So many believers long for revival in our Nation. So many churches institute program after program…strategy after strategy in an attempt to see the hand of God move our communities. The solution is straightforward. We must, in love and faithfulness, call men to repent. In this message, we will look at God’s simple command to Jonah and the powerful impact of simple, faithful preaching. We will also examine the nature of heartfelt repentance. Despite Jonah’s flaws, the LORD used him to execute His loving plan for Nineveh. We will explore Jonah’s story, the call of the prophet to speak God’s truth to power, and the profound impact on homes, cities, and nations when God’s people obey Him and leaders repent.

Good morning. How do you guys feel this morning? Wonderful time in the conference so far. Anybody just really excited about Jesus Christ this morning? Amen.

Stand with me. We're going to go to Jonah chapter 3 this morning, and we'll stand as we read the Word of God together. It's good to see all of you here. I am extremely excited to be here. Scott keeps inviting me back for some crazy reason, so I'm glad.

And I greet you this morning in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. As we say often at our church, he who holds the seven stars and walks among the seven golden candlesticks, he who was dead and is alive forevermore. Our text this morning is in Jonah. We'll jump right into it because we have a lot that we want to try to impart and by God's grace he'll help us with that. And so here's the word of the Lord for our time together today.

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 a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them, even to the least of them.

For word came unto the king of Nineveh, 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. Yea, let them turn everyone 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?

And God saw their works that they turn from their evil way. And God repented of the evil that he had said he would do unto them, and he did it not. Let's pray together. Father, thank you this morning for the reading of holy scripture. Thank you, Lord, that your word has power to transform our lives.

Thank you that in the hand of the Spirit your word indeed will transform our lives if we but humble ourselves and submit ourselves to you. We love you with all of our hearts this morning. Our hearts are beating faster. We've been quickened by the word that we've heard so far during this mighty conference that's for your own glory. And so we pray that over these next few moments you would keep this sinful man out of error, that you would quicken the ears of those of your precious people who would hear, and that you speak to us from the Holy Bible and by your spirit that we might leave this room differently than the way we came in.

We bless you now and thank you now. In Jesus' name, amen. Before you sit down, we have a tradition at our church. Can you turn to two or three people and just give them a quick handshake or a Holy hug and let them know you love them. Amen.

Amen. I know, I started it. Amen. And once you're finished with that, you may be seated. God bless you all so much.

Thank you for the privilege. I see we're standing room only. There's some for the ladies who are standing in particular. There are many seats here in the front and we obviously would expect any gentleman who sees a lady standing near them to, if possible, to give up their seat so that the sisters can sit down and be comfortable. Well, my name's Carlton, and it's good to see everybody here at this conference.

We are certainly glad to have the privilege. And I've been assigned by my brother Scott this text in Jonah, Jonah chapter 3. And by way of a title, by way of our subject, Repentance and Revival, the Power to Change Kingdoms. Repentance and Revival, the Power to Change Kingdoms. Now I'm just coming out of Kevin Swanson's initial time with us this morning over in Spillman.

And if anyone is, and all of you probably have listened to Kevin Swanson preach, I'm ready to preach now that he's, you know, just when he's finished, I'm ready now. So, man, I tell you what, that's a good way to get motivated, get going. And this story, frankly, this story in Jonah is familiar. You've heard it before, many of you. When we were kids, those of you who are a little older, we were children.

We heard about Jonah. Most of the time It was a Bible story in a Sunday school or a youth group. Or maybe you had a book or something that haunts. I remember a little Jonah and the Happy Whale that swallowed him up. And these nice little cute stories about Jonah that he spent three days and nights in the belly of a happy jolly whale.

Most of you have likely heard at least a sermon or two on this very powerful, succinct, prophetic book. And most of you upon thinking about Jonah can readily recall the reluctant prophet who had some issues with God's command to him and of course by the providence and mercy of God he found himself in quite the pickle until he relented. And so if you studied Jonah, You might also recall and realize that Jonah was likely reluctant because of his distaste for those that he was called to minister to. He frankly didn't want to minister to the Assyrians or the Ninevites, the city that was the capital of Assyria, the enemy of Israel for a very long time. One author writes, when the call of God came to him, Jonah could not see beyond his own selfish desire for God to punish the Assyrians.

How could God want him to take a message of mercy to such a people? Before Jonah could relay God's message, he had to be broken, this author says. He had to learn something about the mercy of the Lord through his flight to Tarshish, his shipwreck, his time in the great fish. Jonah was convinced in a powerful way that all salvation comes from the Lord. Can you say amen?

