I invite you to turn tonight to the book of Jonah in the Old Testament, the book of Jonah. You'll find that on page 983 in your pew Bible as we're in chapter 3 tonight. And then next time we'll conclude the book as it's just four chapters. But just Jonah chapter 3 tonight, the entirety of the chapter, again page 983. This is the word of the Lord, beginning at verse 1 of chapter 3. 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 in breath. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. and he called out yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown and the people of Nineveh believed God they called for fast 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 throughout 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 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 may the lord bless the hearing of his word well in romans chapter 10 paul dealing with the uh the struggle between jew and um gentile god said uh paul there records by the inspiration of the spirit something that the lord said of his dealings capturing the long struggle of his dealings with israel and he said of israel all day long i stretched out my hand to a disobedient and a contrary people all day long that's what i did this whole struggle of um between israel's response to the lord and his calling out to them really does come to a boiling point in the book of jonah in the days of jonah in old testament history this is where we see a surface of of what will happen play out in the new testament we see a real big picture and foreshadow of it in the old testament in fact what you get is that the lord was ready to bring down what he had said in chapter 32 of Deuteronomy upon the nation of Israel. That is so key to this book, I believe. Listen to what Deuteronomy 32 said. You were unmindful of the rock that bore you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth. They have made me jealous with what is no God. They have provoked me to anger with their idols. So, I will make them jealous by those who are no people. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. That's what's happening in Jonah. That's why I said it had already come to a boiling point. This is essentially what's going on in the book of Jonah. We looked at Jonah's history. We looked at where he was in the nation of Israel, who he ministered to, Jeroboam II. How the Lord had actually restored the borders of Israel, even though Jeroboam was terrible in idolatry. And Israel would not respond. So Israel was failing in her purpose as a people. And because of that, in not fulfilling her role, and remember the Lord had always had it in His intention, that His people would be a blessing to all the nations. The issue that now comes to the point of the book of Jonah is to help us understand how Israel was failing. it's particularly captured here with a central issue that Jesus raises in the gospels about how Israel failed. Jesus gave this indictment in his day. Remember what he said to the nation of Israel and the leaders, an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For 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 so he drew a direct comparison to jonah's life saul embedded there the story of his life then he said this 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 someone greater than jonah is here jesus looked at jonah three it's on his mind jesus has in his mind jonah three what we just read in his earthly ministry and he pinpoints the issue for us didn't he he pinpoints it And Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah. Repented. They will stand over you, he said to Israel, because they turned to me. For guess who stands in front of you? A greater than Jonah, and he's preaching the same thing. So this is a moving way to begin chapter 3. The great question that chapter 3 then is challenging us with, the right question that we have to take seriously is the call to repentance, don't we? I mean, that's the issue here. It's the issue Jesus raised here. That's how the book of Jonah is capturing Israel's failure. That they would not repent and turn to the Lord and believe His word at the preaching of the prophets who were sent to Israel. Now, what makes this story of Jonah so fascinating is that God takes Jonah and makes him, in his very personal story, what you would say is a microcosm of the macrocosm. What do I mean by that? Jonah becomes symbolic of Israel. But the effect of it is immensely personal to ask the same question to us, are we as a people repenting? Are we as the EURC demonstrating repentance? And what of me personally? This passage has the effect of teaching true repentance. And that's greatly needed, isn't it? It's a very important subject, isn't it? And it shows us in that God's response to true repentance, which is immensely encouraging in this particular passage. The text you'll notice uses the word repent, I think, something like four times. It's the heart of the problem here chapter 3 is addressing. So this is where we are tonight. It gives us a look at repentance in three ways. Three ways it gives us a look. You're going to look at Jonah's repentance. You're then going to look at Nineveh's repentance. And then you're going to look, and I'll qualify this for it makes anyone nervous here. You're going to look at God's repentance. And I'll show you that by the end of this, Lord willing. Last time, we considered the awful separation that took place here from God as jonah has a psalm in the heart of this in the prayer his prayer from the belly of the fish it was a cry out to the lord wasn't it his the whole story was