Jonah 3:3-5

Jonah chapter 3. I want to read the entire chapter, but our focus is really on the 3 through 5 section of this chapter. And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah arose and went unto Nineveh according to the Word of the Lord. Now, Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey, and Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried and said, yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed to fast, put on sackcloth from the greatest of them, even to the least of them. For the word came under the king of Nineve, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe. from him and covered him with sackcloth and sat in ashes, and he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying let neither man nor beast, herd, nor flock, taste anything, let them not feed nor drink water. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily unto God, he let them turn every one from his evil way and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not? God saw their works that they turned from their evil way, and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them, and he did it not. May God bless to us is sacred and holy word this morning. What would you think if a minister from a spiritually declining region of the United States went to Beijing, China? And after three days of preaching the gospel at the Chinese capital, the Holy Spirit, sent a massive spiritual revival that awakened the red Chinese. Thousands were converted and baptized. Even officials, high up in the government, turned the Christianity. And suppose even a directive from the government was issued, abolishing state atheism, and freedom of worship was restored. It’s hard to imagine that, isn’t it? We have enough trouble believing that God would work in our own community, let alone in a hostile environment. But what happened here at Ninevea would be similar to something like that happening. Nineveh, the great ancient capital of Assyria, the enemy of the people of God, repented and believed in the living God, Jehovah. While Jonah’s own nation is declining spiritually, this hostile Heathen state experiences a wonderful and profound change. This is an outstanding and mighty act of God. It involved a tremendous outpouring of the Spirit of God upon the city. There’s nothing like it up to this point. Now, we could talk about single Gentiles being converted, like Ruth, and we could talk about Rahab and Naiman and things like that. We either here or there, there were Gentiles that we saw that were converted. But nothing on this. scale of the boot it was a reluctant prophet that was used in this case to bring this all to pass why should what happened long ago in an ancient city of none of the interest of us today why don’t we bother studying something like this yes the key the key is God never changes and human nature doesn’t change so that being this case What God did in the past, he certainly can do in the future. So, yes, this is the kind of thing we ought to be looking at. God put it here for us to look at, to ponder and to think about. And so we should be interested. God sent a great spiritual awakening to a heathen nation here. And hopefully we can apply some of the principles that we see here to ourselves. Now, what kind of preaching is necessary to awaken the dead to their trespasses and sins? What kind of message did Jonah bring to the city? What did he say? Compare what he said to what we have today. Yeah. He just told him destruction’s coming. He basically was… Yes. That’s what he told them. And is this the message you see proclaimed by most of the? churches today? Is this the way we’re going? Yes. Is that right? I find it extremely sad. Sometimes they’re amusing things, but they’re also sad. You ride past various churches. I once saw a sign that said come join the party. A church sign. Come join the party. Similar with you experiencing. Is this the new way to evangelize? Is this the way to bring about now? Is this the way to bring about now? repentance? Bring in the lost and it will be just one big happy family. Church is fun. Church is a party. We have no hard sayings. Nothing to embarrass or disturb your conscience will be said. Let the good times roll. Prophets and the apostles had it wrong. You know, the prophets off and start out the burden of the Lord. This is going to be a heavy message. I got to mean. Or either apostles are talking about. you know, John the Baptist, too, the wrath to come. The wrath to come. Maybe we should have party time Sunday. Maybe we should be more diplomatic. I notice there are some that have Super Bowl Sundays, you know, where you watch the Super Bowl on Sunday night, and they have a, you know, one of the head coaches is going to give a, well, 15-minute speech during halftime. You listen to it, have religious overtomes to it. Is that what we should be doing? Yes. I mean, I’ve seen people that had all kinds of gimmings. We’re going