And because of God's supreme power, only God decides where to pour out his salvation and mercy and that's true and we'll get into a little bit more of that as we as we go forward here this morning But by way of a little bit of background just to make sure we're all playing from the same playing field, Jonah was the son of Amittai. In 2 Kings chapter 14 and verse 25 we learned that Jonah's home was in Gath, Heifer in Galilee. Jonah's mission to Nineveh took place in the reign of the northern kingdom's mightiest monarch, Jeroboam II, as he is often called, who ruled from about 793 to about 753 BC. He prophesied during the days when Assyria was threatening the Northern Kingdom, so his reluctance to take a message of mercy and hope to people threatening his own people is likely understood by many who understand the history. He was reluctant to do this, fearing that this city that was involved in marshaling forces against his own people would be spared.

And indeed, it was spared, at least for a time. Therefore, Jonah fled to Tarshish and was swallowed by a great fish en route. After his release, he obeyed the Lord's commission by preaching to Nineveh. This is kind of a quick overview. And of course, the city repented and was spared.

And as chapter four of Jonah describes in pretty good detail, much to Jonah's displeasure, the city was spared. By way of again a little bit of background on the book, there's some question about how this book was written, who wrote it and so forth. Many believe that Jonah himself was the author. Now there have been great men that have exposited this book over the years and there have been many metaphors and outlines for Jonah that many of you have probably heard. There is one author who saw the four chapters in Jonah as a metaphor for Israel.

He writes, Israel was intended to be a witness for God to the Gentiles in chapter one, that Israel was jealous that a message of grace would be extended to the Gentiles in chapter 4. Israel was thrown into the sea or into the Gentile world and swallowed by the nations, yet not assimilated by them. So I would say this author may be reaching a touch, but I can see where he's going. And Israel was cast upon dry land, restored to the land of Israel and made a blessing to the nations. I've heard others take the book of Jonah like this.

In chapter 1, he was a man running from God. In chapter 2, He was a man running to God. In chapter three, he was a man running with God. And then in chapter four, he was a man running ahead of God. But by all accounts, no matter how we take this prophetic book, Jonah is a different prophetic work.

Keith Matheson said the style of the Book of Jonah is distinctive among prophetic books. Aside from portions of the book, portions of the book of Jeremiah and portions of the Book of Daniel, all of the other prophetic books focus primarily on the message of the prophet. The Book of Jonah, however, is more biological, more of a biographical rather, a prose, a narrative focusing almost exclusively on the prophet himself. The predominant narrative style of the book has more in common with historical narratives about Elijah and Elisha than it does with other prophetic works, and I would agree with that. But our focus for the short time that we have together is on chapter three where we see a very pagan, a very violent, a very ungodly, a very sinful nation change based on one sermon, preached by one guy instantly.

And I don't know about you, but I'm amazed at that. I'm amazed that God has the ability to call someone to prophesy to a pagan, ungodly, violent, just in every way sinful nation and that nation by the mercy and the Providence and the grace of God repents from the top of the nation to the bottom from the leader all the way through every person. And I don't know about you, but that gives me a tremendous amount of hope. Because we're not that far from Nineveh. There's this wonderful passage of scripture in Matthew chapter 12 where our Lord says, you know, one day there's going to be a rebuke from the citizens of Nineveh because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and one greater than Jonah showed up and you have not repented.

We live as Pastor Swanson said a minute ago in some of the most sinful tumultuous times we've ever experienced in the history of this nation. If you'd have told me five or six or seven years ago, eight years ago, that homosexual unions, I refuse to call it marriage, but sodomite unions would be legal in our nation, I would have thought, well maybe 30 years from now, but no time soon. If you'd have told me that people would lose sight of what gender they are, I would have, and do so on almost a wholesale way, if you'd have told me that in order to register on some of our most popular social media sites that there would be, you'd have to pick from 50, 55, 58 genders. If you would have told me that in the year 2017 or maybe 2016, 2015, that we'd have the kind of racial strife that we saw in the 60s. I mean, my joke to my church is I'm a child of the 80s, and we were doing better in the 80s break dancing than we're doing right now.

What in the world is going on? So as we look at the church, as we look at kind of the way in which we have wimplified the gospel, if you look at the soft preach, I don't even want to call it preaching, whatever that is, that passes for a, that's right, we call it talks now. So if you look at the soft talks that we have now that has no power to convict has no power to save But only has power to soothe the consciences of rebellious people I would have told you this cannot be happening yet when I read Jonah and I see the power of God to come upon a man, an obviously flawed man, and give him a message to preach to a nation that was in full scale rebellion against anything righteous and that nation repents. Oh, thank God, friends. Thank God that we serve the kind of God who loves enough and who's merciful enough to send a word in the land.

America can still be saved. Our churches can still be saved. I believe it with all of my heart. And there's some things in Jonah that prayerfully will aid us and maybe bless you and strengthen you in this journey as well. Simply put, Jonah describes one of the most thorough revivals in scripture, albeit temporary.

