Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] So for our kids in here today, I want to ask you this question. As you got ready for church today, how many of you looked into a mirror?
[00:00:11] Raise your hand if you're a kid in here today. Kids, raise your hand. Did you look into a mirror?
[00:00:19] None of you are raising your hand. You're not listening to the sermon. I'm talking to you right now.
[00:00:26] Alright girls, you put your hand down.
[00:00:29] Boys, leave your hands up.
[00:00:31] What difference did it make?
[00:00:35] Did you look into a mirror and make changes?
[00:00:39] Moms, you're saying to yourself, I am the mirror and I'm the one that made the changes.
[00:00:48] But I remember when my kids, my sons were younger and they would be getting ready for church and they stayed downstairs, that's where their bedroom was in our house. And we would get ready for church and at a certain time they would all pop upstairs ready to go to church.
[00:01:09] And every Sunday I feel like we went through this same routine, looking at more than one, a few of them saying, so this is what you're going to go with today.
[00:01:21] Did you look at yourself as they stand sweet, precious little boys before us, their hair disheveled? And you look at some of the boys who had their heads, they have that bed head just kind of sticking up in the back there that they didn't do anything with.
[00:01:39] And I would look at them and say, so this is what you're going to go with? Did you look at yourself?
[00:01:44] Your buttons on your shirt are out of line, nothing matches. And there were several times where they would have different kinds of shoes on their feet. Did you actually look at yourself and think, man, we have church today. I'm fired up about church and I'm going to do my best to get ready.
[00:02:05] Mirrors are to cause us to make changes.
[00:02:09] We look into mirrors to make changes with our appearance.
[00:02:15] And the book of Jonah is a mirror for the people of God. We have to understand this book that way.
[00:02:24] It's not just a story of a man who rejected a missionary call and it's not just a story of a big well that swallowed him. The book of Jonah was a mirror for the people of Israel to look into and, and make changes. They were to repent.
[00:02:43] They were headed in a direction in their worship and in their sin, rebelling against God. And they were to make changes in reading this book and turn from their sin.
[00:02:54] You see, they were involved in idolatry.
[00:02:58] And one of the hypocrisies of what they were involved with is while they were worshiping and mixing even into their worship, the worship of Pagan idols. They just assumed God would continue to bless them despite their sin. Despite warnings, even as we heard Pastor Eric read today, despite these warnings of what God would do if they continued to worship idols, in destroying them and casting them out of the land, they just assumed they were special.
[00:03:35] And there was a prophet named Hosea who his marriage displayed Israel's adulterous idolatry. He was a parable for the people of Israel. And Jonah is the same kind of prophet.
[00:03:52] His mission is a parable of self righteous idolatry for the people of God. They are to read it and go, that's who we are.
[00:04:02] And if we don't repent, we're going to be vomited up out of the land. Even last week when we looked at his worship, it was self righteous, idolatrous worship.
[00:04:14] With his lips he honored God. But if you remember in his song, he never confessed his sin.
[00:04:21] In many ways he blamed God for his sin and his predicament. And he exalted himself over the nations who were worshiping idols, forgetting that he was a part of a people who were worshiping idols.
[00:04:38] And so Jonah is a parable for the people of God, as they even think. Judgment isn't for us, it's for the nations. In many ways in this book, God is making fun of them.
[00:04:50] And it began in chapter one when Jonah just straight up disobeyed God.
[00:04:57] I mean, think about Jonah. His occupation is profit.
[00:05:02] He is to deliver the word of God and so to the people of God. And they are to submit to the Word of God. And then the word of God comes to him and he disobeys.
[00:05:13] He doesn't go to Nineveh. He runs as far away from Nineveh as he can. That is to in many ways be ironic and humorous. How could a prophet of God do that?
[00:05:24] And then we saw him asleep on a boat.
[00:05:27] As the nations on the boat around him, the pagans perish. He doesn't care. He's asleep in his sin. That is to be humorous. How do you sleep through a storm?
[00:05:39] In chapter one he says, I fear the Lord. But we saw how the chapter ended. He would rather die than obey the Lord. Does he really fear the Lord?