there it's really remarkable on how many levels this book is is like an onion it just keeps you peel it you find something more and and and notice in that particular prayer as he is sinking down into the depths of what he call Sheol, he's describing there the pain of separation from God. We looked at this in some detail last time. Coming up to the neck, the language of waters coming up to my neck in the Psalms is always and usually indicative of one of the greatest struggles and hardships that can come upon somebody in life. You had his whole description of sinking and a descent and then the feeling of separation he describes there from god and then you add in that passage a glorious by the end of it resurrection after three days and three nights in the belly of that fish god spoke and it vomits jonah out onto dry land in a kind of resurrection event you know that story of course you know that story that god's been teaching you throughout the whole bible this is the story of the central central truth of the bible this is the story of the gospel this is why jesus pointed to it he didn't just say that in abstract jesus looked at it and said my story's there he was a bearer of this news jonah but god was using jonah's story which makes this so fascinating jonah's story to indict israel and shame israel so we see an anti-type here in christ right but we see in jonah here the failure to as a prophet to teach israel something remember the call to go to nineveh was to go to nineveh that great city and preach and warn them of their overthrow that god was going to overthrow great nineveh and jonah wanted nothing to do with it he wanted nothing to do with it not just because they were the enemies of israel but because he knew that God said that if Israel would not respond, which they were not responding, he would go to a foreign tongue, a foreign people, and take it elsewhere. And that principle still stands. If there are people who won't respond, he takes the work elsewhere. Look at where it's traveled in the world. So that's what's essentially happened here. Jonah knew what God was going to do. Jonah was a prophet. Jonah wanted nothing to do with, I'm taking the message to a foreign people and he says that in chapter four remember that in chapter four right at the beginning that he's displeased and he prayed to the lord and said oh lord is this not what i said when i was yet in my country that's why i fled that's why i was out so i wanted nothing to do with this why for i know you're gracious and merciful and slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster i know you love to forgive and i knew you were going to do it to them i want nothing to do with it so that's what that's where we are after jonah has been presented with the gospel story now in his own experience we begin chapter three with a reinstatement of the great call to go to nineveh you'll notice that there the last thing we read in chapter 2 is that the Lord had spoke to the fish it vomited Jonah out on dry ground and you'll notice chapter 3 there came the same call 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 now you'll notice something that's really encouraging at the beginning of this I don't think he wanted to end up back in the fish did he so verse 3 says so jonah rose and jonah went to nineveh according to the word of the lord that's that's a very encouraging thing what did jonah learned about being cast into the sea and swallowed by the fish sinking down in sheol he learned something really clear you better when the lord commands follow it he takes it really seriously doesn't he this is why i keep quoting Calvin in that quote that said, anybody who runs, anybody who breaks a commandment of the Lord is doing the same thing as Jonah and running. That's what it is. Boys and girls, when your parents tell you to do something, even if you don't like what they're saying, you have to follow it, don't you? Because you know there's consequences for disobedience, don't you? Of course. Of course. Far be it from Jonah to disobey the commandment of the Lord. He's got to go to Nineveh. He's got to go do it. What comes across here is that he would have rather have fallen into the hands of the Ninevites than fallen into the hand of the living God. You get that sense. He did not want to go back down and face that separation. So Jonah realized through tribulation sent from God that his foremost duty as a prophet of God was to follow his commands, Speak his word. Say what God wants him to say. Now, if chapter 3 is all we had, you'd say, that was a great story, wasn't it? He did what God told him to do. Feeling good about Jonah. The problem is what I read at the beginning of chapter 4, isn't it? It sounds like a bitter prophet. Chapter 4 opens up and we get right into this prophet's heart. This is not good. After God shows mercy to the enemies of Israel, he is furious, he storms off, he blames God, and he goes out and sits out in the desert hoping that God will still throw down fire like he did on Sodom and Gomorrah on these people. Come on, throw it. That's the imagery. That's what you get. You put that together, what do you have? I think it's an interesting, as I say, that Jonah is teaching Israel something. I think this is an interesting moment in teaching Israel a lot about the heart and obedience, isn't it? It has to be. A lot of people outwardly conform. They don't want to cross God. They know they should do what's right. So they do their best to outwardly conform and keep the law. But that's not necessarily translated to sincerity of heart. has it? That's not necessarily