But one of the most thorough revivals we see in all of scripture, and there are many others. For example, there's the revival that was inspired by Daniel after his miraculous escape from the lion's den in Daniel chapter 6 you might recall then King Darius wrote unto all the people nations and languages that dwell in all the earth peace be multiplied unto you He said I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel for he is the living God and steadfast forever and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed and his dominion shall be even unto the end he deliverth and rescueth and worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth and who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the Lions So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian so here we have the prophet Daniel escaping from the den of the lions by the power and the majesty and the sovereignty of God and the king being so impacted by God's moving through the Prophet Daniel that a decree goes out and the land goes into a complete and total Revival based upon the movement and the power of God friends Do you still believe that we serve a God who can still speak and things can happen?

I don't know about you but I believe, I've read the Bible a couple times and I still believe that God can still move, still rescue, still deliver, and still set free. What about the revival ushered in by King Josiah in 2 Kings chapter 23? That's on the order of what we see in Nineveh. You might recall that after the high priest Hilkiah finds the book of the law in the newly repaired temple that we read about in 2 Kings 22 and 2 Kings 23. You might recall that there was a scribe whose name was Shaphan who read this found book of the law before the king.

And King Josiah, after hearing the heart of God and realizing the nation's sin, rent his clothes, he was in anguish. That he recognized that the nation had forgotten about the God that birthed them. He recognized that for years and years and years the nation had been in rebellion that the nation had Forgotten about the precepts of God forgotten about the temple of God and the worship of God and what God required of them And he was any feared greatly and he said go inquire of the Lord for me and for all the people and for all of Judah concerning the words of this book that is found for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book to do according unto all that is written concerning us." Sounds a little like the modern church. The Bible lets us know that the prophet is hold us spoke some words of comfort to the king. Josiah was spared the worst of God's judgment because he humbled his heart and he immediately set about reviving the nation friends this is the power of the prophetic voice the the king Josiah he gathered the elders he read the law of God to the nation, he renewed the covenant of God, he cleaned up the temple worship, he got rid of all the Baal worship, he removed idolatrous priests and burned and broke idolatrous objects of worship, he stopped child sacrifice to Molech, He reinstituted the Passover and slew godless priests upon the high places.

The Bible declares, moreover, the workers with familiar spirits and the wizards and the images and the idols and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away that he might perform the words of the law that were written in the book that Hezekiah the priest had found in the house of the Lord. And like unto Him was there no king before Him, that, listen, turned to the Lord with all of His heart. The key to revival, the key to restoration, the key to reformation, a turning to the Lord with all of our hearts. Oh, might the Lord rend our hearts and show us areas in which we have failed Him. Might he restore unto us a desire to be obedient to all that he has commanded for his own glory, that true, honest revival, repentance would break out in the land.

Because if it'll happen, if it does happen, it'll start with the Church of the Living God. The Bible lets us know that this King Josiah ushered in a revival, ushered in a reformation in the land because he was broken before the Lord. Why was he broken? Because the Word of God was found and restored and read and he realized immediately that there had been great rebellion and great disobedience in the land. Jonah's preaching ushered in this sort of top to bottom wholesale revival in Nineveh.

If we look at our text for a few moments in Jonah chapter 3 and look at verse 5, we find that all of Nineveh believed the word of the Lord spoken through Jonah. The Bible says, so the people of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least of them. Now that looks like a very simple verse and in fact it is, but those of you that's been in church a while know that preaching is one thing, but people doing what the preacher said is a completely different thing. Say amen if you can. And we're all there, we all get this, right?

We all wonder why is it that it's so hard to see revival? Why is it so hard to see things really change? Well, before we blame the world, as bad as all that is, we have to look at ourselves and realize that we can be extremely obstinate when it comes to the things of God. Can't say amen as Vody would say, you might as well say ouch. We can be extreme, but I'm amazed that here these pagans, these Dagon worshipers, right, These fish god worshipers, we'll get to that in a moment.

These folks that didn't know God at all, this prophet rises out of the sea, literally vomited on the crowd and begins to preach what God called him to preach. I wish I could preach a one sentence sermon and see these kind of results. I have to alliterate and do three points and still don't get these results, but Jonah stands up and says, hey, 40 days, this whole thing's going down, And there's this cry in the land, and this repentance begins to break out. And note in verse 5, there's no hint of argument. No one calls a committee meeting.

No one rushes to the internet to see if their favorite preacher agrees with their current preacher. No one goes to the popular blogs to make sure that, because you know, my preacher's pretty good, but hey, that guy on Gospel Coalition. No, there was just, we're obeying, we're just going, right now we repent. Now, is it possible that we don't have the full history? Well, it's possible, but I believe scripture is sufficient.

