1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:01,240 Good morning, Village. 2 00:00:01,240 --> 00:00:02,640 My name's Ben. 3 00:00:02,640 --> 00:00:05,440 I serve on the worship team and worship ministry. 4 00:00:05,440 --> 00:00:08,640 I've been attending Village since the beginning. 5 00:00:08,640 --> 00:00:12,200 Like many of you, I've been here for many, many years 6 00:00:12,200 --> 00:00:13,840 prior to it being Village. 7 00:00:13,840 --> 00:00:16,920 I'm honored to be here, honored to read this morning. 8 00:00:16,920 --> 00:00:19,480 Today's scripture reading is from Jonah three. 9 00:00:22,120 --> 00:00:23,480 Starting in verse one. 10 00:00:23,480 --> 00:00:26,400 The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. 11 00:00:26,400 --> 00:00:27,640 Get up. 12 00:00:27,640 --> 00:00:30,480 Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach the message 13 00:00:30,480 --> 00:00:31,960 that I tell you. 14 00:00:31,960 --> 00:00:33,800 So Jonah got up and went to Nineveh 15 00:00:33,800 --> 00:00:36,000 according to the Lord's command. 16 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:40,520 Now Nineveh was an extremely great city, a three day walk. 17 00:00:40,520 --> 00:00:43,200 Jonah set out on the first day of his walk in the city 18 00:00:43,200 --> 00:00:47,000 and proclaimed, in 40 days Nineveh will be demolished. 19 00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:49,440 Then the people of Nineveh believed God. 20 00:00:49,440 --> 00:00:52,160 They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth 21 00:00:52,160 --> 00:00:54,200 from the greatest of them to the least. 22 00:00:55,040 --> 00:00:57,000 When word reached the king of Nineveh, 23 00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:00,000 he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, 24 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:03,600 covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. 25 00:01:03,600 --> 00:01:05,600 Then he issued a decree in Nineveh. 26 00:01:05,600 --> 00:01:07,720 By order of the king and his nobles, 27 00:01:07,720 --> 00:01:10,560 no person or animal, herd or flock 28 00:01:10,560 --> 00:01:12,920 is to taste anything at all. 29 00:01:12,920 --> 00:01:14,480 They must not eat or drink water. 30 00:01:14,480 --> 00:01:17,280 Furthermore, both people and animals 31 00:01:17,280 --> 00:01:19,120 must be covered with sackcloth 32 00:01:19,120 --> 00:01:22,240 and everyone must call out earnestly to God. 33 00:01:22,240 --> 00:01:25,520 Each must turn from his evil ways and from his wrongdoing. 34 00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:28,520 And who knows, God may turn and relent. 35 00:01:28,520 --> 00:01:30,080 He may turn from his burning anger 36 00:01:30,080 --> 00:01:32,480 so that we will not perish. 37 00:01:32,480 --> 00:01:35,040 God saw their actions that they had turned 38 00:01:35,040 --> 00:01:36,480 from their evil ways. 39 00:01:36,480 --> 00:01:38,360 So God relented from the disaster 40 00:01:38,360 --> 00:01:41,840 he had threatened them with and he did not do it. 41 00:01:41,840 --> 00:01:42,680 This is God's word. 42 00:01:48,400 --> 00:01:51,360 If you have a Bible, go ahead and open it up to Jonah three. 43 00:01:51,360 --> 00:01:53,440 We'll be hanging out there and working 44 00:01:53,440 --> 00:01:55,840 through the verses this morning. 45 00:01:55,840 --> 00:01:59,120 We've come a long way and we have a little bit to go. 46 00:01:59,120 --> 00:02:02,880 We marketed this sermon series as a four week series 47 00:02:02,880 --> 00:02:05,760 and unfortunately we probably weren't truthful. 48 00:02:05,760 --> 00:02:07,080 It's gonna be five weeks. 49 00:02:09,080 --> 00:02:11,120 It's gonna be five weeks because we got some ground 50 00:02:11,120 --> 00:02:13,080 to cover and today we'll cover Jonah three 51 00:02:13,080 --> 00:02:15,520 and then we'll move to Jonah four next week 52 00:02:15,520 --> 00:02:19,000 before we get to September 10th, our launch. 53 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:21,120 And I didn't mention this in the announcements 54 00:02:21,120 --> 00:02:24,000 but at our launch we are launching into a new sermon series 55 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:24,840 as well. 56 00:02:24,840 --> 00:02:26,760 We're heading back to the book of Matthew 57 00:02:26,760 --> 00:02:29,480 for a sermon series called Kingdom Life 58 00:02:29,480 --> 00:02:32,000 and we're gonna be looking at the Beatitudes 59 00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:35,080 and this upside down kingdom that Jesus brings. 60 00:02:35,920 --> 00:02:39,000 But today we're in Jonah chapter three 61 00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:40,840 and in chapter one, we'll do a quick review. 62 00:02:40,840 --> 00:02:42,840 In chapter one the word of the Lord came to Jonah 63 00:02:42,840 --> 00:02:45,400 to go and preach a message of judgment 64 00:02:45,400 --> 00:02:47,480 for the great city of Nineveh, 65 00:02:47,480 --> 00:02:51,560 the capital of that brutal, violent and wicked nation, 66 00:02:51,560 --> 00:02:52,400 Assyria. 67 00:02:55,320 --> 00:02:56,160 Pause. 68 00:02:57,000 --> 00:02:59,520 Kids, did you, I just wanted to make sure you guys knew 69 00:02:59,520 --> 00:03:00,520 that there were bags at the back. 70 00:03:00,520 --> 00:03:02,520 I just saw them there and hopefully everyone got 71 00:03:02,520 --> 00:03:04,760 an activity bag for our kids, perfect. 72 00:03:04,760 --> 00:03:06,880 All right, unpause. 73 00:03:08,440 --> 00:03:11,160 How did Jonah respond to this call to go? 74 00:03:11,160 --> 00:03:13,920 Well, he ran the opposite direction. 75 00:03:13,920 --> 00:03:16,160 He fled from the presence of God. 76 00:03:16,160 --> 00:03:18,160 He was fleeing from it and he could, 77 00:03:18,160 --> 00:03:22,320 but could he run far enough to get away from God? 78 00:03:22,320 --> 00:03:23,640 No. 79 00:03:23,640 --> 00:03:27,680 No, in fact, God's in a great wind that caused a great wave 80 00:03:27,680 --> 00:03:30,040 and Jonah on a ship bound for Tarshish, 81 00:03:30,040 --> 00:03:32,440 as far away as he could get, 82 00:03:32,440 --> 00:03:35,400 was awakened from his sleep of sorrow 83 00:03:35,400 --> 00:03:37,640 to find that the pagan sailors on the ship 84 00:03:37,640 --> 00:03:39,840 were in great fear and distress. 85 00:03:40,920 --> 00:03:44,400 Now, Jonah knows that the storm has to do with him 86 00:03:44,400 --> 00:03:48,040 and his disobedience and so he finally convinces the sailors 87 00:03:48,040 --> 00:03:50,200 to throw him overboard. 88 00:03:50,200 --> 00:03:53,400 The storm is calmed and the sailors, it says, 89 00:03:53,400 --> 00:03:56,920 have great fear of Yahweh, the God of Israel, 90 00:03:56,920 --> 00:04:00,320 and they worship him and they sacrifice to him. 91 00:04:01,520 --> 00:04:03,800 But God has different plans for Jonah. 92 00:04:05,040 --> 00:04:09,440 In his love, God shows Jonah severe mercy 93 00:04:09,440 --> 00:04:13,600 and judgment through, or salvation through judgment, 94 00:04:13,600 --> 00:04:16,560 the Bible says that God appoints a great fish 95 00:04:16,560 --> 00:04:19,760 to swallow Jonah and that Jonah would spend three days 96 00:04:19,760 --> 00:04:22,720 and three nights in the belly of that fish. 97 00:04:23,920 --> 00:04:28,040 And there we find that Jonah finally prays out to his God, 98 00:04:28,040 --> 00:04:30,440 this God that he says he worships and fears. 