[00:05:49] God is making fun of Israel through this prophet, Jonah.
[00:05:54] And as we said last week, he sings to the Lord but never confesses his sin. And then he's vomited out of the fish.
[00:06:03] And as we'll see in chapter three and four, the vows he made in chapter two, he doesn't they ring hollow as we look into his obedience and so the people of God are to see Jonah as a mirror to and turn from their sin. They are to repent. And so what does it look like today to repent of your sin?
[00:06:25] Well, what is God calling Israel to do as he calls them to repent of their idolatry? Well, notice in verse one, first of all, they must believe God's word is true.
[00:06:38] Notice then the Word of the Lord again, the Word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time. This is the same command he's already given him. So God is a God of second chances, right? Notice verse 2. Arise. Go to Nineveh. Now, Nineveh would have been a large city, as we'll see here. It was extravagant. A lot of wealth, but also a lot of idolatry. And remember, Jonah doesn't want to go there. These are pagans, they're disgusting. And when I begin to preach, they're probably going to kill me.
[00:07:13] But here, go to this city. You have a second chance, Jonah, and notice that great city and call out against it.
[00:07:22] Confront their sin.
[00:07:24] The message that I tell you now, notice again how the Word of God drives everything.
[00:07:32] It is the word of the Lord that comes to Jonah. And then the message he's going to preach is the word of God. He's going to tell him that God decides the message. And then verse 3.
[00:07:42] So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh again, according to the Word of the Lord. There's emphasis here. The Word of the Lord is sovereign. The Word of the Lord is the one that dictates everything.
[00:07:56] Now, Nineveh was an exceedingly great city. Three days journey in breadth. Now, this word great is used 12 times in Nineveh.
[00:08:06] And it is always used in describing God's instrument of judgment upon Jonah. There was a great storm, there was a great wind, there was a great fish, and now there's a great city.
[00:08:23] What does that mean?
[00:08:25] Well, Jonah's mission is something he hates and doesn't want to do.
[00:08:31] And in some sense, in making Jonah do it, God is judging him.
[00:08:37] He is judging him. And just like he was dead asleep in the belly of the boat. And then in Sheol for three days in the fish. Notice how long he's going to be in Nineveh or going to walk, or how large Nineveh is, how long this ministry and message of proclamation is going to be. Three days.
[00:08:58] He spent three days in Sheol.
[00:09:01] And again, this mission is going to be like death to Jonah. This isn't something he's fired up about.
[00:09:10] This isn't something he Says, yes, I get to try again.
[00:09:15] Notice why he's there. It is the word of the Lord. It is the sovereign will of God. Even though Jonah doesn't want to be there. And notice his joyful message. Verse 4.
[00:09:29] Jonah began to go into the city. A day's journey. This is the first day on the mission trip. And he called out, probably as he's walking along yet, 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
[00:09:42] A message of joy, grace and mercy.
[00:09:47] Oh, there was probably some delight.
[00:09:52] He knows God is gracious and kind and will be merciful, but he didn't even want to include that in his message.
[00:09:59] Y' all are going to be destroyed.
[00:10:03] God himself will overthrow you. And notice 40 days, that emphasis here.
[00:10:12] 40 days. This is a, this is a time of testing for Jonah and Nineveh and Israel. Think about 40 years in the, in the wilderness. We think about the flood, 40 days, days. We think about all of those times, times of testing and judgment. And here there is testing and judgment for Jonah and Nineveh and this, this miserable street prophet with this half hearted message. I mean, we, we've seen on campus, we've, we've gone to ball games and we've seen the street preachers and sometimes I look at them and say, are you enjoying what you're doing?
[00:10:53] Number one, you're very angry.
[00:10:56] And I went to a baseball game this spring in Knoxville and there was a guy with a microphone and he is just reading off what he's saying.
[00:11:05] Very similar to what Jonah is doing here.
[00:11:09] Do you look around and actually care about the people you're preaching to? Do you really want them to repent and be saved?
[00:11:17] No, you're just going through the motions.
[00:11:21] That's what Jonah is doing here. God is going to judge you pagans.
[00:11:28] And while there was no invitation to turn notice verse 5. The people of Nineveh believed God.