And so scripture doesn't give us an argument. Scripture doesn't give us that they called a town meeting to discuss the matter, to weigh the pros and cons of Jonah's message. God had so moved, God had so timed this out, God had so purposed this event that they were ready to hear and they received the word of God as pagans. They received the word of God and they repented. All of Nineveh believed God.

Oh friends, that we might be so receptive to the word of God. Now I know that we're all supposed to be Bereans and I know that we're all supposed to check and make sure and those things are All good But how many of you recognize that we can we can take something good like? Being a good Berean and and seeing if these things are so and become arrogant So that when the Word of God is preached, the Word has to go through all these layers of our own kind of desires and what we want and all of our presuppositions and all that before it even has a chance to penetrate our hearts and take firm roots so that we might be changed. That wasn't the case in Nineveh. Nineveh believed God.

Do you? Do you believe God? Does God have to convince you or Have you gotten to the point yet where his word, when he speaks through his word and through his man's service, it's enough. You just go. If your answer is no, not really, that's not kinda how I roll, well, probably I would say that That's probably not how most people roll.

And yet we wonder what's happening to America. When the church won't hear God, how can we expect the world to hear God? Or does God have to embarrass us and cause a Nineveh situation, pagans hearing the truth before we learned it folks will hear it. All of Nineveh believed God. A city wide fast was proclaimed, we find that out in verse number five as well.

Not only did they believe God, but they were willing to inconvenience themselves and disrupt their lives to fast and pray. Now, was their fast the way that the Israelites would have done it? I don't know, but I'm really, I'm just impressed at the effort here. We read it again here. They even put on sackcloth, which, by the way, was pretty uncomfortable garment.

It wasn't silk. From the greatest, the Bible says of them, to the least of them, which suggests that there was a limiting of pride that no matter your socioeconomic status to put on sackcloth and mourn with the lowliest among you suggests a mighty move of God. And they began to repent, presumably of their own wickedness and their own cruelty. Syria was known to be among the most cruel and violent nations in antiquity. Literally, if you do a little work in the history, the kings would do such capricious, evil things to those that they have conquered.

It's probably not even something that I would say in this room given the audience age levels here, but it was absolutely amazing the level of degradation that existed. And these are the people that put on sackcloth and ashes, or sackcloth at least, and began to repent. Now this heart of repentance was exemplified by the king himself who arose from his throne in verse 6, took off his royal robes, dressed in mourning attire, and sat in ashes." This is the key to revival. This sort of repentance, where we realize our state before God, that we are poor, miserable, blind, lame, and naked. Where we realize that without Him we can't even take a breath.

That everything that we have belongs to him, for the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. That we are literally here today and gone tomorrow, and that we are totally and completely at his behest and totally and completely dependent upon him. Well, the king who had more authority at this moment than probably any other man in the world or in the top four or five at least, got up off of his throne dressed in mourning attire at the preaching of the prophet and at the impending destruction that was to fall down upon Nineveh and he began to repent, oh my friends, this is what's needed. Can you imagine, Can you imagine our president getting on television, dressed in sackcloth, and saying, I repent? I know it's funny to even think about it, right?

I repent for my sins, for my arrogance, for the things that I've done. And I ask the nation to join me in humbly Beseeching God for the next 30 days that he would once again shower down his blessings upon us Well in order for that to happen somebody would have to be preaching to him Because transformation comes by the Word of God always. I can imagine it. Doesn't seem like it is anywhere close to that right now. But it starts with us.

All of Assyria was compelled by royal decree to repent and cry out mightily to God, turn from evil and violence in the hope that God might turn and repent and be merciful. And that is exactly what happened. Nineveh was not destroyed in 40 days. It took another 150 years or so for Assyria to get theirs, if you will. But God did relent based upon the repentant hearts that he saw in Nineveh.

Do you think God might relent if he saw repentant hearts in our churches now? Because it looks to me, you know, we can argue this point, but America, although there's pockets of revival, we seem to be under a pretty severe judgment from our economics and our debt all the way to the destruction of our churches and families. Oh, may the Lord help us. May the Lord help us. Now the Ninevites eventually did go back to their old ways and God eventually did deal with them.

But this revival was amazing, considering the power of this nation. It was prideful, it was violent, and the Bible declares that it was an exceeding great city. Popular Bible Dictionary states that, in the books of Jonah and Nahum, Nineveh is described as an immense city, three days journey in circuit, containing more than 120, 000 young children, or probably 600, 000 souls. It contained much cattle and numerous parks, garden groves, et cetera. Its inhabitants were wealthy, warlike, and advanced in civilization.

It had numerous strongholds with gates and bars, and had multiplied its merchants above the stars. Its crowned princes were as locusts, and its captains as grasshoppers. Nineveh was said to be 21 miles long, nine miles broad, and 54 miles in circumference. That its walls were 100 feet high and so broad that three chariots could drive upon them abreast. And that it had 1, 500 towers, each 200 feet high.