translated to genuine, wholehearted repentance, has it? It's not translated to a real humbling of oneself before God, has it? This is a really important emphasis, I believe, in this particular book to indict Israel through an episode of a lack of responding to God. That's what the purpose is. I love what Dr. Stell says. He wrote a little commentary in the book of Jonah, and there's some helpful things in there, and especially this. People, when they come to the book of Jonah, he says, is to say that the purpose is to rebuke Israel for xenophobic hatred of non-Israelites. That's what he says is how typically you approach the book of Jonah, you beat up people because they're not mission-minded enough. That's the book you go to to nail them with the great commission um he says contrary to that what's being rebuked listen to this is a lack of compliance on israel's part to the prophetic preaching of god's word that's a little bit like the bitterness that we heard about this morning isn't it the chosen nation had grown complacent in its own zeal for righteousness and holiness end of quote absolutely absolutely so as jonah's capturing this he goes he has no heart to do god's will in fact what he despises is that he has to do it what does that create not a very joyful people does it a bitter people complaining people thus israel and when the heart's finally exposed in the book you see the worst kind of bitter complaining spirit underneath all the facade of the outer obedience to god's word you get there and that's what you get we find a servant of the lord looking like this and you stop and you say is that what god's after it's an important question it's the kind of blessing that he is after to give his people so that they would act and respond this way israel should have looked at jonah as a parable and asked is this what god is after is it the whole book and Nineveh what is God after it begged the question was repentance and what God was after with them was it just about getting in line and outwardly keeping the commandments of the Lord apart from a genuine wholehearted response to him in repentance and faith it's really important because god talked to israel a lot about this we just sung out in that psalm not the formal sacrifice has acceptance in thine eyes we sing that but a broken and contrite heart you will not despise this is the emphasis in scripture isn't it think of isaiah 1 beginning of the book ah sinful nation people laden with iniquity offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly. They've forsaken the Lord. They've despised the Holy One of Israel. They're utterly estranged. Why will you be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? Hear the word, you rulers of Sodom. Now you stop and say, who's he talking to? Israel. Hear the word, you rulers of Sodom. Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah. What is to me the multitude of your sacrifices, says the Lord? I've had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts. I don't delight in the blood of bulls, of lambs or of goats. When you come to appear before me, who's required this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations. I cannot endure it. I'm tired of your worship services. It's a formal facade. That's what he's saying to them. It's a burden to me. I'm weary. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They become a burden. I'm weary of bearing them. And then comes this. Come now. It's reason together. Though your sins are like scarlet, I'll wash them. Though they're red like crimson, they'll become like wool. He was calling them to repentance. What did it look like? Is this repentance? What was God after? Such an important question that we should all know a lot about and think a lot about because it's not a doctrine that's taught much in the church anymore. It's not something that's taken very seriously in the church anymore. It meant a lot to Jesus for the first words of His prophetic ministry were, repent, repent. What was God after of a people just coming together who felt just to do the commandments of the Lord in formal sacrifice without love? What would it say to come up to the house of the Lord to worship, but people are worshiping with their lips whose hearts are far from God? What would that be? Is that what he's after? What would it really expose? You see, Israel should have been, when reading Jonah, saying, what's wrong with this prophet? He's mad at the mercy of the Lord to these people? You would think you'd stop and say, did Jonah think he deserved it more? did he forget God's mercy to him did he not remember God didn't have to make him a prophet did Jonah forget in his own life the very gospel he was supposed to bring to Nineveh did Jonah not see what he deserved had Jonah really repented himself and you can ask that question we have the prophetic word which is spoken to us that calls us to repentance. When we hear that, do we say, well, that's for them. That's for the bad people out there. What does it look like? Israel should have known. Remember the story of the prodigal son? The prodigal son runs off, grabs the inheritance, and he's in the unclean pigsty, unclean that's chosen on purpose by Jesus. And the son, when he saw that the father showed grace, the older son in the house when he saw that the father showed grace to this younger rebellious son was furious wasn't he here is what has always affected me about the story the older son never left the house the younger got out and we could put it in our terms got involved in pornography got involved in homosexuality you could go right down the