[00:11:37] Now that is scandalous.
[00:11:40] That is shocking.
[00:11:43] Think about the street preaching we've described here. And there's nothing wrong with that. I think you should go out and proclaim the gospel on every street corner.
[00:11:51] But think about the miserable prophet who's declaring the word of God going through the motions and then all of the sudden he starts to see people getting on their hands and knees and crying out to the Lord, this is not what I want it.
[00:12:07] This is not what I thought was going to happen.
[00:12:10] And now read that as an Israelite who hates the Assyrians and Ninevites.
[00:12:17] Oh, they are repenting.
[00:12:21] We are supposed to repent when we hear the word of the Lord.
[00:12:25] God is going to judge us.
[00:12:28] We've heard the Word of the Lord that's described here over and over. And the Ninevites believe it. And they turn from their sin. It's shocking. First the pagan sailors on the boat believe in the Lord and now the Ninevites repent.
[00:12:44] This isn't something that they would have been excited or fired up about.
[00:12:49] But I want you to notice something in this first section.
[00:12:52] Repentance begins with the belief that God's Word is absolutely true.
[00:12:59] You stand before the Word of God as the final authority and judge.
[00:13:04] And you will never turn from your sin unless you see God's Word as true.
[00:13:10] The Ninevites took the message of this apathetic prophet as God's Word.
[00:13:17] This is the Word from the Lord.
[00:13:20] And we must repent. We must believe it's true first.
[00:13:25] And that's exactly what they did.
[00:13:28] And throughout the book of Jonah, we've seen the authority of the Word of God.
[00:13:33] God is the one who created all things by His Word. And we've seen him control his creation. Throughout the book.
[00:13:40] The storms, the sea, even last week, we see where God speaks to the sea creature and he vomits Jonah up.
[00:13:49] How did Jonah get to Nineveh? God ordained a fish to take him there and then the fish vomited him up.
[00:13:58] The Word of the Lord is what got Jonah to Nineveh. It is the Word of the Lord that governs and controls all things.
[00:14:06] And for you to make changes when you look into the Word of God, you've got to say, this is my Creator's word to me, or nothing changes the Word of God. The Bible isn't just an opinion.
[00:14:20] It's not God's advice.
[00:14:22] It's an authoritative word that is calling you to change and be different.
[00:14:28] It's not a fairy tale story of inspiration.
[00:14:33] That's just like a pep talk every day in your life.
[00:14:37] It's not just for Bible trivia.
[00:14:41] It's not just for theological proof text.
[00:14:45] You come before the Word of God and God is speaking. And when God speaks, you listen so that you can align your life with God.
[00:14:54] You will not do that if you do not believe it's the Word of God.
[00:14:58] Maybe that's why there's not a lot of change in our lives.
[00:15:02] We don't approach the Bible as God's Word.
[00:15:05] And so when God says there's more joy in following Christ, there's more happiness in loving and forgiving and being merciful, just like Jesus, there's hope as we suffer and as we face death and we hear the word of God in those moments, and we don't make changes because maybe it just doesn't fit in my life right now. No, it is God's authoritative word that you are to align your life to every time you hear it. And so as you're in Bible study and you hear sermons and in the morning when you're trying to move through that Bible reading plan, open up the Bible and say, this is God's word and it is calling me to be different, to make changes. And as I hear it, it's true.
[00:15:54] God's word is true. And that's where repentance begins.
[00:15:59] And then repentance next confesses that the old me deserves to die.
[00:16:05] Notice they called for a fast and put on sackcloth. From the greatest of them to the least of them. And notice that the whole societal structure we'll see here, changes and shifts.
[00:16:21] And everyone, from the rich to the poor, the powerful, the weak, they all acknowledge the word of God.
[00:16:30] Everyone, from the greatest of them to the least. And they called for a fast and put on sackcloth. Now those are signs of repentance.
[00:16:39] And what they are doing is they are fasting and they have on sackcloth.
[00:16:45] They are mimicking the destruction that they say they deserve from God.
[00:16:51] To fast means to do without food, to go hungry.
[00:16:55] We deserve for God to wipe out our economy and we can't eat.