99 00:04:30,440 --> 00:04:33,520 He finally talks to God and he talks to him 100 00:04:33,520 --> 00:04:36,440 in the form of a psalm or a poem. 101 00:04:36,440 --> 00:04:38,680 And in it we found lots of beautiful truths 102 00:04:38,680 --> 00:04:41,840 that he drew from other psalms and other places in the Bible 103 00:04:41,840 --> 00:04:43,680 where he brought them together. 104 00:04:43,680 --> 00:04:47,960 Being a good Hebrew student, he knew his Bible 105 00:04:47,960 --> 00:04:49,440 and he brought those truths together 106 00:04:49,440 --> 00:04:52,040 but we also noted a few things that were interestingly 107 00:04:52,040 --> 00:04:54,320 absent from his psalm. 108 00:04:55,440 --> 00:04:59,040 Absent from his psalm was that he was possible 109 00:04:59,040 --> 00:05:01,560 that he was also despising the sailors in his psalm 110 00:05:01,560 --> 00:05:04,840 as he got down to the end, not knowing that they had become 111 00:05:04,840 --> 00:05:08,400 God-fearers after he had been thrown overboard. 112 00:05:08,400 --> 00:05:11,320 But we left chapter two wondering if God was actually, 113 00:05:11,320 --> 00:05:15,000 or wondering if Jonah was actually a changed man, 114 00:05:15,000 --> 00:05:16,960 whether he was actually ready to serve God 115 00:05:16,960 --> 00:05:19,240 by declaring his message of judgment 116 00:05:20,960 --> 00:05:23,640 and whether he had gained a new humility 117 00:05:23,640 --> 00:05:25,640 through this experience that he'd had. 118 00:05:27,200 --> 00:05:30,720 Will Jonah accept that God desires to show mercy 119 00:05:30,720 --> 00:05:31,920 to the repentant heart? 120 00:05:34,120 --> 00:05:37,120 Will Jonah agree with the heart of God? 121 00:05:37,120 --> 00:05:39,520 That's the question we left chapter two with. 122 00:05:39,520 --> 00:05:42,840 And so we begin into chapter three with these words. 123 00:05:42,840 --> 00:05:45,480 The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. 124 00:05:45,480 --> 00:05:48,800 Get up, go to the great city of Nineveh 125 00:05:48,800 --> 00:05:51,320 and preach the message that I tell you. 126 00:05:51,320 --> 00:05:53,280 Jonah got up and went to Nineveh 127 00:05:53,280 --> 00:05:55,080 according to the Lord's command. 128 00:05:55,920 --> 00:05:57,720 So we begin with deja vu. 129 00:05:58,880 --> 00:06:01,320 If you remember back in chapter one, 130 00:06:01,320 --> 00:06:05,560 these are the same first five Hebrew words of chapter one. 131 00:06:05,560 --> 00:06:07,160 We're back at the beginning. 132 00:06:08,040 --> 00:06:09,560 But it's a do-over. 133 00:06:09,560 --> 00:06:11,360 Jonah gets another shot. 134 00:06:11,360 --> 00:06:13,800 Jonah gets a second chance. 135 00:06:13,800 --> 00:06:16,840 How many stories in the Bible have you read or heard 136 00:06:16,840 --> 00:06:19,560 are of people who have gotten second chances? 137 00:06:19,560 --> 00:06:20,400 Quite a few, right? 138 00:06:20,400 --> 00:06:21,800 Maybe all. 139 00:06:21,800 --> 00:06:23,280 All humans at least. 140 00:06:24,400 --> 00:06:27,360 Praise God for second chances. 141 00:06:28,360 --> 00:06:31,560 We have no idea how long has passed 142 00:06:31,560 --> 00:06:34,160 since Jonah was vomited out of that fish. 143 00:06:34,160 --> 00:06:36,240 He's vomited out of the fish onto dry land. 144 00:06:36,240 --> 00:06:37,400 We don't know how long has passed 145 00:06:37,400 --> 00:06:39,120 between the end of chapter two 146 00:06:39,120 --> 00:06:40,800 and the beginning of chapter three. 147 00:06:40,800 --> 00:06:42,320 It might be immediate. 148 00:06:42,320 --> 00:06:44,920 As soon as he gets out and he gets all that fish slime 149 00:06:44,920 --> 00:06:46,920 off of him and he gets the, you know, 150 00:06:46,920 --> 00:06:50,000 whatever's wrapped around his face, the seaweed, 151 00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:51,200 he gets time to move on. 152 00:06:51,200 --> 00:06:53,240 Or it could have been days, it could have been months, 153 00:06:53,240 --> 00:06:54,560 it could have been years. 154 00:06:54,560 --> 00:06:55,400 We don't know. 155 00:06:56,360 --> 00:06:59,560 God could easily have moved on from Jonah. 156 00:07:00,520 --> 00:07:03,560 God could easily have moved on from Jonah. 157 00:07:03,560 --> 00:07:06,000 He could easily have given his message 158 00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:08,160 to be carried by another prophet. 159 00:07:08,160 --> 00:07:09,840 He did not need Jonah. 160 00:07:12,480 --> 00:07:15,120 But I think one of the important lessons of the Bible 161 00:07:15,120 --> 00:07:18,640 is that God uses our failures, our sufferings, 162 00:07:18,640 --> 00:07:21,480 and even at times our disobedience 163 00:07:21,480 --> 00:07:26,480 to humble us in order that we become useful in his service. 164 00:07:28,040 --> 00:07:32,480 To humble us in order that we become useful in his service. 165 00:07:32,480 --> 00:07:35,200 Whereas there is something in us 166 00:07:35,200 --> 00:07:39,920 that sin has so corrupted that it takes a sovereign God 167 00:07:39,920 --> 00:07:42,920 to work situations and circumstances such 168 00:07:42,920 --> 00:07:44,840 that our self-centeredness, 169 00:07:44,840 --> 00:07:46,880 our inherent biases towards others 170 00:07:46,880 --> 00:07:49,400 that are not like us or that we don't like, 171 00:07:50,280 --> 00:07:54,680 or our treasuring of anything other than God himself 172 00:07:54,680 --> 00:07:57,800 is slowly stripped away by suffering. 173 00:07:57,800 --> 00:08:01,160 It's humiliated in our failures 174 00:08:01,160 --> 00:08:03,000 and it's softened by the wreck of a life 175 00:08:03,000 --> 00:08:05,680 we find through our disobedience. 176 00:08:05,680 --> 00:08:10,280 And God uses all of those to prepare us to serve. 177 00:08:11,480 --> 00:08:13,760 And that gives hope to all of us, yes. 178 00:08:15,920 --> 00:08:20,920 If we respond to God, yes Lord, I will go, I trust in you. 179 00:08:23,360 --> 00:08:27,160 We don't presume upon God's grace to give us second chances. 180 00:08:27,160 --> 00:08:28,120 You ought not. 181 00:08:29,120 --> 00:08:30,880 God may be a God of second chances 182 00:08:30,880 --> 00:08:33,000 so we can read stories upon stories, 183 00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:35,280 but we ought not presume upon that grace. 184 00:08:36,440 --> 00:08:38,680 But we praise God when he does. 185 00:08:39,760 --> 00:08:40,680 When he does give us. 186 00:08:40,680 --> 00:08:42,240 And so what do we get here? 187 00:08:42,240 --> 00:08:45,800 Get up, it's time to go Jonah, get up. 188 00:08:46,840 --> 00:08:49,400 But there is a difference between this calling 189 00:08:49,400 --> 00:08:50,600 and that first one. 190 00:08:51,640 --> 00:08:55,240 This one says, go to the great city of Nineveh 191 00:08:55,240 --> 00:08:57,680 and preach the message that I tell you. 192 00:08:57,680 --> 00:09:00,160 Preach the message that I tell you. 193 00:09:00,160 --> 00:09:02,160 Literally it's saying something like, 194 00:09:02,160 --> 00:09:07,160 go proclaim the proclamation that I proclaim to you. 195 00:09:08,800 --> 00:09:11,840 Go proclaim the proclamation that I proclaim to you. 196 00:09:11,840 --> 00:09:16,240 And this triple emphasis that is embedded in the text 197 00:09:16,240 --> 00:09:20,080 is meant to enforce that Jonah is only to say 198 00:09:20,080 --> 00:09:21,680 what God tells him to say. 199 00:09:21,680 --> 00:09:26,680 And this might be a setup, we'll see. 200 00:09:26,680 --> 00:09:30,680 Only say what God tells him to say. 201 00:09:31,160 --> 00:09:34,560 And so Jonah got up and went to Nineveh 202 00:09:34,560 --> 00:09:37,120 according to the Lord's command. 