It was, in fact, an exceeding great city. And so, I said that to make the point even clearer, that for such a mighty city in antiquity to repent at what we have as a one sentence sermon. Maybe there was more, but that's all we have. It shows you that we serve a God who can do whatever he wants whenever he wants, with whomever he wants. And he can do it now.

So it's not hopeless. It's not over. Jesus Christ is still on the throne. So I have a question for you. When preparing this message in summary form, I wrote, so many believers long for revival in our nation, I would say all of us in this room do as well.

So many churches institute program after program, strategy after strategy in an attempt to see the hand of God move in our communities. My question is this, but without programs, without slick marketing, Why was Jonah's message so effective? Why did this kingdom change so powerfully? Now, I'm just a sinner saved by grace, and so I can't possibly give you the answer to that imperfection, but I would like to humbly offer three answers to that question for your consideration, and that will likely consume the rest of our time together, answering these questions. Number one, or dealing with these statements.

Jonah was positioned by God for his mission. Number two, Jonah's heart was prepared for his message. And Number three, Jonah's message was prophetic. It precisely pricked the hearts of the hearers. One more time, Jonah was positioned by God for his mission.

Number two, Jonah's heart was prepared for his message, although he struggled later on. And number three, Jonah's message was prophetic. It precisely pricked the hearts of the hearers. Now let's deal a little bit with number one. Jonah was positioned for his mission.

Once one pulls back a little bit and looks at everything that happened in this wonderful prophetic book, we see very clearly that God was up to something and weaving a plan together to save and to bless and to be merciful to the Assyrians. In chapter 1 of Jonah, we see Jonah's initial reaction to God's command. Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and soothe them and meet their felt needs. Did you catch that? He didn't tell them, go to Nineveh and create a strategy before you go.

Call in all the smart guys with iPads. And sit around at Starbucks figuring out how we can get this done. Didn't do that, did he? He says go, and the language he used, cry out, not even with the city, but against the city. How different is that from what we think is effective, although we ought to look around and see maybe not so much?

Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry it against it, for their wickedness is come up before me. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa, and he found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare thereof and went down into it to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. Jonah should have known better than that. There's no place to escape the presence of the Lord.

But Jonah's initial reaction isn't so great. Jonah basically says, Lord I don't want to do that. Friends, is this the modern church or what hey church the wickedness of the nation has come up to me I see it it's foul in my in my in my nostrils 3, 000 babies a day racial strife just people who don't know what gender they are. Cry out against it that I might use the prophetic voice to break their hearts and wake them up and point them to me. Oh no, Lord, we can't do that.

We'll lose members. God, we won't be accepted in our suburban manicured community. We'll never draw the Volvo driving private school attending five bedroom, four bath family that by the way can give a lot to the church, will never. Will all of the metrics might go down, And of course, we judge who we are by the metrics. Can't do that, Lord.

So church just gets in a boat and goes to Tarshish. We read about Jonah's travails aboard ship, and we're amazed at the power and the determination of God to show mercy to the Assyrians. We don't have time to cover it all, but the Lord, he says, okay Jonah, this will not stand. Just look at the mercy here. He could have called someone else and said, Jonah, forget it, I'll call one of your contemporaries who was prophesying at the same time, but he didn't do that.

The Bible says he hurled a great wind upon the sea. There was a mighty tempest on the sea so that the ship threatened to break up. Even the sailors on the ship, they were afraid, and each cried out to his God. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah, wow, what a picture.

Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and laid down and was fast asleep. In his rebellion, he was comfortable. Is that us or what? All around us there is all of this chaos going on and God trying to get our attention, trying to get our attention, trying to get our attention. And we're going, no God, you know what, I'm happy.

I'm just going to go on Twitter and let everybody know I love the Lord and I'm gonna keep business as usual. I'm not really gonna adjust myself to anything that you said. I'm just gonna sleep down here in the ship. Does God then have to arouse those around us and put them in peril for us to listen. The Bible goes on to say, the captain came and said to him, what do you mean sleeper, arise, call out to your God, Jonah why are you asleep?

So they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah and they said to him, to make a long story short, how did all this happen? Because it's you, Jonah. You're the problem. Hey, can I help you? It's us.

We're the problem. I believe God still wants to reconcile men and women to himself. Do you believe that? And I believe that we're the prophets in the land. We're the voice of God in the land in terms of preaching the word of God.

Do you believe that? Because if we don't preach it, who will? We can't expect pagans to preach it. They need us to preach it. But are we down in the bottom of the ship to sleep?

Does somebody have to come wake us up and say, what in the world is going on? Well, you know the rest of the story. Eventually Jonah goes overboard, And he ends up in the water because of his rebellion before the Lord. But even then, God's not finished with Jonah. Great mercy is extended to Jonah.