to have Wild West Sunday, so everybody dresses up like a cowgirl or a cowboy. Or the Guinness World Records Sunday, where they have the largest hot dog to be eaten after the morning worship service. There was one preacher, and I won’t even call him a Pat. I’ll call him a preacher. I don’t know. She didn’t even give them the title. One guy in the community here in Cranberry who dressed up as the godfather when he spoke on Sunday mornings and said, I’ll make you an offer that you can’t refuse. Is this what we need? I think the church has tossed aside yet 40 days, and Nine of us shall be overthrown. I think we lost the message. The Bible indicates that the path to spiritual awakening is not a red carpet with holy entertainment connected with it. God calls for a message of judgment to be preached. We need more sinners in the hands of an angry God being preached. That’s what we need. to have preached today. A Jonathan Edwards special. Where it said the people in the pews were their white, had white knuckles because they were grabbing onto it too tight. The pastor’s duty is not to make people feel good. The pastor’s duty is to proclaim the message that God told them the preach. Isn’t that what God says go to Nineve it the second time and tell them what I told what I tell you? So the message was 40 days and you’re going to be destroyed. When are we ever going to realize that the message is that God’s judgment is going to fall unless there’s repentance? This is what we need to teach people. Not that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. That doesn’t produce repentance. God is righteous. God is going to consign the sinner to an eternal woe. Unless you repent, you are going to perish. That’s the message. My friends, people need to hear that they have nothing to look forward to but an outpouring of God’s fiery indignation unless there is repentance. I hope we can take something from this for our own personal witnessing. We have to realize that the message we have to tell people is the same thing. It’s that they need to see themselves as the sinners that they are, that God is a holy God who’s going to judge sin. and the only hope you have is found in Jesus Christ who bore the punishment for sinners on the cross. And less one believes in him, you’re going to have to pay the punishment. I mean, isn’t that really the message we have to give people today? And so ministers are called upon to bring a judgment message. Now let me ask you this. Is it proper to use fear as a means of bringing someone to faith in Christ? Is that right? Should we use fear to do that? I once was helping one of my neighbors. And he was digging something out in his backyard and moving all this dirt. And he was an older guy. And I thought, well, I should go out and help him. That’s back years ago when I could do that kind of stuff. And so I’m, you know, I’m out there moving him, and he’s asking me about what I do for a living. And I told him I was a minister. And one of the first things he asked me, you know, one of those hell-fired brimstone ministers are you? I wasn’t sure how to end. answer that, but probably I was, you know. Yet 40 days, and then it shall be overthrown. That was a message to alarm people, wasn’t it? Jonathan Edwards is interesting. If you ever read, studied any of his writings, one of the things he talks about is fear. Well, Scripture uses fear. Hellfire is held before the sinner to cause him to think about where he’s going. to alarm them. Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. Jonah was attempting to convince them here of the awesomeness of God’s wrath about the fall. There’s nothing wrong with using fear as a tool to motivate people to seek the Lord Jesus Christ. I tell you this, our Lord himself didn’t hesitate to do it. Fear him that is able to cast both or destroy both body and soul and hell, he said. He told the story about the rich man who raised up his eyes in hell being in torment. According to the Chinese legend, there was, many years ago, there was a man that lived in China who was accepted as a member of the Emperor’s Royal Orchestra. He claimed to be an accomplice flutist, but he couldn’t play a single note. But he got the job with the help of an influential friend. And things went well for a time because during concert, he would just hold the flute to his mouth and pretend to be playing. So everything went good. And then one day, the emperor announced he wanted to hear each one of the people in his orchestra play a solo. And all of a sudden, this guy is in big trouble. He can’t play a note. What is he going to do? Next thing we know, he’s taking all kinds of music lessons, trying to figure out how to play this float. that he’s been faking, playing all this time. The man was frightened. He was going to be exposed. He was worried sick. He’s going to be held accountable. It was only in that point at his life that he signed, I better take music lessons. Now, I