203 00:09:37,120 --> 00:09:40,960 Man, Jonah sure does look like a reformed man, doesn't he? 204 00:09:40,960 --> 00:09:42,640 After the wreck of chapter one 205 00:09:42,640 --> 00:09:46,120 and the suspicion of chapter two, maybe he got it. 206 00:09:47,040 --> 00:09:48,960 It says he got up. 207 00:09:48,960 --> 00:09:50,840 In the first chapter it said he got up 208 00:09:50,840 --> 00:09:54,160 and ran, now he gets up and he goes to Nineveh 209 00:09:54,160 --> 00:09:56,560 according to Yahweh's commands. 210 00:09:56,560 --> 00:10:00,160 Maybe his time of distress, maybe his coming 211 00:10:00,160 --> 00:10:03,360 to the absolute end of himself did the trick this time. 212 00:10:04,440 --> 00:10:05,280 We'll see. 213 00:10:06,200 --> 00:10:07,040 Let's keep going. 214 00:10:08,360 --> 00:10:11,240 The second part of verse three in chapter three 215 00:10:11,240 --> 00:10:15,000 reads that now Nineveh was an extremely great city, 216 00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:16,560 a three day walk. 217 00:10:16,560 --> 00:10:20,560 This is an interesting word here, an interesting change. 218 00:10:20,560 --> 00:10:24,160 We've heard already that it was a great city, 219 00:10:24,160 --> 00:10:28,160 but now a word is added to that in this particular telling. 220 00:10:28,160 --> 00:10:29,600 We already knew it was a great city, 221 00:10:29,600 --> 00:10:32,760 but now it's an extremely great city. 222 00:10:34,760 --> 00:10:36,880 And what's interesting about the word extremely 223 00:10:36,880 --> 00:10:38,480 or depending upon what version you have, 224 00:10:38,480 --> 00:10:42,520 it's either extremely or exceedingly or an important city, 225 00:10:42,520 --> 00:10:45,720 something along those lines, is the word extremely. 226 00:10:45,720 --> 00:10:48,720 It's an important city, it's an important city. 227 00:10:48,720 --> 00:10:49,880 And what's interesting about that, 228 00:10:49,880 --> 00:10:51,280 and I'm gonna read those lines, 229 00:10:51,280 --> 00:10:53,120 is the word that actually represents that 230 00:10:53,120 --> 00:10:54,720 in the Hebrew is Elohim. 231 00:10:54,720 --> 00:10:56,640 Does anyone know what Elohim means? 232 00:10:58,480 --> 00:11:00,160 Elohim means God. 233 00:11:01,520 --> 00:11:04,120 So it literally says it's a God city. 234 00:11:05,600 --> 00:11:07,040 It's a God city. 235 00:11:08,400 --> 00:11:12,040 Verse three tells us Nineveh is a great city to God 236 00:11:12,040 --> 00:11:14,880 or a great city of importance to God 237 00:11:14,880 --> 00:11:19,240 because it's the capital city of those people over there. 238 00:11:19,240 --> 00:11:21,640 Nineveh, the capital city of those wicked, 239 00:11:21,640 --> 00:11:26,640 evil idolaters, is a city that belongs to God. 240 00:11:26,720 --> 00:11:29,480 It's a city that's important to God. 241 00:11:31,120 --> 00:11:34,120 How quickly we forget the reach of our God, amen. 242 00:11:35,280 --> 00:11:38,640 How quickly we forget the mercy that God wants to show 243 00:11:38,640 --> 00:11:40,600 even in the darkest places. 244 00:11:41,880 --> 00:11:43,600 Picture your neighborhood for just a moment. 245 00:11:43,600 --> 00:11:45,320 Picture your neighborhood. 246 00:11:45,320 --> 00:11:47,560 The houses next to you, the names of the people, 247 00:11:47,560 --> 00:11:51,600 your neighbors, those who lived around you, they are God. 248 00:11:51,600 --> 00:11:54,400 They're in his realm, his reign. 249 00:11:54,400 --> 00:11:56,120 God loves the city. 250 00:11:57,520 --> 00:12:00,280 God loves to call people to himself, 251 00:12:00,280 --> 00:12:02,400 and he loves to show mercy and grace 252 00:12:02,400 --> 00:12:05,040 to those who respond to that calling. 253 00:12:06,440 --> 00:12:08,320 God loves Sacramento. 254 00:12:08,320 --> 00:12:11,320 God wants to show mercy to her. 255 00:12:11,320 --> 00:12:14,360 He wants to challenge her to stop living 256 00:12:14,360 --> 00:12:18,120 according to her own wisdom and instead turn to him 257 00:12:18,120 --> 00:12:20,520 and live according to his. 258 00:12:20,520 --> 00:12:21,360 He loves her. 259 00:12:23,600 --> 00:12:25,920 And yes, cities as we know, 260 00:12:25,920 --> 00:12:29,320 especially maybe even here in California, 261 00:12:29,320 --> 00:12:32,040 cities are often on display in great places 262 00:12:32,040 --> 00:12:34,520 of evil, oppression, and sin. 263 00:12:34,520 --> 00:12:36,640 But that's probably because they're called 264 00:12:36,640 --> 00:12:39,440 but that's probably because they're concentrations 265 00:12:39,440 --> 00:12:42,200 of sinful human beings all together 266 00:12:42,200 --> 00:12:43,640 really close to each other. 267 00:12:46,360 --> 00:12:49,200 But cities are also uniquely positioned 268 00:12:49,200 --> 00:12:52,040 to radically display God's goodness 269 00:12:52,040 --> 00:12:56,280 and to rapidly advance the gospel person to person. 270 00:12:56,280 --> 00:12:58,360 God loves the city. 271 00:12:59,760 --> 00:13:03,720 And we ought to see the city the way God sees the city. 272 00:13:03,720 --> 00:13:07,640 And we ought to remember that God is the God of this city 273 00:13:07,640 --> 00:13:09,200 and live in such a way. 274 00:13:11,080 --> 00:13:13,720 He goes to this extremely great city, 275 00:13:13,720 --> 00:13:18,720 this Elohim city, this city of great importance to God. 276 00:13:19,400 --> 00:13:21,560 And so great was this city of Nineveh 277 00:13:21,560 --> 00:13:24,640 that we're told at Jonah that it's a three days walk 278 00:13:24,640 --> 00:13:26,680 or a three days walk across it. 279 00:13:26,680 --> 00:13:28,640 And there is some disagreement over what this means. 280 00:13:28,640 --> 00:13:30,040 This could mean three days walk 281 00:13:30,040 --> 00:13:31,840 to walk straight down the middle of it, 282 00:13:31,840 --> 00:13:33,800 from one end to the other. 283 00:13:33,800 --> 00:13:35,160 It could mean a three days walk 284 00:13:35,160 --> 00:13:36,840 as was common in the old times. 285 00:13:36,840 --> 00:13:38,080 You would walk the wall. 286 00:13:38,080 --> 00:13:40,520 And so if you walked to the outside of the walls, 287 00:13:40,520 --> 00:13:42,080 that might be three days. 288 00:13:42,080 --> 00:13:43,480 Or there's another option. 289 00:13:43,480 --> 00:13:46,440 And it could be that it's drawing on that motif, 290 00:13:46,440 --> 00:13:49,320 that imagery of three days that we already talked about 291 00:13:49,320 --> 00:13:52,240 in that first chapter or the second chapter 292 00:13:52,240 --> 00:13:54,000 where Jonah went into the great fish 293 00:13:54,000 --> 00:13:56,320 for three days and three nights. 294 00:13:56,320 --> 00:13:58,960 And how for him, that was a passageway 295 00:13:58,960 --> 00:14:02,160 or what an ancient thought was three days 296 00:14:02,160 --> 00:14:03,680 to get to the underworld. 297 00:14:03,680 --> 00:14:05,720 That was a passageway to death. 298 00:14:05,720 --> 00:14:08,040 But how God had taken that idea 299 00:14:08,040 --> 00:14:10,480 and he turned it upside down for his kingdom. 300 00:14:10,480 --> 00:14:15,040 And what it was was a passageway through death to life, right? 