The Bible tells us very clearly. So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea in chapter 1 verse 15. And the sea ceased its raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

There's a vacation for you. Friends, this event was not just appointed by God, it was purposed by God, it was part of the plan. I am amazed at the sovereignty of God, who somehow can even weave in our rebellion to his plan. I'm amazed that when I have done this, I've done this, by the way, has anyone in the room, maybe you didn't verbalize it because you knew better, but has anyone in your room, practically based on your actions, just said no to God? You'd never say no, God, but based on your actions, You've read something in the scriptures, and it's exactly what God wants, and you go, meh, oh, I don't know, God.

It's quiet in here all of a sudden. What's going on, guys, y'all okay? This was appointed and purposed by God. Why? Because God was sending Jonah to people who worship fish.

The Assyrians and Nineveh worshiped Dagon and his female counterpart, the fish goddess Nanshi. Dagon was a fish god, or dag in Hebrew literally means fish. He was represented, this false god Dagon, was represented as half man, half fish. The transportation God provided for Jonah, a fish people, would have been exceedingly meaningful to the Ninevites. What a sovereign God.

God sees that Jonah is gonna rebel, and weaves it all into his plan, and appoints a fish of some type, right? It was probably a large one. A fish of some type and Jonah goes into the belly of the fish and God sustains him supernaturally with oxygen and an environment wherein he could live for three days. And the fish vomits, the And the fish vomits, the Bible says, Jonah up onto the land of a nation that worships a fish god. So if you're doing your Dagon worship services there near the shore of where Jonah pops up, can you see where I'm going with this?

And you're having a good old Dagon worship time and there's some Dagon tambourines and a Dagon catechism. Someone comes out and gives a Dagon text and they're talking about the Dagon Puritans and the Dagon reformers. And someone looks out the window and here comes this smelly, probably bleached white from the insides of the fish, this very odd looking prophet and you look out and maybe Some child looks out the window and boom, they see a fish rise up and go whoosh. And they're gonna go, ah! Poof!

And they're going, oh my goodness! Look at what we're about to experience here! And they get what they don't expect. God set this entire thing up to show mercy to the Assyrians so they would know that he's Lord over a fish and everything else and they repent and cry out to God. Henry Trumbull wrote, what better heralding as a divinely sent messenger to Nineveh could Jonah have had than to be thrown up out of the mouth of a great fish in the presence of witnesses, say, on the coast of Phoenicia, where the fish god was a favorite object of worship.

Such an incident would have inevitably aroused the curious nature of observers so that a multitude would be ready to follow the seemingly new avatar of the Fish God, proclaiming the story of his uprising from the sea as he went on his mission to the city where the fish God had its very center of worship. God used Jonah in a miraculous way to get the attention of the people. Yes, smelly, fishy Jonah showed up and declared, yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. In other words, everything you thought you knew, now that I have your attention, is wrong. You're about to be overthrown in 40 days.

Please note these four observations as it relates to revival and to repentance. Jonah made no attempt to appeal to felt needs. God did that. Please hear this part, please hear me. All he did was focus on the message that God had given him, the message that was purposed by God.

Jonah made No attempt to appeal to felt needs. Now, you know, this is, the theology of that is beyond the scope of this, but just by way of encouragement, sometimes we're a little too smart for our own good. God did that, he took care of that. He took care of the felt needs part. Again, he came up out of a fish.

God did that. Number two, Jonah didn't call a strategy meeting to figure out how to meet them where they are. God did that. The sovereign God did that all by himself. Three, Jonah didn't devise a whale-oriented marketing strategy complete with whale websites, a whale-themed strategy roll out of buttons, flyers, and t-shirts, and a Hear the Whale writer hashtag on Twitter.

God did that. The word spread. This was a huge city. And as he walked through the city, surely he walked many places, but surely the word was traveling faster than he was to produce such a widespread, wholesale repentance unto God that we see in Nineveh. Something that Jonah couldn't have crafted if he wanted to.

That was the hand of God. Jonah simply entered the city and began preaching the message that God had given him. And so yes indeed friends this was all purposed by God. Number two, Jonah's heart had been prepared by God. He was he was penitent.

Listen to the heart of Jonah in Jonah chapter 2 as he both celebrates his miraculous deliverance from the sea but mourns his circumstances. The Bible declares in Jonah 2 verses 1 through 4, Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly and said, I cried for reason of mine affliction unto the Lord. And he heard me. Out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. For thou hast cast me into the deep in the midst of the seas, and the floods compassed about me about all the billows and thy waves passed over me.

Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight, yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. There in the belly of the fish, he gets it, That it was God who saved him. That it was God whereupon he needs to readjust his focus. That it was God who works all things together for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose. It's God who's sovereign and works things according to the Council of his own will.