[00:17:00] That's what we deserve from the Lord.
[00:17:03] The sackcloth. This would have been like living in bags or maybe cardboard boxes.
[00:17:09] This is. They are acting as if they are homeless on the streets and they are mimicking the judgment that they are. They say we deserve this from the Lord. We deserve the Lord God to wipe us out and our city be left with nothing. And for all of us to be homeless and hungry.
[00:17:30] What if we announce this year for vbs, our theme is Camp Repentance.
[00:17:36] Think about the decorations we could have.
[00:17:40] We could all dress in black.
[00:17:44] We could, you know, clay could be an undertaker.
[00:17:50] Clay. And the gravediggers maybe.
[00:17:54] Yeah, Crafts, little caskets, dark, gloomy.
[00:18:03] What would we be saying? Camp Repentance.
[00:18:07] We, because of our sin, deserve death.
[00:18:10] And not just death, eternal death. We deserve destruction. That's what they're saying here as a. As a people. The whole city is saying we deserve to be destroyed by the Lord God. Why? Because of our sin, because of our idolatry. This is something Israel will not say.
[00:18:30] Now understand this. Repentance is not feeling bad because you got caught for the. Got caught for sinning.
[00:18:39] Some of you think repentance is that way?
[00:18:42] I was sinning, I was getting away with it and then I got caught. And this is really embarrassing and I'm sad it's so embarrassing.
[00:18:51] Or there were some things that I really was enjoying doing and now that I got caught, I can't do those things anymore.
[00:18:58] And you think that sadness is repentance?
[00:19:01] It's not that self centered sorrow that's ungodly sorrow.
[00:19:09] No, genuine repentance says, I have sinned against the Lord. And last week, remember, he is holy and he is right and he is pure.
[00:19:19] And unlike sinning against anyone else, that is an infinite violation.
[00:19:25] He is perfect who sins against him. And so to sin against an infinite holy and good, understand he's good. And so the things he tells you to do are for your good.
[00:19:37] And so you are rejecting infinite good for yourself.
[00:19:41] And so the consequence for that, the Bible tells us, is death. To be separated from God, you are choosing to separate yourself from God and you deserve to die and you deserve eternal death. It is a personal offense against God that should grieve your soul.
[00:20:02] Not just I got caught, I don't get to do what I want to do anymore.
[00:20:06] Repentance is the old me deserves to die.
[00:20:11] And that's what we symbolize in baptism.
[00:20:15] Baptism is our sackcloth.
[00:20:19] We stand up publicly and we say before the world, I, because of my sin, deserve to die.
[00:20:28] I deserve to be plunged under and suffocated in God's wrath.
[00:20:33] And I can't do anything about it. I'm helpless.
[00:20:37] And my only hope is that God would judge me and then raise me up, that he would judge the old me and then raise me up as a new me. That's what we are symbolizing in baptism. In many ways it is a funeral for our old man. And it is a celebration that I am new because the old man has been crucified and dead.
[00:21:03] But it begins with a grief that I've sinned against God in this way.
[00:21:09] Is that the way you think about your repentance?
[00:21:14] And sometimes we think I've just hurt others.
[00:21:16] And that's true. You should be grieved by that.
[00:21:21] But as David said, against you and you alone have I sinned.
[00:21:28] You sin against God first and foremost and God who is good and right and loves you, that should grieve your soul. And you should want to put that old man who deserves death to death.
[00:21:43] So repentance begins with God's word is true.
[00:21:46] And then the old me deserves to die.
[00:21:49] And then next in repentance is, I cannot be king.
[00:21:55] Notice verse 6. The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he rose from his throne.
[00:22:00] Literally, he steps down from his throne.
[00:22:03] He humbles himself. And notice who is leading. It's not the king who's leading out in this.