301 00:14:15,040 --> 00:14:17,200 Salvation through judgment. 302 00:14:17,200 --> 00:14:20,400 And so could it be that the three days walk here 303 00:14:20,400 --> 00:14:24,480 is to remind us something's coming to Nineveh, 304 00:14:24,480 --> 00:14:26,640 something's about to happen in this city. 305 00:14:26,640 --> 00:14:30,000 And it'll take three days before we see it. 306 00:14:31,200 --> 00:14:32,160 Three days walk. 307 00:14:32,160 --> 00:14:34,600 And so now we get this message. 308 00:14:34,600 --> 00:14:38,160 Jonah set out on that first day of his walk in the city 309 00:14:38,160 --> 00:14:40,320 and he begins to proclaim his message. 310 00:14:40,320 --> 00:14:41,160 And what's the message? 311 00:14:41,160 --> 00:14:46,160 In 40 days, Nineveh will be demolished. 312 00:14:46,160 --> 00:14:50,600 In 40 days, Nineveh will be demolished. 313 00:14:52,200 --> 00:14:54,560 Jonah gets one day into the city 314 00:14:54,560 --> 00:14:58,440 and he preaches his message and it's a five word message 315 00:14:58,440 --> 00:14:59,280 in the Hebrew. 316 00:14:59,280 --> 00:15:02,920 Maybe seven in CSB, eight in another version. 317 00:15:04,280 --> 00:15:07,240 Five word sermon, a very quick sermon. 318 00:15:07,240 --> 00:15:09,400 You guys want a five word sermon this morning? 319 00:15:10,760 --> 00:15:11,600 Probably. 320 00:15:11,600 --> 00:15:12,440 No. 321 00:15:12,440 --> 00:15:13,800 Don't answer that. 322 00:15:16,600 --> 00:15:18,200 I've already spent my five words. 323 00:15:19,800 --> 00:15:22,000 Five word sermon he gets in and he says, 324 00:15:22,000 --> 00:15:25,000 in 40 days, Nineveh will be demolished. 325 00:15:25,000 --> 00:15:26,840 And there's a couple possibilities here, right? 326 00:15:26,840 --> 00:15:29,680 It's possible, as in other places in the Bible, 327 00:15:29,680 --> 00:15:31,480 that this is a summary. 328 00:15:31,480 --> 00:15:33,160 Jonah said a whole lot more 329 00:15:33,160 --> 00:15:35,640 and we're just getting the gist of it. 330 00:15:35,640 --> 00:15:37,280 That's one possibility. 331 00:15:37,280 --> 00:15:40,440 But there are a few cues in this sermon 332 00:15:40,440 --> 00:15:41,520 that are interesting. 333 00:15:42,480 --> 00:15:47,480 First, Jonah's message doesn't give any preface, 334 00:15:47,480 --> 00:15:49,000 none whatsoever. 335 00:15:49,000 --> 00:15:52,320 It doesn't say who this message is from. 336 00:15:53,600 --> 00:15:55,600 If you're reading other prophecies, 337 00:15:55,600 --> 00:15:58,400 you would expect to say something like, 338 00:15:58,400 --> 00:16:00,520 this is the word of the Lord, 339 00:16:00,520 --> 00:16:02,840 or thus saith the Lord, 340 00:16:02,840 --> 00:16:05,240 or hear the word of God, 341 00:16:05,240 --> 00:16:06,360 hear the word of the Lord, 342 00:16:06,360 --> 00:16:08,000 Yahweh, the God of Israel, 343 00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:09,240 the maker of heaven and earth, 344 00:16:09,240 --> 00:16:10,760 and then the judgment, 345 00:16:10,760 --> 00:16:13,600 none of that is present in his message. 346 00:16:13,600 --> 00:16:16,600 It's absent who it's from. 347 00:16:16,600 --> 00:16:19,080 The Lord is strangely missing. 348 00:16:20,200 --> 00:16:22,480 And secondly in this message, 349 00:16:23,320 --> 00:16:26,400 is he deliberately emphasizing the bad news only? 350 00:16:28,520 --> 00:16:32,120 An intentionally void of any call to repentance 351 00:16:32,120 --> 00:16:34,640 or any call to change or turn? 352 00:16:34,640 --> 00:16:37,240 Has he left that part out? 353 00:16:37,240 --> 00:16:38,800 And you might say, well, 354 00:16:38,800 --> 00:16:41,800 he was told to speak against the city, 355 00:16:41,800 --> 00:16:45,400 so maybe there was no call to repentance. 356 00:16:45,400 --> 00:16:48,000 But I would remind you that this is supposed to cue 357 00:16:48,000 --> 00:16:51,320 on a diligent Bible reader's mind, 358 00:16:51,320 --> 00:16:52,160 who is God? 359 00:16:53,400 --> 00:16:54,240 What is he like? 360 00:16:55,520 --> 00:16:58,440 How does he treat mankind? 361 00:16:58,440 --> 00:17:01,120 And we're supposed to go, is that like God? 362 00:17:01,120 --> 00:17:02,360 There's no gospel here. 363 00:17:03,720 --> 00:17:06,880 Is Jonah's message, it's missing, 364 00:17:06,880 --> 00:17:08,400 not just who it's from, 365 00:17:08,400 --> 00:17:15,400 but what kind of God he is. 366 00:17:15,400 --> 00:17:17,440 40 is a number that will speak of judgment and death 367 00:17:17,440 --> 00:17:19,240 throughout the Bible, the flood, 368 00:17:19,240 --> 00:17:21,440 the time that Moses prays to God 369 00:17:21,440 --> 00:17:23,840 to spare idolatrous Israel. 370 00:17:23,840 --> 00:17:26,160 It's the number of years that Israel had to wait 371 00:17:26,160 --> 00:17:28,200 to enter the promised land 372 00:17:28,200 --> 00:17:30,760 because they had to wait one year for every day 373 00:17:30,760 --> 00:17:32,600 that the spies were in the land scouting out 374 00:17:32,600 --> 00:17:33,800 because they were unfaithful 375 00:17:33,800 --> 00:17:35,400 and they refused to believe God 376 00:17:35,400 --> 00:17:36,720 when they went into the land. 377 00:17:36,720 --> 00:17:40,840 So 40 is this number that relates to judgment and death. 378 00:17:40,840 --> 00:17:45,360 40 days, it's over for you, Nineveh, you're gone. 379 00:17:47,920 --> 00:17:51,400 And in the CSB, the version that I'm reading from, 380 00:17:51,400 --> 00:17:54,520 it says that Nineveh will be demolished. 381 00:17:54,520 --> 00:17:57,200 Does anyone have a different word for demolished 382 00:17:57,200 --> 00:17:58,680 in your version there? 383 00:17:59,720 --> 00:18:00,560 Destroyed. 384 00:18:02,240 --> 00:18:04,200 Overthrown, yep. 385 00:18:04,200 --> 00:18:06,600 Overthrown, destroyed, demolished. 386 00:18:08,400 --> 00:18:11,400 The literal of the word there in the Hebrew, 387 00:18:11,400 --> 00:18:12,800 it means to overturn. 388 00:18:12,800 --> 00:18:14,800 It's like if you overturned a rock 389 00:18:14,800 --> 00:18:17,800 or if you overturned a wall or if you overturned something. 390 00:18:19,160 --> 00:18:21,600 And overturned itself actually has double meaning, 391 00:18:21,600 --> 00:18:23,480 and this is interesting as well. 392 00:18:23,480 --> 00:18:25,280 It has a double meaning. 393 00:18:25,280 --> 00:18:27,600 It can mean destruction or demolishing 394 00:18:27,600 --> 00:18:29,800 as we've seen in the translations, 395 00:18:29,800 --> 00:18:31,840 but it also can mean in places in the Bible 396 00:18:31,840 --> 00:18:34,680 a turning away from sorrow or death 397 00:18:34,680 --> 00:18:36,680 toward rejoicing in life. 398 00:18:37,680 --> 00:18:40,880 In the book of Esther, it was said that their sorrow 399 00:18:40,880 --> 00:18:44,240 will be turned over to rejoicing 400 00:18:45,440 --> 00:18:47,640 and that their mourning will be turned over 401 00:18:47,640 --> 00:18:49,640 to a holiday celebration. 402 00:18:50,480 --> 00:18:52,320 So you see, it's not just a negative. 403 00:18:52,320 --> 00:18:54,440 It's not just a turning over to destruction, 404 00:18:54,440 --> 00:18:56,120 but this same word can be used 405 00:18:56,120 --> 00:18:59,840 to mean a turning over to life or death. 406 00:18:59,840 --> 00:19:03,640 A turning over to life or to, you know, 407 00:19:03,640 --> 00:19:05,920 away from sorrow and to rejoicing, 408 00:19:05,920 --> 00:19:09,440 away from death and to celebration and holiday. 