tell you that story, because the day is coming when all people are called, are going to be called before the Lord to give a recital at the judgment seat of Christ. And men need to know. There’s going to be. going to be a judgment. There’s going to be hell punishment. And until they realize, hey, there’s a danger, there’s a problem, I’m going to, all my sins are going to be exposed, I’m going to have the wrath of God upon them. Now all of a sudden, they show an interest in spiritual things. And they’re moved by fear to do so. Now, it’s not a slavish fear of God, nor is it a mere fear of physical terror. or dread at the coming judgment that saves anybody. But fear is usually the first step that God uses in awakening the sinner to the realities of the world to come. It is God’s way of waking them up, so to speak, shaking them, startling them to the realities of what lies ahead. Can I put it this way? God takes you to the door of hell. cause you to peek down into the smoke and smell the sulfur, feel the heat, experience the darkness, and hear the cries and the moans of the damned. Now the sinner can no longer be listless and indifferent to the things of God. His heart is pounding because of the fear of God. Do you think Jesus told the story about the rich man in Lazarus? just to give us a nice little story. Wasn’t it for the benefit of people to look at their situation? That is going to be me. I’m going to end up there. He opened the door of hell to us, gave us a peek. Isn’t he the one that talked about how severe hell was going to be? Jesus talked about hell more than anybody else. Where the worm dieeth not, the fire is not quenched. Ezekiel 2214, can thine heart endure or can thine hands be strong in the days that I, the Lord, deal with thee? It’s never wrong to show a man that a sinful course of living is going to result in God’s judgment upon and eternal damnation to come. It’s out of fear that you flee from the wrath to come. What happened to Mr. Christian? When he’s reading the book, the Bible, and he sees that the burden. on his back is going to cause him to go lower than the grave. He’s going to go to hell. Then what does he do? He’s not sure, but he talks to evangel. Flea from the wrath of him. Wasn’t it fear that sent him down the road seeking a relief? So, you must hear preaching of God’s judgment against sin for a spiritual awakening. I think that’s important. Secondly, you must embrace the message of God for spiritual awakening to be seen. What did these people of Ninevea believe was going to happen? What did they believe about this message that came from Jonah? What does verse 5 tell us here? First part of. I mean, it seems they… Yeah, and even later on, he calls about their evil ways and their violence. The king mentions that. We’re going to have to break off this. You know, this behavior is wrong. But I don’t want you to notice here. It said here, the people of Ninevea believed what? Does it say they believe Jonah? They believe God. It wasn’t just Jonah’s message. They saw something beyond Jonah. They saw Jonah as the messenger of God himself. Now that’s important. Let me ask you this. If you’re unmoved by the threats and the warnings of the word of God, what does that tell you by yourself? What are you saying by that? If Ninevea didn’t believe, what would that verse say? Wouldn’t this verse say, so the people of Ninevea believe not God? And so when you hear someone faithfully proclaiming the word of God and telling you what God says, and you don’t believe it, it’s not the minister you’re casting aside. It’s not the minister you’re disbelieving. You’re not believing God. Right? You’re calling God a liar. Yes. It’s striking to me that it’s Daniel. Yeah, it’s the heathen that seemed to take more serious view of what’s going on than that you. than the Jews, right? The he then seemed to say, oh, it’s a message from God. That’s interesting. And so as you look at this, you can imagine, just imagine Johnny. He enters a day’s journey. He’s proclaiming this message. All of a sudden, people are stopping their work. They’re listening to what he has to say. They’re paying attention. The crowd’s growing as he’s making this message. And they’re dumbstrucked by this message. But they believed that it came from God himself. And that’s what I want you to understand here. They took God at His word. They accepted not that Jonah was angry with them, that God was angry with them. That God was angry with them. That God was going to overthrow the city. Now, Jonah himself is a sign, as we saw from the book of Matthew, of God’s wrath. There he stands. I don’t know if he was stained by the gastric juices of the fish or the whale or whatever. I don’t know. But I know what I don’t know. thing, he knew something about God’s wrath. He did. And it added to the message that he had to bring. He was living proof of God’s certain wrath against sinners. So Joni here’s not viewed as some crazed prophet