as he pleases. And you know, my friends, for whatever it's worth, I have to tell you, my experiences have taught me that most pagans that I've met have no difficulty understanding and accepting the reality of God's full sovereignty to be sure. They may not believe that God exists, which is their problem, but they are intelligent enough to acknowledge that if there is a God who really and truly is God, then by definition he would have to be sovereign. The people I have met who chafe against God's sovereign freedom are not the pagans, they're the professing Christians who have an inflated view of their humanity. And ironically, you see, that is the very case with Jonah and the nation he represents. They have the audacity to resent the fact that God may show mercy to the Gentiles, in other words, in their own way, they're chasing against God's sovereign freedom. In this story, from beginning to end, it is the pagans who steadily outdo the covenant people.
Who knows? God made time. It's very much like that call to repentance on the part of Joel. I've already made reference to it. It's very much like this dependent disposition of the Ninovite King. Joel says, return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding instead, fast love, and he relents over disaster. Who knows? Whether he will not turn and relent and leave a blessing behind him. Joel's got it right. The sea captain has it right. The king of Nineveh has it right. They know that you can't twist God's arm. Even repentance beloved cannot force God's mercy. His saving purposes are hidden behind clouds of mystery. And so when you read verse 9, it becomes apparent there's no air of expectancy here, only the air, the aroma of bear possibility. Who knows? God may repent, may relent, may turn. It tells us two things about this king. First, he knew that the mercy for which he prayed
was altogether undeserved. You don't pray this way when you've expected that you've earned something. When by your performance, you think that it's rightly owed to you. You don't pray this way.
Notice, friends, does he confidently appeal to any of his own merit? Does he probably appeal to any of his own righteousness? You can be certain that were there any to submit before God? He would have done so. I mean, if ever there was a time to call in old depths with God, now was the time. His well-being and the well-being of his people was hanging over the abyss of eternal condemnation by a slim thread that was sure to give way in about 40 days. All he had to bring before God was his guilt and he knew it. There was nothing in his life he could use as leverage in order to lay claim to the gift of divine mercy. Do you see this beloved? The possibility that God may not extend mercy is a tacit acknowledgement that he does not deserve it. Who knows? Secondly, Ben, he knows that the mercy for which he prayed was contingent upon God's free sovereignty. God's own good pleasure. In other words, this mercy was God's gift to give. God's alone. God's gift to give according to his own good pleasure. He has no promise to claim, friends,
which helps us to remember you see that God is not a blessing machine. The promise is to pay off when we finally figure out the proper religious procedures to follow as some are advocating in our day. God is a sovereign person. God is a person, friends. Do you perform under man? God is a person who is governed by his own holy pleasure. Again, I wish that our dear Armenian brothers would allow their theology to be corrected by these pagan. What wasn't that we saw at the end of chapter 2? That great statement of Jonah. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. What is he saying? Salvation is God's to give. Salvation is God's domain. Salvation is God's gift to express according to his will. Salvation is of the Lord. And you know what reminds me on the heels of this? I find it strange when I hear people say something to me like, well, you know, if I was really a Calvinist, I would never pray. The very opposite is the truth, my friends. We pray because we're Calvinists. We pray and ask God to save sinners because we know that salvation is his prerogative. Upon his free sovereignty, this is why we pray. If salvation is not the prerogative of God, don't waste your time praying. And the king knows this, you see? This is why he prays as he does. Who knows? God may turn in relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish. What I want to know is this. Where did the idea of hope come from? I mean, admittedly, it's very slight. Very slender. What was the cause of it? Why in the mind of the king is the door still left open? Why did this idea of sackcloth and fasting even dawn on his mind? Why did he bother with this praying and turning away from evil, decreeing it for the people to follow? I mean, the fact of the matter is, friends, if it's all going to come down in 40 days, everything to a screeching halt that this has been predetermined and that hell is their inevitable destination, why not go out with a bang and make this the most sinful few weeks of their lives? Why bother to repent? It's because of what they heard in the preaching of Jonah the 40 day. Imagine the king, you see? He's grabbing for every straw that he can. You can appreciate it, friends, his logical deductions. If this revealed purpose of God is so finely and irrevocably fixed and thus our annihilation is certain beyond all doubt, why would God send a prophet to preach to us? I would remind you no ambassador from God was sent to Sodom and Gomorrah for telling of their doom and furthermore the king reasons why hasn't God already obliterated us? Why the 40 day notice? Might it be that these warnings have been given not to shut the door of hope but to awaken our dead consciences and to compel us into the way of repentance? Has God sent his word to us ahead of this disaster so as to create a space for repentance?