409 00:19:10,960 --> 00:19:13,320 And so when Jonah uses this, 410 00:19:13,320 --> 00:19:16,640 when he says 40 days and you will 411 00:19:16,640 --> 00:19:18,960 be overturned or demolished, 412 00:19:18,960 --> 00:19:20,560 is it possible that we're to read 413 00:19:20,560 --> 00:19:21,600 a double meaning in there? 414 00:19:21,600 --> 00:19:23,760 This is very common in Hebrew 415 00:19:23,760 --> 00:19:25,200 and the way that they would write 416 00:19:25,200 --> 00:19:26,920 is they want you to hear both meanings. 417 00:19:26,920 --> 00:19:29,520 They want you to interpret both and go 418 00:19:29,520 --> 00:19:31,000 one is it gonna be? 419 00:19:31,000 --> 00:19:32,640 Is it gonna demolished? 420 00:19:32,640 --> 00:19:36,220 Or is it gonna be overturned in a positive way? 421 00:19:36,220 --> 00:19:37,640 And one thing we know for sure, 422 00:19:37,640 --> 00:19:40,880 one way or another, Nineveh will be overturned. 423 00:19:41,960 --> 00:19:45,160 Demolished, destroyed or turned upside down 424 00:19:45,160 --> 00:19:47,660 by this message that God has brought 425 00:19:47,660 --> 00:19:48,960 to the people of Nineveh. 426 00:19:50,160 --> 00:19:52,240 And so that leads us to verse five. 427 00:19:53,480 --> 00:19:54,520 This leads us to verse five 428 00:19:54,520 --> 00:19:56,920 which is probably the most profound verse here. 429 00:19:56,920 --> 00:20:01,920 Then the people of Nineveh believed God. 430 00:20:04,760 --> 00:20:07,040 It's so short. 431 00:20:08,040 --> 00:20:09,880 It's so direct. 432 00:20:09,880 --> 00:20:13,220 A five word sermon that lacks all this context. 433 00:20:13,220 --> 00:20:14,060 And what? 434 00:20:14,060 --> 00:20:18,020 The people of Nineveh believed God. 435 00:20:20,840 --> 00:20:24,040 It's crazy because this is the same phrase 436 00:20:24,040 --> 00:20:27,600 that's used of Abraham, the patriarch. 437 00:20:27,600 --> 00:20:29,520 The same phrase that's used of him, 438 00:20:29,520 --> 00:20:30,720 not only in the Old Testament, 439 00:20:30,720 --> 00:20:33,160 but also in the New Testament by Paul. 440 00:20:34,360 --> 00:20:38,800 Abraham believed God, and it was credited him 441 00:20:38,800 --> 00:20:40,520 as righteousness. 442 00:20:40,520 --> 00:20:43,360 Nineveh believed God. 443 00:20:45,060 --> 00:20:47,200 And what a contrast. 444 00:20:47,200 --> 00:20:50,640 Man, what a contrast between Nineveh and Jonah. 445 00:20:50,640 --> 00:20:52,560 What a contrast. 446 00:20:52,560 --> 00:20:55,200 Go and be my servant, take this message. 447 00:20:55,200 --> 00:20:57,680 No thanks, I'm out, peace, yo. 448 00:20:57,680 --> 00:20:59,080 See you later, out of your presence, 449 00:20:59,080 --> 00:21:01,120 I don't want anything to do, I don't want my job anymore, 450 00:21:01,120 --> 00:21:01,960 I quit. 451 00:21:03,360 --> 00:21:06,400 Nineveh, you're gonna be overthrown in 40 days. 452 00:21:06,400 --> 00:21:07,960 We believe you, God. 453 00:21:08,760 --> 00:21:09,600 We believe you. 454 00:21:11,720 --> 00:21:12,720 Extraordinary. 455 00:21:14,800 --> 00:21:17,880 And so they proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth 456 00:21:17,880 --> 00:21:20,680 from the greatest of them to the least. 457 00:21:20,680 --> 00:21:22,640 And when word reached the king of Nineveh, 458 00:21:22,640 --> 00:21:26,000 he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, 459 00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:29,280 covered himself with sackcloth, sat down in ashes, 460 00:21:29,280 --> 00:21:31,920 and then he issued a decree in Nineveh. 461 00:21:31,920 --> 00:21:34,120 By order of the king and his nobles, 462 00:21:34,120 --> 00:21:36,480 no person or animal, hurt or flocked, 463 00:21:36,480 --> 00:21:38,600 is to taste anything at all. 464 00:21:38,600 --> 00:21:42,040 They must not drink or eat, eat or drink water. 465 00:21:42,040 --> 00:21:44,880 Furthermore, both people and animal must be covered 466 00:21:44,880 --> 00:21:47,680 with sackcloth, and everyone must be covered 467 00:21:47,680 --> 00:21:51,600 with sackcloth, and everyone must call out earnestly to God. 468 00:21:51,600 --> 00:21:55,280 Each must turn from his evil ways and from his wrongdoing. 469 00:21:55,280 --> 00:21:56,600 Who knows? 470 00:21:56,600 --> 00:21:58,160 God may turn and relent. 471 00:21:58,160 --> 00:22:00,080 He may turn from his burning anger 472 00:22:00,080 --> 00:22:03,320 so that we will not perish. 473 00:22:05,920 --> 00:22:08,760 I believe that many of us, so many people in general, 474 00:22:08,760 --> 00:22:12,440 confuse intellectual assent with faith. 475 00:22:13,640 --> 00:22:16,000 Intellectual assent with faith. 476 00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:18,360 All of our intellectual capacities, 477 00:22:18,360 --> 00:22:21,000 but it does not stop there. 478 00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:23,800 Intellectual assent accepts something 479 00:22:23,800 --> 00:22:25,120 that's reasonably true. 480 00:22:25,120 --> 00:22:26,960 Intellectual assent is something like, 481 00:22:26,960 --> 00:22:29,280 I agree with that, right? 482 00:22:29,280 --> 00:22:32,680 I agree with that, or I admire that, 483 00:22:32,680 --> 00:22:36,680 or I see the beauty in that, or that seems true, 484 00:22:36,680 --> 00:22:39,680 or maybe just, yes, yes, yes, I agree. 485 00:22:42,720 --> 00:22:44,120 That's intellectual assent, 486 00:22:44,120 --> 00:22:45,800 and we give it all the time, right? 487 00:22:45,800 --> 00:22:50,600 Intellectually assent, or we give descent. 488 00:22:50,600 --> 00:22:52,560 No, I don't, no, that's not true. 489 00:22:52,560 --> 00:22:54,400 No, I don't believe it, but one or the other, 490 00:22:54,400 --> 00:22:55,880 we're always giving that. 491 00:22:55,880 --> 00:22:57,800 That's not faith. 492 00:22:57,800 --> 00:22:59,240 That in and of itself is not faith, 493 00:22:59,240 --> 00:23:01,680 and sometimes we confuse that. 494 00:23:01,680 --> 00:23:04,400 Yes, that's true, I believe that. 495 00:23:04,400 --> 00:23:05,520 That's not faith. 496 00:23:05,520 --> 00:23:07,400 That's not the totality of faith. 497 00:23:07,400 --> 00:23:09,840 Faith goes further. 498 00:23:09,840 --> 00:23:12,720 Faith goes further than intellectual assent. 499 00:23:12,720 --> 00:23:16,040 Faith is about committing oneself to what you 500 00:23:16,040 --> 00:23:18,040 intellectually believe to be true. 501 00:23:19,280 --> 00:23:22,680 Committing yourself to what you intellectually believe 502 00:23:22,680 --> 00:23:26,200 to be true, so let's try this one on for size. 503 00:23:26,200 --> 00:23:30,640 Is physical exercise important to a healthy lifestyle? 504 00:23:31,760 --> 00:23:33,600 Raise your hand if you say yes. 505 00:23:35,320 --> 00:23:38,600 How many of you regularly exercise? 506 00:23:38,600 --> 00:23:39,520 Somewhat. 507 00:23:39,520 --> 00:23:41,040 Okay, there's some, good. 508 00:23:41,040 --> 00:23:46,040 Some of us intellectually assent and follow through. 509 00:23:46,040 --> 00:23:48,240 We commit our life to that knowledge. 510 00:23:48,240 --> 00:23:50,520 We commit ourselves to that reality. 511 00:23:50,520 --> 00:23:53,800 We believe it's true, and therefore we do it. 512 00:23:53,800 --> 00:23:57,200 Others of us raise our hand for one and not the other. 513 00:23:58,960 --> 00:24:00,440 And it wasn't the second one. 514 00:24:03,440 --> 00:24:04,280 Right? 