[00:22:10] Jonah didn't go and say, I want to meet with the king first and then let him lead the people. No, the people are leading the king in repentance. He sees his people repenting. And this would have been a pagan idolater. Oh, you're hearing the word of the Lord from a prophet of Israel and you're responding, away with him. Let's execute him. Let's get him out of our city. It would have been a threat to most pagan people, paranoid kings. But no, he steps down, he removes his robe. Now, this would have represented his authority. What's interesting here, the word robe is often used for the same thing a prophet would wear as a mantle to show that he is a prophet of the Lord. Now, what this king is doing here is he's saying, I'm not the authority. I'm not king and my word. Taking the mantle off is not the final authority. No, it is God's word. And notice he covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes again, symbolic of the destruction that he says he deserves from the Lord. Now, at this time, the king of Nineveh, it's hard to know exactly who this king was, but he would have been the logo of wickedness. You know how we refer back to Hitler?
[00:23:28] This is who this king would have been.
[00:23:31] He represented idolatry and wickedness. And now he's repenting before the word of the Lord. He's saying, my kingdom deserves to be obliterated and I can't be king. No, the word of God is king in many ways. He's saying, I'm a bad king, leading my people to destruction and I must get off the throne. Notice verse 7. And he issued a proclamation and published throughout Nineveh.
[00:23:59] He's making a law here. This is an executive order.
[00:24:03] Everyone has to listen. Like the boat captain in chapter one.
[00:24:11] And here he is, a pagan king who's taking care of his people like the captain did on the boat.
[00:24:20] He, not Jonah, is going to serve the people of Nineveh.
[00:24:25] Notice by the degree of the king and his nobles. Again, all of the leaders, anyone with authority is submitting to this law, to this rule. And notice how the social order is being reversed here. The most powerful are identifying with the weak.
[00:24:46] They're saying, okay, just like the poor Folks on the street living homeless and in sackcloth. We need to identify with them, notice their humility. Here he says, let neither man nor beast, nor herd, nor flock taste or eat anything. Let them not drink water. So even our animals have to fast, but let the man and beast be covered with sackcloth. If the Lord God comes in and wipes out our nation, even our animals would be wiped out. And so we have to mimic that. And so no one eats, not even the animals.
[00:25:22] Let them call out mightily to God.
[00:25:25] He disrupts the economy.
[00:25:28] No one's going to work.
[00:25:31] We are going to pray.
[00:25:33] The people of Nineveh, pagan idolaters, disgusting, barbaric people. And it's almost cartoonish here.
[00:25:44] The king of Nineveh is like that new Christian, and they become a Christian and they start sharing the gospel with everybody. They're at work, they're not doing their job. They're sitting down. They're talking with other people about the gospel. And you're like, okay, we have to tone it down just a little bit. I know you're excited about Jesus, but we still have to go about life. And we have to witness the gospel in certain ways. That's the king of Nineveh. He's even sharing the gospel with the pets and the cows and everyone.
[00:26:14] He is fired up about repentance. I keep saying that he is excited about repentance.
[00:26:20] He says, let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence in his own hands. Now, the Syrians were, we talked about a few weeks ago, barbaric people.
[00:26:31] They ripped the tongues out of the people they conquered.
[00:26:35] They would make family members carry the heads of their fallen loved ones who were soldiers. They would make them carry their decapitated heads around.
[00:26:46] They were barbaric, violent people. And here, this king who leads them all, says, we have to turn from that and notice the violence in his hands.
[00:26:58] They are known as a violent people.
[00:27:01] It's a phrase that means work of your hands. So their occupation was to be violent. We are to repent of our identity as violent people.
[00:27:11] And so they believe the word of God is true.
[00:27:14] They believe they deserve to die.
[00:27:17] And here this king says, I can't be king.
[00:27:21] The word of the Lord is king.
[00:27:24] And this is what repentance looks like. God's word is true. I deserve death and I can't be king anymore.
[00:27:33] This is where the turning begins to happen, where we turn from the sin that kills us and destroys us and sends us to hell. And we start turning to something better. And what do we turn To God, who is king. We take self off of the throne and we realize Jesus is the only worthy king.
[00:27:55] Now a lot of times we think, well, I need to put Jesus on the throne of my life. I need to make him Lord. I.
[00:28:01] That's not what goes on in repentance. You don't make Jesus anything.
[00:28:05] You don't put him on any throne.
[00:28:08] What you acknowledge in repentance is I've been on his throne and I got to get off or he's going to remove me from the throne.