In the belly of the fish Jonah realizes if temporarily a few things, he realizes that God will manifest his will, that the will of God is certain, that when God decides to do a thing, it will happen. Amen? God will accomplish his divine purposes. And I wanted to include that part to give you hope. Yes, it's bad out there.

Yes, we are in desperate need, but we serve a mighty, mighty God. Hallelujah. Who has never failed, nor can he fail. And so beyond our vision, beyond what we see or what we think, he's still working all things according to the counsel of his very own will and in the end of all things everything that he has purposed will be reconciled unto himself all we need to do is is is here the purpose of God and go obey God and he and he alone is responsible for the results. It's certain God's will will happen.

This produces in the believer joy. Number two here that God is merciful. Jonah learns this in the belly of the fish. Even to a rebellious prophet And everyone in the room has been rebellious at one time or another. So I lift my hands and shout, hallelujah.

Thank you, Lord, for being merciful to a rebellious sinner like me. Despite our faults and failures, we serve a merciful and faithful high priest who can identify with all of our weaknesses and chooses toward us to be gracious and to be forgiving and Jonah learns that again in the belly of the fish. And lastly in the belly of the fish Jonah is reminded that God is mighty. He is Lord over creation and able to do anything that pleases Him. Nothing is outside of His power.

And I'd say to you friends, even today, As we get into the third point, nothing is outside the authority and the power of God. Oh, that we might not dumb God down to fit into our theology. But that we might recognize that if today, if God decides He wants to call a fish to do something, He can call a fish to do something. And sometimes I fear that we have so codified God into a nice, neat little package. It's part of our sin nature.

We want to be able to understand everything. He's God! You do realize that if we could fully understand everything about Him, He'd be more like us than like Him. On the one hand, we say, God, do a miracle, save this nation. On the other hand, but here's the way it has to be done, Lord.

May we repent of our arrogance in thinking that we know better than God. Because today, If God decides, hey, I'm going to send a whale to do something, the whales will start moving. That leads me to my third and final point as we try to bring this in for a landing here. Jonah's message was prophetic. Jonah's message was prophetic.

Now, by prophetic, let me get this out at the outset. I don't mean mean-spirited. Okay, and I'll give you some characteristics of prophetic preaching here in a minute. I don't mean mean-spirited. I mean, sent by God.

A word was put in his mouth to say, say this. And Jonah went and said that. And Jonah began to enter the city. A day's journey. And he cried and said, yet 40 days.

And Nineveh shall be overthrown. Jonah's cry aloud and spare not message to Nineveh was one of impending doom. Some say we are likely given the message in some reform, but nevertheless, what we are given is simple, straight to the point, and presumably based upon the results, presumably, saturated with the anointing of God because the message was preached and the people responded. The message was timely. It was cutting.

It was certain. It was perceived by the hearer to be truth, and they moved. There is no record, again, of Ninevite obstinance, just near instant obedience. It was exactly what the Ninevites needed to hear, which is amazing from a 2017 perspective because Jonah, To many of us, maybe not in this room, but to many of us in the West, in the contemporary culture, Jonah would have, he would have looked like and sounded like that crazy fundamentalist preacher on the corner, screaming, "'Repent, For the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Are you ready to meet Jesus, friend?

Or will you spend an eternity in hell apart from the living God in torment and fire and in brimstone? You know that guy on the corner that we roll our windows up real fast? Or that guy on the corner where the modern church says he's doing more harm than good? Well, tell that to Nineveh, because that's exactly how Jonah must have sounded. Out of nowhere, here he comes with the prophetic message that disrupts everything about their way of life.

Jonah's prophetic message could not be more different than our modern approach at evangelism and attempts at revival. I think most of the West would have dismissed Jonah out of hand, labeling him judgmental, insensitive, archaic, unloving, and mean-spirited. Could the loss of the prophetic voice be at least a part?" Now I'm asking the question, obviously I think so, that's why I'm preaching it, but you know I'm fallible, so could the loss of the prophetic voice be at least a part of what ails the church in the modern day? Now there are two kinds of prophetic preaching in Scripture that in the hands of the Holy Spirit brought about revival, forth-telling and foretelling. Forth-telling cares the connotation of speaking forth the Word of God, even the parts that some might find uncomfortable.

Foretelling historically has been when God gives a word to someone that frames the future a certain way, normally warning the hearer of coming judgment, and this is what we see in Nineveh, judgment's coming. I'm telling you by the word of the Lord that in 40 days you'll be overthrown. There's a long biblical history of people who are called by God and giving prophetic utterances for the glory of God and the good of God's people. Interestingly, both of these types of preaching, both forth and foretelling, are shunned today. Well, time doesn't allow me, nor would I think it'd be appropriate to deal with all of that here.