speaking lunacy, some religious nut with a sandwich sign on saying the end of the world or something of that nature. He was accepted as an ambassador of God. H.W. Hastings tells us a story about a woman who was married to a man who was an alcoholic. Only he never believed he was an alcoholic. He didn’t see himself in that light. He thought he could hold his liquor. And yet he always made a humiliating spectacle of himself. So one day, his wife, without his knowledge, when he got, you know, stone drunk, decided she was going to take some photographs of the guy and the condition he was in. So she takes all these photographs. And next morning, when he comes down for breakfast, those pictures were set out in front of his plate for him to look at when he sat down for breakfast. And seeing them was such a revelation to the man. He could no longer deny his condition. He was shocked into reality. He wasn’t alcoholic. Once man sees the truth of God’s word and the seriousness of its threats, he’s shocked into reality. The Bible is sort of like God’s photograph of man. Here’s what you look like. you think you look like this. You think you’re okay. Let me tell you what you really look like. And God puts those photographs out in front of us for us to see. The important thing is this. We see it as thus saith the Lord. Though the man preaches it, it doesn’t matter whether it’s Jonah, Jack Worth, C.J. Williams, or Keith that’s preaching. It’s irrelevant. What’s relevant is that it’s God’s Word. And we should receive it. Not as the word of men, but as it is in reality, the word of God himself. Spiritual change comes when the preaching and teaching of the scriptures is received as a personal message from God himself. They believe God. Now, if you’re a careless sinner, if you don’t pay any attention to the message of judgment, then you don’t believe God. It’s as simple as that. You may be told that you’re on the broad world that leads to eternal destruction. at that. You may scoff at it. You may say that hell is a myth, that you’re just proclaiming these ancient myths that nobody believes in anymore. But I’m telling you, if you hold that kind of position, the Bible says you don’t believe God. I wonder how he’s going to feel about that on the day of judgment. I wonder if that isn’t going to be held against you on the day of judgment. My Bible says the first thing that’s mentioned is that unbelievers shall be cast. into the lake of fire that burns with fire and brimstone of Revelation 21A. Is what God says, baloney? Is the Bible just rubbish? Are preachers deluded fools? You can cast aside the minister. You can say he’s a buffoon. It doesn’t matter. It’s God you’re going to have to contend with. So those unmoved by the threats and warnings of the Word of God don’t believe God. Now, is believing God just a matter of the right message? isn’t a matter of just the right evangelistic technique. Is that what it’s all about? He might be tempted to think, well, if I just blanket the whole city with God’s word, if I do what Jonah did, then I’m assured that there’s going to be everybody will be believing, just like it would have been in Ninevehah. Is that true? Maybe if I use the evangelism explosion, you know, if I use that system of reaching people, maybe that’s going to guarantee this little. the good answer. It’s important for us to realize the invisible hand of God at work in this passage of scripture. What causes a man to actually believe the message of the gospel? To see the word of God is reality. To turn from sin, to turn to Christ. What causes that? Isaiah asks, who hath believed our report? Who is the one that’s believing the report? The message, the good news. And I’m preaching. And what does the next phrase say in that verse in Isaiah 53-1? Does anybody know? To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Yeah. What does that indicate to us? the person who believes the message is the one that God’s arm has reached out and grabbed hold-off. That’s why that they believe the message. And we have to understand this. It’s important. It’s not the preacher. It’s not the preacher. It’s not. not even some special method. Now, it’s true, we have to proclaim the right message. Let me ask you about the case a lot. What happened in Lot’s case that’s different than this case? Well, the angels had announced there’s going to be a dreadful visitation of judgment. God’s wrath is going to be poured out upon the city of Sodom. Not unlike the threat here against Nineveh, but before Sodom is obliterated, the angels say to Lot, have you any here? besides you got any sons you get any daughters you better warn them right lot get your sons and your daughters and your daughters and your sons-in-laws whoever’s related to you out of this place we’re going to destroy it and what does lot do they laugh you’re out yeah he’s he goes to them and says he says to them the sons-in-laws and his married daughters up get you out of