[00:28:18] And you acknowledge that and you get off of the throne and you fire yourself as a bad king.
[00:28:27] You look at your resume as king of your life and you go, I'm not sovereign.
[00:28:33] Meaning I don't control much and I don't know the future.
[00:28:38] I don't know what's going to happen next.
[00:28:41] So why am I trying to make all the decisions?
[00:28:44] Why am I trying to figure these things out?
[00:28:48] My wisdom is small and insignificant, not sovereign. And I'm sinful.
[00:28:57] And so most things I do in my life are for myself and I'm going to serve myself and that's going to hurt other people and ultimately that's going to hurt me. I can't be king.
[00:29:11] I'm not qualified.
[00:29:13] You're fired.
[00:29:15] And then notice next, I can't be king and I need mercy. Notice, the king says, who knows?
[00:29:25] God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish.
[00:29:34] Now notice his disposition. Here, notice his heart.
[00:29:39] He doesn't say, okay, we got everybody in sackcloth.
[00:29:45] I'm sitting around in sackcloth and ashes.
[00:29:49] We even got the horses and the cows and the sheep and the goat. They're in sackcloth. They haven't eaten in a week.
[00:29:58] God has to relent. We've done it all.
[00:30:03] No, he says, may God relent.
[00:30:07] He may turn from his fierceness, anger. And the word relent here is the same word as repent.
[00:30:15] Just like we turn from our sin to God, he turns from wrath to mercy.
[00:30:23] God may repent, God may turn. Now remember, this wasn't a part of Jonah's message.
[00:30:30] This is the power of God in Nineveh that he would cry out in this way. But notice his heart.
[00:30:37] If God wiped us out, we deserve it.
[00:30:40] We deserve to be judged.
[00:30:43] How often have you thought about that?
[00:30:47] Or when you pray to God to be merciful, in the back of your mind, are you thinking, God? Look at all the things I'm doing.
[00:30:57] Look at all the sackcloth and ashes I'm setting in for you.
[00:31:02] Do you see it? God?
[00:31:04] Look at the ways I'm serving you. I've served you my whole life. Look at the things I'm giving up for you. God, you should be merciful to me.
[00:31:13] No, you don't deserve God's mercy. That's what makes it mercy, is that you deserve judgment.
[00:31:19] And he's aware that his people deserve judgment. He's not defending himself. He's not making excuses.
[00:31:29] In verse 10, notice what happens when God saw what they did. He turned from how they turned from their evil way. God turned. God relented of the disaster that he said he would do to them.
[00:31:46] There's a point being proven here. The Ninevites repent of evil and then God repents of.
[00:31:55] The word disaster is actually very similar to evil.
[00:31:59] And so the Ninevites were working evil with their hands, the barbaric, violent, idolatrous people. And God was bearing down upon them and he was going to cause violence and evil to them as a people. And yet they turn from those things and they cry out to God. And so God turns from wrath to mercy. Here he gives them mercy. He repents. He relents of what he was going to do. It's not as though God changed His mind until his plan was to destroy Nineveh. And when we get to the Book of Nahum, that's exactly what he does. So that's God's plan if they do not repent, but they repent it. And so in this moment, he is merciful.
[00:32:43] And what we are to see in Jonah chapter three is, yes, God is a God of second chances.
[00:32:50] But in Jonah chapter three, it's not for who you think.
[00:32:57] Remember, the pagans are the ones who get a second chance.
[00:33:01] The Ninevites here get a second chance.
[00:33:05] We even see a picture of God repenting.
[00:33:10] God is sovereign and knows all things.
[00:33:12] He knows what's coming on down the road. But in this moment, he is merciful to them. He turns from his anger.
[00:33:18] But the point is, Israel will not repent.
[00:33:22] Why? They don't believe God's word is true.
[00:33:26] They don't believe they deserve to die. They believe they should just be blessed no matter what. They're not sorrowful for their sin. They want to be king. They won't let God be king or accept him as king.
[00:33:39] And so there's no repentance. And so there will be no mercy for Israel.
[00:33:44] Eventually the Assyrians will come and wipe them out because they will not repent.
[00:33:50] But I want you to know here, God's disposition In repentance is real.