list of the worst list of sins you could think of to get involved in and wreck your life. That was the younger son. The older son stayed in the house with the coat and tie on. He never appreciated his father. He never knew why he even needed it. Never loved him. All came out. That bitterness came out, didn't it? When that son, older, younger son came home and God gave him grace. You see the story here in Jonah? It's right here. So what was God after? Well, you got the best example of it in Nineveh in the Old Testament. You got one of the best examples of what God's after. Look at what happens here. It's really remarkable. Jonah goes to Nineveh, travels a long way, gets into the city. As soon as he gets in the city, he begins to proclaim. Yet in 40 days, Nineveh is going to be overthrown. You read in verse 9, verse 5, And the people of Nineveh believed God. That's the very thing in Genesis 15 of what Paul says. Abraham was justified by faith because he believed God. Same thing. They believed. Nineveh believed God. It should stand out. It's a direct shot. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least of them. The word even reached the king. And he got up from his throne. He took off his robe. He covered himself with sackcloth and went out in front of everyone and he dumped ashes all over himself. And issues of proclamation throughout Nineveh. This got real solemn in the city of a million strong. By the decree of the king and his nobles, let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, eat anything. Not even the beasts can eat right now. Nobody's eating. Let them not feed or drink water. Let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way, from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God might turn and relent from this fierce anger so that we don't perish. That is just a remarkable moment in the book of Jonah, isn't it? All the words you got were, yet in 40 days, Nineveh will be overthrown. I'm sure he said more, but the point is for us to stand back and say, whoa, look at what just happened. They understood from the message of Jonah that there might be a chance for mercy here. And they felt the weight of it and thought, we're all done. We only have 40 days left. Has history ever seen this kind of repentance in a pagan city of this size? I doubt it. I doubt it. This is the biggest mass repentance in the Bible you get. We know how proud a king can be of a mighty city like this. This is the capital of the Assyrian Empire. You didn't mess with these people. For him to take off the royal robes, for him to proclaim a fast, not even let the animals eat, then produce mass turning to God who made the sea and the dry land. Israel, here's repentance. Let me show you. see it Israel let me show you repentance here it is number one what is it they believed God in other words 40 days judgment's coming well that's proclaimed to us all the time it's proclaimed to you this morning judgment's coming judgment day's coming it's coming they believed it David said when he was convicted of his sin listen Lord if you were to enter into judgment with me and you were to cast me to hell, you're just. You're just. Sorrow for sin, number two. Fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. You ever weep over your sins? It's the last time you've done it. Number three. Turning. Notice that? Let everyone turn from his evil way, from the violence that is in his hands. Stop what we're doing. We need to stop what we're doing and turn to the Lord. and number four call they called on the lord this is what paul said to the church in corn you know because you were grieved into repenting you felt a godly grief so that you suffered no loss through us for godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret whereas worldly grief produces death for we see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you but also what eagerness to clear yourselves what indignation what fear what longing what zeal what punishment maybe this is just the point for just a minute here to um to listen to our lord's day tonight that i mentioned earlier and just to read this to you listen to this for a minute this is where we landed tonight in lord's day 33 page 45 what is involved in genuine repentance that's the question or conversion two things the dying away to the old self and the coming a lot to life of the new what is the dying away of the old self listen it is to be genuinely sorry for sin genuinely to hate it more and more and to run away from it. It's the fight we're in. That's how you're dying to the old. What is the coming to life of the new self? It is wholehearted joy. Think of Jonah. In God through Christ and a delight to do every kind of good as God wants us to do. You see? Where did Jonah fail? You see a wholehearted joy in God through Christ and a delight to go do what God wanted him to do? repentance is not some monster that god's throwing on us it's the greatest blessing he's given us you get filled with joy to do god's will what do we do that's good that which arises out of true faith conforms to god's law is done for his glory and not that which is based on what we think is right or on established human tradition that's wonderful i get to then go out and i get to to and true faith, believing and trusting in the Lord, I get to now do things that conform to His law, I get to, are done for His glory. That's why I live. That's why I exist. I can't get away from a wholehearted joy in God through Christ in the new self, a delight to do every kind of good as God wants us to do. That's repentance and conversion. So there it is. You