515 00:24:05,800 --> 00:24:09,640 How many of you know, know, know, 516 00:24:09,640 --> 00:24:14,640 know that the word of God says we are to gather regularly 517 00:24:14,640 --> 00:24:16,720 and not forsake the gathering of the saints? 518 00:24:19,080 --> 00:24:22,360 We mentally assent to it, do we have faith? 519 00:24:22,360 --> 00:24:23,880 Do we believe it? 520 00:24:23,880 --> 00:24:27,360 Do we commit our life to following through with it? 521 00:24:27,360 --> 00:24:30,360 How many of you say we are called by Matthew 28 522 00:24:30,360 --> 00:24:33,680 to go into all the world and preach the good news 523 00:24:33,680 --> 00:24:36,440 to everyone, baptizing them in the name of the Father, 524 00:24:36,440 --> 00:24:38,240 Son, and Holy Spirit, right? 525 00:24:38,240 --> 00:24:39,960 Right? 526 00:24:39,960 --> 00:24:41,720 We're to go make disciples. 527 00:24:41,720 --> 00:24:42,760 We'll just sum it up like that. 528 00:24:42,760 --> 00:24:44,840 Go make disciples. 529 00:24:44,840 --> 00:24:47,400 Yes, yes! 530 00:24:47,400 --> 00:24:48,920 Spot on, preacher man. 531 00:24:51,480 --> 00:24:54,520 How many of us have faith? 532 00:24:54,520 --> 00:24:57,480 We commit our lives to what we intellectually know 533 00:24:57,480 --> 00:24:59,040 to be true. 534 00:24:59,040 --> 00:25:01,800 There's a big disconnect in a lot of our lives 535 00:25:01,800 --> 00:25:04,000 that we have to look at and we have to go, 536 00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:08,720 I say it's true, I don't act as if it's true. 537 00:25:08,720 --> 00:25:13,360 Yes, I can see the truthfulness of it, 538 00:25:13,360 --> 00:25:16,880 but I will not reorient my life around that truth. 539 00:25:16,880 --> 00:25:21,000 I will not commit myself to that truth. 540 00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:25,000 James 2 is talking to you, the book of James, 541 00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:28,160 when it says, what good is it? 542 00:25:29,480 --> 00:25:31,320 What good is it? 543 00:25:31,320 --> 00:25:34,960 My brothers and sisters, what good is it 544 00:25:34,960 --> 00:25:39,400 if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? 545 00:25:41,320 --> 00:25:44,800 Can such faith save him? 546 00:25:46,440 --> 00:25:48,920 If a brother or sister is without clothes 547 00:25:48,920 --> 00:25:53,000 and lacks daily food and one of you says to them, 548 00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:58,000 go in peace, stay warm, be well fed, 549 00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:02,000 but you don't give them what the body needs, 550 00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:04,600 what good is it? 551 00:26:06,440 --> 00:26:10,400 In the same way, faith, if it does not have works, 552 00:26:10,400 --> 00:26:12,520 is dead by itself. 553 00:26:13,840 --> 00:26:17,320 But someone will say, you have faith and I have works. 554 00:26:17,320 --> 00:26:18,160 Ha ha. 555 00:26:19,320 --> 00:26:22,360 That's not in there, but ha ha. 556 00:26:23,280 --> 00:26:25,880 Show me your faith without works 557 00:26:25,880 --> 00:26:28,880 and I will show you faith by what I do. 558 00:26:29,920 --> 00:26:32,000 You believe that God is one. 559 00:26:32,880 --> 00:26:34,480 Who believes that God is one? 560 00:26:35,480 --> 00:26:38,640 We're Trinitarian here, we believe God is one, right? 561 00:26:38,640 --> 00:26:39,480 Good! 562 00:26:40,480 --> 00:26:43,840 Even the demons believe and they shudder. 563 00:26:43,840 --> 00:26:44,680 Good for you. 564 00:26:47,040 --> 00:26:48,400 Ooh, that's brutal next. 565 00:26:49,720 --> 00:26:54,000 Senseless people, exclamation point. 566 00:26:54,000 --> 00:26:56,520 Exclamation point. 567 00:26:56,520 --> 00:26:59,480 Senseless people, are you willing to learn 568 00:26:59,480 --> 00:27:01,760 that faith without works is useless? 569 00:27:01,760 --> 00:27:04,800 Wasn't Abraham our father justified by works 570 00:27:04,800 --> 00:27:07,320 in offering Isaac his son on the altar? 571 00:27:07,320 --> 00:27:10,760 You see that faith was active together with his works 572 00:27:10,760 --> 00:27:13,240 and by works, faith was made complete 573 00:27:13,240 --> 00:27:15,640 and the scripture was fulfilled that said, 574 00:27:15,640 --> 00:27:19,440 Abraham believed God and it was credited to him 575 00:27:19,440 --> 00:27:23,960 as righteousness and he was called God's friend. 576 00:27:25,240 --> 00:27:28,920 How do we know that the people of Nineveh believed? 577 00:27:28,920 --> 00:27:31,040 How do we know that the people of Nineveh 578 00:27:31,040 --> 00:27:32,760 had true faith? 579 00:27:32,760 --> 00:27:33,800 By what they did. 580 00:27:35,120 --> 00:27:38,080 It didn't just say, and the people of Nineveh believed, 581 00:27:38,080 --> 00:27:40,440 but then we got that next part. 582 00:27:40,440 --> 00:27:42,760 By what they did, they committed themselves 583 00:27:42,760 --> 00:27:45,880 to what they intellectually ascended to, the truth, 584 00:27:45,880 --> 00:27:49,240 and they held onto it and said, our lives change now. 585 00:27:49,240 --> 00:27:51,880 We believe it now. 586 00:27:51,880 --> 00:27:53,040 We're going to live it. 587 00:27:54,440 --> 00:27:57,240 And that is when their faith became genuine. 588 00:27:58,120 --> 00:28:01,000 Is when their faith combined with work, 589 00:28:01,920 --> 00:28:02,760 it's proved out. 590 00:28:04,960 --> 00:28:06,200 Sad cloth. 591 00:28:07,320 --> 00:28:10,480 Sad cloth is not stylish. 592 00:28:10,480 --> 00:28:12,960 Sad cloth is like burlap, it's itchy. 593 00:28:13,800 --> 00:28:16,640 It's terrible and at their time it was worn 594 00:28:16,640 --> 00:28:19,960 only by the poorest of poor who couldn't afford a garment. 595 00:28:21,080 --> 00:28:24,280 And ashes was a representation of utter humiliation 596 00:28:24,280 --> 00:28:26,640 into the dust of the ground. 597 00:28:26,640 --> 00:28:30,160 Back to the elements I go. 598 00:28:30,160 --> 00:28:33,240 From the greatest to the least. 599 00:28:33,240 --> 00:28:35,520 And word gets to the king, it says. 600 00:28:35,520 --> 00:28:37,320 So Jonah didn't even make it to the king. 601 00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:39,280 Sometimes you'll see that in a kid's book too. 602 00:28:39,280 --> 00:28:40,960 Let Jonah preach him before the king. 603 00:28:40,960 --> 00:28:41,960 The text doesn't say that. 604 00:28:41,960 --> 00:28:44,680 The text says that word gets to the king. 605 00:28:44,680 --> 00:28:45,880 The word gets to the king. 606 00:28:45,880 --> 00:28:47,480 Jonah doesn't even have to go there 607 00:28:47,480 --> 00:28:49,400 and confront the king of Nineveh 608 00:28:49,400 --> 00:28:51,680 and say 40 days in judgment. 609 00:28:51,680 --> 00:28:55,120 Word gets to him and the king rises from his throne, 610 00:28:55,120 --> 00:28:57,640 takes off his robe and gets in dirt and ashes 611 00:28:57,640 --> 00:28:59,400 and begins to repent. 612 00:29:00,520 --> 00:29:01,720 He repents. 613 00:29:03,920 --> 00:29:06,040 And then he says, you know what? 614 00:29:06,040 --> 00:29:09,080 All y'all, you're fasting and you're doing it too. 615 00:29:09,080 --> 00:29:10,320 You're in my domain. 616 00:29:10,320 --> 00:29:12,400 And all your animals, they're doing it. 617 00:29:12,400 --> 00:29:13,240 I mean this is wild. 618 00:29:13,240 --> 00:29:14,640 All your animals are doing it too. 619 00:29:14,640 --> 00:29:17,800 They can't eat or drink and they have to wear sackcloth too. 620 00:29:17,800 --> 00:29:19,320 They don't even wear clothes. 