But I think this is backwards, with the very message that God gives and the very methodologies that we see in Scripture are so shunned by His church today. Characteristics of prophetic preaching, number one. Prophetic preaching is biblical. From the prophet Samuel to John the Baptist, God often uses prophets over nations and over kingdoms to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant. It's biblical.

It's what we see in Scripture. Number two, and oh by the way, it's the bulk of what we see in Scripture. Number two, it's uncomfortable for the modern church, sadly. Caught in the hazy maze of easy believe-ism, cruise line church comforts, and disdain for corrective preaching, one of the Lord's most used divine methodologies has been cut out of modern worship and modern evangelism. And I'm primarily referring now, of course, to forth-telling.

Forth-telling is a nonstarter for many, and I understand that. Nevertheless, there were prophets in the church in Jerusalem, prophets in the church at Antioch, prophets given as gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4, and the regulation of prophetic utterances by Scripture in the church given in 1 Corinthians, chapter 14. Amen. The Bible declares, Follow after charity and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy. The Bible declares if therefore the whole church come together in one place and all speak with tongues and there come in those that are unlearned or unbelievers will they not say ye are mad but if all prophecy, this is the power of this, if all prophecy, no matter what your definition of prophecy is, just listen to the principle.

But if all prophesy and there come in one that believeth not or one unlearned, he is convinced of all and is judged of all, and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest. Hey, Nineveh, you're going down in 40 days! And so falling down on his face he will worship God and report that God is in you of a truth. Where is that in our churches? Where people come in and they hear the secrets of their heart read out before them and go okay it wasn't your button it wasn't your meal it wasn't your hot dog in the parking lot but I heard stuff that I know You couldn't possibly know.

Where's that? That doesn't fit. Can the Lord Jesus, my question to you, use the church in any manner that he desires according to scripture? Now don't get nervous. What I'm pointing out is a what if scenario.

What if God wanted to speak and declare Jonah like doom to prick men's hearts today? Would we be willing to go or would we get on the ship and go to Tarshish? God uses his law for that certainly, but is our sovereign God allowed, I was gonna use the word speak here, but I don't want to now, so let's try something different. Is he allowed to give insight to us, to Nudge us, guide us, prompt us, prod us, superintend us to touch who we need to touch for the glory of God. And never mind foretelling, let's just think about forthtelling, why is it so hard for us to call men to repent?

What are we afraid of? As long as we do it lovingly, why are we so afraid? I'm out of time. Let me quickly say this. Prophetic preaching disrupts kingdoms.

Timely but humble nature of the prophetic message shakes things up. From the prophet Elisha telling the secrets of the heart of the king of Syria to the king of Israel, to John the Baptist disrupting Herod and his little ungodly marriage, We need this today. Prophetic preaching is convincing the hearer, convicting to the hearer rather, and it demands a response. We learned this week, I learned this week in a session, teaching informs, preaching moves, we need both. Prophetic preaching is loving.

It was an act of love that God sent Jonah to Nineveh to declare what must have sounded, it would sound like to modern ears like an unloving message. Forty days it's coming down. The results though prove the heart of God. They repented in sackcloth and cried out to him. Friends, what if the church, and I'm closing now, what if the church in the black church, preacher has about three doors on his message when he closes, so I'm on door two.

What if the church understood that we are purposed by God for such a time as this? What if our faith was less in our ingenuity and more in the simple, powerful, loving message of God for this generation? The Gospel of Jesus Christ. What if we were more open to preach the way God calls us to preach? Might this cause us to speak forth the things of God and trust God for the outcome?

What if the church simply declared God's message with simplicity? Might we see revival? What if we humbly walked in a greater understanding of the sovereignty of God, regardless of whether God sends you to someone who you think may not hear or that you don't want to go to. As we close, may the Lord, that was my third door, may the Lord Jesus Christ help us do all of these things and more for his honor and for his praise. Amen.

Amen. Father, thank you for the reading of the word of God today. Thank you for these wonderful people who heard. Lord, forgive the feeble speaker for any errors that I may have made that caused your people to hear, not those, but those things that you've ordained, encouraged them in their spheres of influence. I'd like to pray, Lord, for fathers here that they would go home and prophesy the word of God to their children, to speak forth the word to them.

I pray for mothers here who, that they would go and pray and prophesy and declare the word of God to their children. I pray that we would all do the same in our spheres of influence, our neighborhoods, our communities, that you would raise up the prophetic voice in the land, that we, with humbled hearts, hearts prepared by you and lives and a message purposed by you, would be used like Jonah was used to declare to a lost and dying world the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ that he alone saves us. I pray Father that everyone in the room whether they have a title or not but realize that they've been given a voice and that their lives have meaning and you've called them to be a part of what you're doing in the earth. And I pray, Father, that these precious people would leave in courage today, leave strengthened, leave ready to do what thus says the Lord. In Jesus' name, Amen.