[00:33:56] Some of us, we think about repentance, it's very mechanical. We kind of go through the motions.
[00:34:02] But God accepts faith and sorrowful repentance and gives mercy to those who repent. And there is a change in God's disposition towards you that is real.
[00:34:14] And you need to know that today, if you choose to continue to walk in sin and reject God, his anger is directed towards you. He hates sin.
[00:34:25] God hates sin. It is opposite of him.
[00:34:29] He's repulsed by it.
[00:34:32] And to turn, you need to be repulsed by it.
[00:34:35] But if you continue to walk in sin, God is against you and his fury will be unleashed upon you eventually if you never turn from your sin.
[00:34:46] But just as real is God's anger towards sin is God's love and mercy. For those who turn from their sin to God. There is a real change that goes on in God's disposition. This isn't mechanical and abstract. God, in the same way that he hates sin, when you turn from sin, he, his love by the Spirit of God is unleashed upon your life. His favor in Christ is known. His disposition changes toward you. And we got to get that right for us to really understand the gospel.
[00:35:22] If there's no change there, then why do we need the gospel? Then what are we doing here today?
[00:35:28] No, there's a call to turn from your sin and experience the mercy of God and understand this.
[00:35:35] God is not.
[00:35:37] It's not some emotional change in God's mind based on a whim.
[00:35:42] It's based on Christ ultimately.
[00:35:45] And if you are outside of Christ, his anger burns toward your sin.
[00:35:51] And to lead you into repentance, he sent his Son to die for your sin and say, this is the love that you can have and experience.
[00:36:00] But he hates sin and he's just, and he's right to do so.
[00:36:04] And when you believe the gospel and you accept the cross and you accept the righteousness of God, his favor to you is unleashed, you are pardoned, and you are covered in his love.
[00:36:17] It's not as though he's going to get up tomorrow in a bad mood and say, I don't like you anymore.
[00:36:22] No, if you are in Christ, there is delight.
[00:36:27] Zephaniah, he sings over you.
[00:36:31] He finds joy in you, but he hates your sin.
[00:36:36] And this is a call to turn from sin, that sin is real and the consequences of sin are real. Turn from sin and turn to the mercy of God in Christ.
[00:36:47] But one of the things we see in this pagan king is to be a rebuke to Israel's Kings, they are to read this and say, the king of Nineveh is a better king than our kings at the time. There is a king ruling in Israel who just accepts idolatry and does what is evil in the sight of the Lord. And Jonah even supports him, by the way.
[00:37:12] And he will not turn from the idolatry.
[00:37:15] And we are to see in this king a better king.
[00:37:18] This king is in many ways to remind us of our king Jesus, who stepped away from his throne in heaven.
[00:37:26] He took off the glory of his authoritative robe, and he who is rich in glory became poor. The one who is first became last. Jesus, the king of kings became a homeless man with no place to lay his head. And he identified with you in your sackcloth.
[00:37:49] And he was the one left in ashes at the cross.
[00:37:54] But death vomited him out three days later, puked him up. Why? Because he wasn't dying for his sin. He was dying for your sin. And God's wrath was appeased for you.
[00:38:08] And so we read the King of Nineveh who says, who knows? Maybe this God will be merciful. We, well, we raise our hand and we say, no, no, we know he will be merciful. We know because we know Christ.
[00:38:22] And in the same way that Jonah was to be a mirror for Israel, that would lead them to repentance. Here's the truth of the Gospel and I want you to get this as we close.
[00:38:31] The truth of the Gospel is when we turn to Jesus, Jesus becomes a mirror for us.
[00:38:38] We read the Bible, God's word, and we see this glorious, perfect king, the Son whom God loves. And when believe in him and his righteousness in Christ. As you read your Bible and you see all of the perfect, glorious, righteous things Jesus does, guess what? You're looking at a mirror of the way that God sees you.
[00:39:01] And he loves Jesus and he delights in Jesus. And so if you're here today and you hear repentance, oh, that's harsh.
[00:39:10] You need to look in the mirror and you need to look to the cross. And then in the light of the cross, you need to see the mirror of God's mercy for you in Jesus.