621 00:29:19,320 --> 00:29:20,880 But they have to wear sackcloth. 622 00:29:23,840 --> 00:29:25,080 They have to wear sackcloth. 623 00:29:25,080 --> 00:29:27,320 Everything in his domain, 624 00:29:27,320 --> 00:29:29,600 everything that was at his command, 625 00:29:29,600 --> 00:29:32,440 he said everything needs to call out to God. 626 00:29:33,320 --> 00:29:35,240 Everything needs to call out to God. 627 00:29:36,280 --> 00:29:37,840 And not just call out. 628 00:29:37,840 --> 00:29:40,720 He took it one step further and he says, 629 00:29:40,720 --> 00:29:44,080 everyone must turn from their evil ways. 630 00:29:44,080 --> 00:29:48,080 Not just call out, not just prayers. 631 00:29:48,080 --> 00:29:50,920 Turn, believe. 632 00:29:50,920 --> 00:29:53,720 And that word turn in the Hebrew is shuv. 633 00:29:53,720 --> 00:29:55,600 Everyone say shuv. 634 00:29:55,600 --> 00:29:58,080 Shuv with a V, shuv. 635 00:29:58,080 --> 00:30:02,200 Shuv means to turn away from, to stop doing. 636 00:30:02,200 --> 00:30:04,480 If one of you were heading in the wrong, 637 00:30:04,480 --> 00:30:06,920 if you're like, hey, I'm heading out to McDonald's 638 00:30:06,920 --> 00:30:09,440 and you start to walk in the wrong direction, 639 00:30:09,440 --> 00:30:10,840 I would say shuv. 640 00:30:11,840 --> 00:30:13,000 You're going the wrong way. 641 00:30:13,000 --> 00:30:14,200 McDonald's is not that way. 642 00:30:14,200 --> 00:30:15,680 You say you wanna go to McDonald's? 643 00:30:15,680 --> 00:30:17,160 Well, McDonald's is over this direction. 644 00:30:17,160 --> 00:30:19,960 Shuv, turn, turn away. 645 00:30:22,200 --> 00:30:25,040 And in fact, the three times that this word shuv is used, 646 00:30:25,040 --> 00:30:26,960 it's our word for repent. 647 00:30:26,960 --> 00:30:28,880 The three times that shuv is used 648 00:30:28,880 --> 00:30:31,560 in the book of Jonah are all right here. 649 00:30:31,560 --> 00:30:33,800 All right here in the King's decree. 650 00:30:33,800 --> 00:30:35,600 Every one of them. 651 00:30:35,600 --> 00:30:36,440 And guess what? 652 00:30:36,440 --> 00:30:38,320 These are the missing words. 653 00:30:38,320 --> 00:30:39,960 If you were here last week, 654 00:30:39,960 --> 00:30:43,240 these are the missing words from Jonah's Psalm. 655 00:30:45,040 --> 00:30:46,680 Where were they? 656 00:30:46,680 --> 00:30:48,800 Where was shuv in Jonah's Psalm? 657 00:30:48,800 --> 00:30:52,440 It was a Psalm of thanksgiving for God's deliverance. 658 00:30:52,440 --> 00:30:54,480 It was an awesome Psalm of lament 659 00:30:54,480 --> 00:30:56,600 because of the troubles that he's seen. 660 00:30:56,600 --> 00:31:00,800 But it was not a Psalm of repentance, was it? 661 00:31:00,800 --> 00:31:02,720 It was not a Psalm of shuv. 662 00:31:04,080 --> 00:31:09,000 But here they are on the lips of a pagan king 663 00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:12,680 in his decree, everyone should shuv their evil ways. 664 00:31:12,680 --> 00:31:15,280 And then he goes on to say, who knows? 665 00:31:15,280 --> 00:31:17,760 Maybe God will shuv. 666 00:31:17,760 --> 00:31:20,560 He may shuv from his anger and we won't die. 667 00:31:21,400 --> 00:31:24,680 Let's repent and then maybe God will relent 668 00:31:24,680 --> 00:31:28,160 or turn from his anger and we won't die. 669 00:31:30,560 --> 00:31:34,640 The King seems to believe and commit himself 670 00:31:34,640 --> 00:31:39,400 to something about God that Jonah doesn't know or believe. 671 00:31:40,920 --> 00:31:43,520 What a statement of hope and faith 672 00:31:43,520 --> 00:31:46,240 when the King says, who knows? 673 00:31:47,200 --> 00:31:48,480 Who knows? 674 00:31:50,440 --> 00:31:51,600 God may turn. 675 00:31:52,600 --> 00:31:54,960 It's as if this King knows more about Yahweh 676 00:31:54,960 --> 00:31:58,480 than Jonah knows, knows more about his character. 677 00:31:58,480 --> 00:32:01,520 He's guessing and he's right. 678 00:32:01,520 --> 00:32:03,160 Jonah knows and he's wrong. 679 00:32:03,160 --> 00:32:04,560 The King's guessing, who knows? 680 00:32:04,560 --> 00:32:06,800 Maybe, maybe he's that kind of God. 681 00:32:08,760 --> 00:32:11,400 But it's in God's hand according to God's prerogative. 682 00:32:13,680 --> 00:32:14,520 Who knows? 683 00:32:14,520 --> 00:32:19,520 Maybe if we repent of evil, God will relent of judgment. 684 00:32:19,520 --> 00:32:23,200 Maybe if we repent of evil, God will relent of judgment. 685 00:32:24,080 --> 00:32:25,280 And what is God's response? 686 00:32:25,280 --> 00:32:27,200 We're coming to the end here. 687 00:32:27,200 --> 00:32:29,480 What is God's response? 688 00:32:29,480 --> 00:32:33,360 God saw their actions that they had turned 689 00:32:33,360 --> 00:32:37,280 from their evil ways so God relented from the disaster 690 00:32:37,280 --> 00:32:41,000 he had threatened them and he did not do it. 691 00:32:42,600 --> 00:32:44,920 God does not change, the Bible tells us 692 00:32:44,920 --> 00:32:46,720 God does not change his mind. 693 00:32:46,720 --> 00:32:48,400 So something's going on here. 694 00:32:48,400 --> 00:32:50,080 God does not change his mind. 695 00:32:51,920 --> 00:32:54,080 No, they changed their way. 696 00:32:55,240 --> 00:32:59,200 And God treats each one of us according to our ways. 697 00:32:59,200 --> 00:33:00,040 Our way. 698 00:33:01,560 --> 00:33:04,080 They changed their way. 699 00:33:04,080 --> 00:33:06,280 God did not change his mind. 700 00:33:07,160 --> 00:33:08,000 Why? 701 00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:12,360 Because throughout his word, his good Bible students 702 00:33:12,360 --> 00:33:16,440 would know that he blesses, he has blessings for obedience 703 00:33:16,440 --> 00:33:18,480 and curses for disobedience. 704 00:33:18,480 --> 00:33:20,640 That's what his word says. 705 00:33:20,640 --> 00:33:23,560 He has blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. 706 00:33:23,560 --> 00:33:26,800 So if you're walking in disobedience, contrary to his law, 707 00:33:26,800 --> 00:33:30,840 you can expect calamity and disaster and judgment. 708 00:33:30,840 --> 00:33:33,080 But if you're walking according to his law, 709 00:33:33,080 --> 00:33:34,520 he will not forsake you. 710 00:33:35,640 --> 00:33:37,480 He will not turn his back on you. 711 00:33:38,400 --> 00:33:40,040 He will not judge. 712 00:33:43,280 --> 00:33:46,640 God sent them a prophet which was such great mercy 713 00:33:46,640 --> 00:33:51,320 that God showed to them, to this pagan nation, Assyria, 714 00:33:51,320 --> 00:33:54,440 that this prophet might go and tell them 715 00:33:54,440 --> 00:33:57,680 what God's perspective is. 716 00:33:57,680 --> 00:33:59,440 And listen to what God's perspective is 717 00:33:59,440 --> 00:34:01,840 out of Jeremiah, chapter 18. 718 00:34:03,200 --> 00:34:04,480 This is God speaking. 719 00:34:05,520 --> 00:34:07,800 This is what God says. 720 00:34:07,800 --> 00:34:10,880 At one moment, I might announce, 721 00:34:10,880 --> 00:34:12,880 concerning a nation or a kingdom, 722 00:34:12,880 --> 00:34:17,400 that I will uproot, tear down, and destroy it. 723 00:34:17,400 --> 00:34:19,760 Okay, that's in God's prerogative, right? 