Beloved, let me tell you something. The threat of doom is never the last word and the king is holding on to that the 40 days. Am I grabbing at straws he wonders? Or is it the faint sound of compassion that I hear? I think that there was one other thing to create hope within this king and that was Jonah himself. Jonah the man. Now friends I readily admit that in this text we do not read that Jonah told his own story to the king and the people of Nineveh. However in a passage to which we will give considerable attention in a few weeks, Jesus himself says Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh. Jesus is not referring to the message of Jonah the preaching of Jonah he's talking about Jonah himself Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh. And what helps us to understand what Jesus means by this is the connection he then draws from Jonah to himself. He says as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh so will the son of man be a sign to this generation. So what was it that Jonah and Jesus had in common? Both underwent a death experience connected with God's judgment on sin and both experienced a miraculous delivery by the power of God three days later. Like the resurrection of Jesus would be assigned to his generation so to the resurrection of Jonah would serve as a sign to the Ninevites. Meaning what? I don't think it's safe to assume that the only words Jonah ever uttered were yet 40 days and then of a shall be overthrown yet 40 days and then of a shall be overthrown. Those were the theme of his preaching to be sure delivered with judgment day seriousness but don't forget the love of Jonah served Nineveh as a sign. He was a sign a sign points to something else. I believe that he told the king the story of his own defiance against God the near-to-death consequences he endured and the subsequent mercy of God that finally delivered him. Jonah was a sign of God's grave and I want to tell you I think that every time that king said his eyes on Jonah it gave him hope and this you see my friends in a related sphere is why your testimony as a Christian is such a powerful tool in the communication of the gospel it gives hope to people who are desperate it gives hope to people who are guilty and couldn't do nothing to save themselves to hear you say I was guilty before God if the slave to my sin deserving of his judgment but because of God's great grace by means of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his resurrection from the dead my sin and my guilt have been forgiven and God has granted me eternal life don't underestimate the influence of such talk my friends that that kind of thing can have in the life of a person who knows he is perishing this is the very thing that God so often does he uses his undeserved mercy to us as signs to weather sinner our life becomes a paradigm our fallenness our aniquity our sin God subsequent mercy and grace and restoration his others hope the warning has come according to the Christian gospel I deserve hell I know that I'm guilty judgment is coming that maybe the warning is not the final shedding of the door but the awakening of my conscience the opportunity to repent look at this God who saves sinner might he save me it's the purpose Jonas served this is the God who gives a mercy to sinful people the king realized this Jonas stood in front of him will he now grant us mercy well it's certainly undeserved and it's his alone to give but maybe this warning is a window of opportunity in this guy and yet there is no assuming no expecting no demand who knows God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish it's real repentance you see evidenced by a disposition that is dependent a disposition quick to recognize that mercy is altogether undeserved and therefore completely contingent upon God's free sovereignty it's his to give his to withhold I will give mercy to whom I will give mercy and I will harden those whom I choose to harden the pendants this my friends is what characterizes a true Christian this is what a real Christian looks like not once not at the beginning of his Christian life but always the very quality that you see here because of that beloved you see there is nothing more unattractive unappealing uninviting then a Christian who walks through life with an attitude of deservedness expectance look at what I do look at the hours I put in look at how I serve no room for that man
Jesus tells us that the kingdom of heaven belongs to the pouring spirit he reminds us of the prodigal son who lays hold to no prior claim upon his father but says instead I have sinned against heaven and before you I am no longer worthy to be called your son treat me as one of your hired servants that's how we come and that's how we stay you want to be a Christian then you must become a lifelong repentant you must recognize that you deserve nothing from God except judgment that your life has earned you nothing but eternal condemnation that you were not worthy of God's favor and then you must recognize that mercy and forgiveness then are his alone to give
is their hope that he'll give it to you the greatest possible hope you have to sign
the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ the Son of God he endured judgment and death on the cross in the place of undeserving sinners and three days later in a miraculous display of power his father raised him from the dead Jesus Christ you see is the sign that God now forgives repentant sinners that God now extends mercy to repentant sinners that God now gives life to repentant sinners to be sure the Christian gospel tells you that eternal judgment is coming but you can place your hope in this the threat of doom is not the last word to the contrary it is supplied you it is furnished you with room to repent but what does real repentance look like do you know how undeserving you are do you believe that mercy is God's gift to give to be a Christian you must possess a disposition that is all together in in every way dependent upon him Jesus told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt two men went up into the temple to pray one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector the Pharisee standing by himself prayed thus God I thank you that I'm not like other men extortioners unjust adulterers or even like this tax collector I fast twice a week I give tides of all that I get but the tax collector standing far off would not even lift up his eyes to heaven but beat his breast saying God be merciful to me I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled but the one who humbles himself will be insulted it's the paradox of repentance when you bow your heads with me please our father we thank you for your word to us it's always so timely and appropriate and it is always so penetratingly personal and when we feel it O Lord and God we're not to resent it we're to respond to it respond to it as you would have us there and father your word to us in these past few weeks has been clear it's been simple it's been obvious you have called us and are calling us to repent you are calling boys and girls in this room now to repent you were calling adults here in this room at this very moment to repent in one sense whether or not a person is a Christian is irrelevant at this point since repentance and its call is appropriate for those who are Christians and those who are not and so father we pray for those in our midst who are not Christians that they would realize that you have given them the opportunity to repent you have come to them today and you've given them this space if their sins are to be forgiven and they are to receive the gift of eternal life it will only be as a result of them making a break with their sin and trusting solely into finished saving accomplishments of your son Jesus and father we pray that you would bring such people to that very end but father this business of repentance is altogether appropriate for those of us who are Christians will never be finished with repentance as long as we're alive in this body as long as we're alive in this world because we sin unceasingly I think it's safe to say that repentance at the very least must be a daily business because our sin is so daily perhaps even hour by hour and moment by moment Lord develop that attitude within us to feel about sin as you do and thus to forsake it as something utterly offensive to you and inevitably damaging to everyone else around
father make us repenters I pray every one of us because the alternative according to your son is to perish we love you father and we ask these things of you on the basis of the merits of your son music