this place for the Lord will destroy this city you can imagine the terror that must have filled a lot as he told them this. He wasn’t complacent about it. He probably, you know, it was a… He trembles as he speaks. There’s urgency in his voice. He’s, unlike Jonah, he’s very concerned that they actually listen to what he has to say and believe before God’s message, the judgment is poured out. However, his family refused to believe. The Bible says that Lot, seemed as one that mocked, one that joked, one that was pulling their leg, that he wasn’t serious. God destroy this huge place? What is the likelihood of God doing that? They laughed at him. Our fields are full of crop. The sky is serene. There’s no enemies on the horizon. What are you talking about? Why did the Ninevites believe the message of a total strangers and these sodomites didn’t even believe their own father or father-in-law? Well, the Bible provides the real answer why anybody embraces the truth. It’s the grace of God. God’s spirit works with God’s Word. It is the Holy Spirit whose operation is secretly working. He’s working secretly in his operations to deal with hearts and souls. Right before the judgment of the flood, in Genesis chapter 6, you read that my Spirit, shall not always strive with man. Now, there are those. It will tell us. There’s no Holy Spirit work in the Old Testament. They don’t know what they’re talking about. All you just read the Old Testament. You’ll see the Spirit of God’s mentioned many times. In dealings with men, Noah was a preacher of righteousness, and a spirit was speaking through him. Now, it was not the Spirit’s purpose at that time to convert souls. And so only Jonah and his immediate family were in the ark. But he was a preacher of righteousness. He proclaimed it. And the Spirit of God was at least bringing some conviction or working in some way through Noah at that time. Look with me at Isaiah 63. If you would. I think this is so crucial that we understand that the Holy Holy Spirit has to work. For there is no hope of salvation. Even in the Old Testament, we’re Most people say, well, you know, Spirit didn’t come to the New Testament. Well, that’s not true. The Holy Spirit was in the Old Testament. He empowered people in a greater way in the New Testament than he did in the Old. And gifted them greater. But you’ll notice here when it talks about Israel, but they rebelled and vexed his Holy Spirit. Therefore, he returned to be their enemy and fought against them. Then he remembered the days of old, Moses and his people, saying, Where is he that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? Where is he that put his Holy Spirit within him? Sounds to me like the Holy Spirit was working. It sounds to me like they recognized that the Spirit of God was working in people’s lives. I could go on and on. I could look at Nehemiah. I could look at Zechariah. I could look at other passages of scriptures, not by might nor my power, but by my spirit. The things you’re accomplished. He says in Zachariah 4.6. I don’t have the time to develop that. In fact, our time is just about shot. But I wanted to emphasize this, that the real cause of salvation is not human. It’s divine. And we need to recognize that. In the New Testament, we read about the people of Achaia or Akiahia who believed through grace, Acts 1827. Or Lydia’s heart being open so that she received the message of the Apostle Paul. Or Paul and Barnabas as a return from their first missionary journey and spoke and reported to the church at Jerusalem, they spoke about how God opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. Acts 1427. After the conversion of the Cornelius, the Gentile, the early church said, then have God also to the Gentile. granted repentance unto life. I could go on. But when you witness to your neighbor and he or she pays no attention, what’s the matter? Well, has your message been the message from God’s word? Have you urgently presented the message? Has it come from the Bible? Well, then it all boils down to the power of the spirit, doesn’t it? Whether the spirit applies that word to that heart, so that they repent. And that’s why the Sodomites didn’t repent, but the Ninevites did. I remember in the New Testament that when Jesus asked who he was, and Peter made that marvelous statement about him being the son of the living God, what did Jesus say? Blessed art bow Simon Bar Jonah. Jonah. For flesh and blood have not revealed it. it to you, but my father, which is in heaven. Let us recognize that. Let us see that for what it really is. Well, I have to close with the Bible study this morning. I hope that as we look at this, we see how important the message is and how important it is that we bring the right message and that fear is not a problem for us to use. And indeed, ultimately, repentance is in the hand of God. that he brings it about. Any other comments or thoughts that we should touch on this morning? Okay.