724 00:34:19,760 --> 00:34:21,400 He can do that. 725 00:34:21,400 --> 00:34:26,400 However, if that nation about which I have made 726 00:34:26,760 --> 00:34:30,320 the announcement turns from its evil, 727 00:34:30,320 --> 00:34:33,640 I will relent concerning the disaster 728 00:34:33,640 --> 00:34:35,240 I had planned to do to it. 729 00:34:36,720 --> 00:34:39,480 If they relent, if they repent, if they shoov, 730 00:34:39,480 --> 00:34:42,680 I will relent. 731 00:34:42,680 --> 00:34:44,800 At another time, I might announce, 732 00:34:44,800 --> 00:34:46,480 concerning a nation or a kingdom, 733 00:34:46,480 --> 00:34:48,680 that I will build and plant it. 734 00:34:48,680 --> 00:34:53,080 However, if it does what is evil in my sight 735 00:34:53,080 --> 00:34:56,200 and will not listen to me, I will relent 736 00:34:56,200 --> 00:34:59,400 concerning the good I had said that I would do to it. 737 00:35:00,400 --> 00:35:03,600 God's prerogative, God's promise, 738 00:35:03,600 --> 00:35:05,240 something we can bank on. 739 00:35:05,240 --> 00:35:09,120 God was so gracious that he sent a mediator to Nineveh. 740 00:35:09,120 --> 00:35:13,480 God was so gracious he sent Jonah to warn them. 741 00:35:13,480 --> 00:35:16,320 He was a prophet who was to tell God's perspective 742 00:35:16,320 --> 00:35:17,920 on the situation. 743 00:35:17,920 --> 00:35:20,080 And this is so much, we'll wrap up with this. 744 00:35:20,080 --> 00:35:22,480 This is so much like the gospel of Jesus. 745 00:35:23,760 --> 00:35:27,920 This story of a mediator going to a wicked nation 746 00:35:27,920 --> 00:35:30,280 and calling them to repent. 747 00:35:30,280 --> 00:35:33,760 In Christ, God sent humanity, a mediator. 748 00:35:33,760 --> 00:35:38,440 He came and called all of people, all humanity, to God, 749 00:35:38,440 --> 00:35:43,360 and he said to shoov, to turn back to God, repent. 750 00:35:43,360 --> 00:35:46,040 But Christ was very different, obviously. 751 00:35:46,040 --> 00:35:50,320 Not only did he announce God's way, he was God with us. 752 00:35:51,320 --> 00:35:53,400 He was God become a man, 753 00:35:53,400 --> 00:35:56,520 and through his perfect obedience to the Father, 754 00:35:56,520 --> 00:35:59,680 Jesus went to the cross and paid the penalty of sin, 755 00:35:59,680 --> 00:36:00,800 which was death. 756 00:36:00,800 --> 00:36:04,680 And he took on himself what only God could do for us, 757 00:36:05,800 --> 00:36:08,640 the eternal wrath and judgment that we deserved. 758 00:36:09,720 --> 00:36:12,000 And when the Pharisees asked Jesus for a sign 759 00:36:12,000 --> 00:36:14,360 if he was that Messiah, what did Jesus say? 760 00:36:14,360 --> 00:36:17,080 He likened himself to Jonah, as Jonah was three days 761 00:36:17,080 --> 00:36:20,200 in the belly of the well, or belly of the fish. 762 00:36:20,200 --> 00:36:22,480 So the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth 763 00:36:22,480 --> 00:36:24,040 three days and three nights. 764 00:36:24,040 --> 00:36:26,560 And then it said this about the people of Nineveh, 765 00:36:26,560 --> 00:36:28,840 about those who relented, about those who shooved 766 00:36:28,840 --> 00:36:32,240 on that day, Jesus said, the men of Nineveh 767 00:36:32,240 --> 00:36:35,160 will stand up at the judgment with this generation 768 00:36:35,160 --> 00:36:36,320 and condemn it. 769 00:36:37,520 --> 00:36:40,560 The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation 770 00:36:40,560 --> 00:36:45,560 and condemn it. 771 00:36:45,560 --> 00:36:49,360 Those pagan Assyrians will stand up in the midst 772 00:36:49,360 --> 00:36:52,200 of God's chosen people and condemn them 773 00:36:52,200 --> 00:36:54,320 for their rejection of their Messiah. 774 00:36:57,400 --> 00:36:58,400 Why? 775 00:36:58,400 --> 00:37:01,840 Because they repented at Jonah's preaching. 776 00:37:01,840 --> 00:37:06,640 And look, something greater than Jonah is here. 777 00:37:06,640 --> 00:37:08,640 Jesus is greater than Jonah. 778 00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:12,800 And we ought to heed the caution 779 00:37:13,800 --> 00:37:18,800 that when Jesus says repent, He means it. 780 00:37:19,760 --> 00:37:21,960 And we ought to respond to it. 781 00:37:22,960 --> 00:37:25,400 If it was so important that Nineveh would turn 782 00:37:25,400 --> 00:37:27,640 from their wickedness at the preaching of Jonah, 783 00:37:27,640 --> 00:37:30,120 how much more for you and I at the preaching 784 00:37:30,120 --> 00:37:32,520 of Christ Jesus, our Messiah? 785 00:37:32,520 --> 00:37:34,920 And so I say repent. 786 00:37:34,920 --> 00:37:39,920 Repent, all of you, and accept God's mercy and grace. 787 00:37:41,480 --> 00:37:42,640 Repent. 788 00:37:42,640 --> 00:37:44,680 Stop playing in sin. 789 00:37:44,680 --> 00:37:49,120 Stop acting like, acting the part of a believer, 790 00:37:49,120 --> 00:37:51,200 but living a lie on the side. 791 00:37:52,040 --> 00:37:54,760 Stop with the intellectual assent that's void 792 00:37:54,760 --> 00:37:58,400 of any commitment to Christ or seeing Christ's kingdom come 793 00:37:58,400 --> 00:38:00,080 and going to be a lie. 794 00:38:00,080 --> 00:38:03,080 Stop playing the part of a believer that's void 795 00:38:03,080 --> 00:38:06,600 of any commitment to Christ or seeing Christ's kingdom come 796 00:38:06,600 --> 00:38:09,360 and Christ will be done here on earth. 797 00:38:10,040 --> 00:38:11,400 Stop. 798 00:38:11,400 --> 00:38:14,120 Shoo, you're going the wrong way. 799 00:38:14,120 --> 00:38:17,000 Brothers, you say you wanna go toward Christ. 800 00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:18,120 You're walking the wrong way. 801 00:38:18,120 --> 00:38:19,760 Sisters, turn. 802 00:38:21,240 --> 00:38:22,080 Turn. 803 00:38:24,240 --> 00:38:28,240 If you have never before received God's mercy, 804 00:38:28,240 --> 00:38:31,240 because only destruction awaits the path 805 00:38:31,240 --> 00:38:34,040 that you are on now, only destruction. 806 00:38:35,480 --> 00:38:38,640 Turn and receive God's mercy. 807 00:38:39,520 --> 00:38:40,360 Shoo. 808 00:38:42,040 --> 00:38:43,080 Will you pray with me? 809 00:38:45,160 --> 00:38:46,520 Father, thank you for your word 810 00:38:46,520 --> 00:38:49,680 and thank you for this word from Jonah. 811 00:38:49,680 --> 00:38:51,480 Thank you for this word from Jonah. 812 00:38:52,360 --> 00:38:54,960 And thank you, Lord, for Christ and his mediating 813 00:38:54,960 --> 00:38:58,120 on our behalf that he stood with us or before us 814 00:38:58,120 --> 00:39:02,440 and took on himself the punishment for us all. 815 00:39:02,440 --> 00:39:05,440 And while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 816 00:39:06,520 --> 00:39:08,520 And so Lord, we receive that today. 817 00:39:08,520 --> 00:39:11,000 We turn, we shoo, and turn back to you 818 00:39:11,000 --> 00:39:13,520 and accept your mercy and your grace 819 00:39:13,520 --> 00:39:17,880 that you have promised to all who would repent in faith. 820 00:39:17,880 --> 00:39:18,720 Follow you. 821 00:39:20,240 --> 00:39:23,480 We receive that whether we have been in Christ, 822 00:39:23,480 --> 00:39:26,120 we receive it anew, and whether we are new 823 00:39:26,120 --> 00:39:27,920 to receiving your mercy, I pray 824 00:39:27,920 --> 00:39:31,120 that you would make us true, that our faith and our works, 825 00:39:31,120 --> 00:39:35,520 our faith and our action would be shown sincere and true 826 00:39:36,400 --> 00:39:37,920 as we go from this place. 827 00:39:37,920 --> 00:40:06,920 We love you, Lord, and we thank you in Jesus' name, amen.