can see how directly what we confess in our own Heidelberg is right here in the text with these people in Nineveh, isn't it? And I think this is reminding us tonight of what a grace repentance is. I have to say that. With a few words of a prophet from another country who had no authority over them, at least as they saw it, who was an enemy, the Assyrians were terrible people, had the audacity to walk down their street think about hey would you want to go down to beijing and do this crying out god's going to destroy it in 40 days every single odd against him humanly speaking jonah wasn't even see wasn't even seeker friendly by the way 40 days you're done all of them humbled themselves to such a agreed, they sat in ashes. Repentance is even a gift. It's a gift. The essence of Israel's failure is that they didn't even think it was important. They didn't even desire it. Jesus could say that the people of Nineveh will rise up against Israel because they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And we know, as it was outlined there, the importance of it. What is the most beautiful part of the story tonight? The most encouraging part of the story? What does the Lord desire to give? What does the Lord desire to do? Judge or forgive? Well, I don't know how you could read this story and not come up with, as you live in the day of salvation, His desire is to not destroy, but to forgive your sins. Verse 10, when God saw their works, that they did, how they turned from their evil way, God, by the way, many of the King James old translations properly put, God repented of the disaster He said He would do to them. And He did not do it. God didn't change His mind. We know that. God has a decree. God has His will. But this should help you. This is a human way to understand this, isn't it? When we turn to the Lord in repentance and faith, there's a promise. All who believe and repent and believe the gospel will be saved. All who believe in the Son and respond and turn away from their sins and look to Him for life, whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. This is what the Lord always said in the Old Testament. As I live, declares the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from His evil way. And live. Turn back. Turn back from your evil ways. Listen to this. For why should you die, O house of Israel? Forget that part. This is important for us. That when Jesus, every time we gather, says, Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke, what does he say? Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly heart, and you will find rest for your souls. he's calling you to come for my yoke is easy and my burden is light that means for you that means for me we have to take that seriously and he won't destroy you he promises you that all who believe all who turn to him he wants you to have peace the compassion of god is revealed here as he calls these ninevites to come you know is it a obadiah that's a proclamation against nineveh later i guess they turned but this generation of people entered the kingdom and that is why it's so important when we hear calls that we remember to take seriously the call to take sin seriously in our lives and to flee from it to run away from it and and and god wants you to know tonight he desires to forgive all of your sins it's not that he's doing this to make life hard on you he knows that when you run away from Him and you do things that are against His will, you're ruining your life. He wants wholehearted joy for you so that you would delight in this life to do everything that is really pleasing to Him and satisfying to you. God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. And I think we're already seeing how wonderful the mercies of the Lord are. May this book of Jonah be a reminder to us as the people of God, that we would be a people who in the course of our lives are always turning. I don't know about you, but I look at myself as a believer and I think to myself, I'm still appalled at what I can do in my life as a believer. You all know this. You know what you could do. And that's why Corinthians says, him who thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall. We're in constant need of coming back to the Lord and trusting in Him and his strength to lead this life. Remembering that anything that we have is all of grace. It always has been. It always will be. Salvation, as Jonah said, is of the Lord. May we always remember that as we think about the story of Jonah. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word tonight that helps us to think about the importance of taking seriously repentance. We understand that this is something you must work in our hearts. It's something that you must accomplish. and that ultimately we have to believe Your Gospel promises having been justified by faith. This life of repentance will follow in our lives of turning away from sin, putting to death the old and putting on the new, loving what You love and desiring it, no longer running. Thank You, Father, for this encouragement to us and then also this reminder of how great Your mercies are. That this is what You desire to do and to give to people. That You will not give us of our evil ways. You will forgive us for Christ's sake. And in that confidence tonight, we hear that call to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. And believing in all that He has done and accomplished for us, we come, turn away from ourselves, repent of our sins, denying ourselves, we look to Him. Thank You, Father, for tonight and worship. in your house today. In Jesus' name, amen.