The sermon by Jason Dohm titled 'The God who Sends, Warns, and Relents' focuses on Jonah chapter 3, emphasizing God's role as the central character. It recounts Jonah's second chance to deliver God's message to Nineveh, highlighting the city's repentance and God's mercy in relenting from destruction. The speaker underscores the importance of repentance, contrasting it with other biblical examples, and stresses that God's warnings are acts of mercy intended to lead to repentance. The sermon challenges listeners to reflect on their own obedience to God and encourages them to pray with the belief that God can change hearts, as demonstrated by the Ninevites' response to Jonah's message.

Jonah chapter 3. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city and preach to it the message that I tell you." So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent, and Jonah began to enter the city on the first day's walk. Then he cried out and said, Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them.

Then word came to the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Do not let them eat or drink water, But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily to God, yes, let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent and turn away his fierce anger so that we may not perish. Then God saw their works and they turned from their evil way and God relented from the disaster that he had said would bring upon them and he did not do it.

Let's pray. Oh Lord God, how can the people hear unless someone speaks? So God we thank you for Jonah and the work you did in him to turn him around, to bring him to repentance. Lord God, we know that without you, this is all in vain. Lord, unless you build the house, we labor in vain.

So Lord, please be with Jason, speak through him. I pray, Lord, that you would speak directly to us that you would convict us that you would help us to look into our own lives to seek ways we are running from you or ways that we are not obeying you in what you have called us to do. Lord, please open our eyes, help us to glorify you. Please bless the rest of this service in Jesus name, amen. Title of the sermon this morning is the God who Sins, Warns, and Relents.

With the title I'm doing my best to keep God as the central character of the book of Jonah. Jonah is an important but secondary character in the book that bears his name. In chapter 1, the word of the Lord came to Jonah and he rebelled and disobeyed and ran. But God wasn't content to leave it there even though God didn't need Jonah to accomplish his purposes. It's so important that we embrace that thought.

God wasn't in need of Jonah to accomplish his purposes, But he desired to use Jonah and he desired to give Jonah a second opportunity to play a part in his plan. So God sent a tempest. The sovereign God in heaven sent an incredible storm that was breaking apart the ship. And then when Jonah's shipmates threw him overboard, God had prepared a great fish, that's what chapter 1, 17 says, not to devour him but to save his life. So as we come to chapter 3, let's ask the Lord to help us.

Oh Holy Spirit of God, you are like the wind. Our eyes can't see you, but we can detect your presence from the things that happen. Like we see trees swaying and knowing that the wind is doing that, we can see evidences of the work of your spirit that could never be attributed to anything else. Now we're brought to Jonah chapter 3 and we see evidences that only your spirit could produce. And so even though our eyes didn't see you, we know that it had to have been you.

I thank you for that. These clear evidences that you don't stand at a distance from your world, but you're so actively engaged as the king of it. Let our hearts rejoice in that. In Jesus' name, Amen. We're going to split the chapter in two, So we'll begin with Jonah 3 verses 1 through 4.

Hopefully your finger is still there. Follow along as I reread Jonah 3 verses 1 through 4. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time saying, arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you. So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent.

Jonah began to enter the city on the first day's walk. Then he cried out and said, Yet forty days in Nineveh shall be overthrown." In these four verses we have God's dealings with Jonah. Now the wording of chapter three is so like the wording of chapter 1 that it has to be on purpose. There's no way that the author couldn't mean it. So what I want to do is to read the first three verses of chapter 1 and clear out everything in between and read the first three verses of chapter 3 so that you can see almost the identical language that we have here.

And again, the author must mean it. Must be doing this on purpose. So, Jonah chapter 1. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it, for their wickedness has come up before me. But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

I'll stop there. Now verse chapter 3 again. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, exactly the same words, the second time saying, arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, exactly the same words, and preach to it the message that I tell you. So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. I'll stop there.

So rewind, replay. That's what the beginning of chapter 3 is. It's a replay to indicate that Jonah is being given a second chance to do what he should have done but didn't do at the beginning of the book. This is very gracious of God. I know you've heard this saying, God is a God of second chances.

To which I say, tell that to Ananias and Sapphira. Who God killed on the spot for lying to the Holy Spirit. Now when people say God is a God of second chances, as long as they mean God is very patient, God is very gracious, God so often gives people an additional opportunity, we would all say, amen to that. But if they mean God has to extend another chance to you endlessly, that's wrong. That's not true.

We should see the goodness and the kindness and the graciousness of God to deal with Jonah not as his sins deserved. We're seeing God's grace here. God's doing what he has no obligation to do, which is to give Jonah a second opportunity to be used in the accomplishment of his purposes. In chapter 1 Jonah is told to cry out against Nineveh because of their wickedness. In chapter 3 Jonah is told to preach to Nineveh the message that God tells him.

In other words, God says in chapter 3, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and either on the way or when you're there, I'll tell you, I'll put the words in your mouth to say to these people, that must have been a great comfort to Jonah. Why? Because what's implied here is that God's going with Jonah. You arise, you go, and tell them the message that I give you. Either on the way or when you're there I'll give you this message.

I go with you to Nineveh. So Jonah as a prophet of God is reaffirmed here. Jonah is not a free agent. Jonah is not going to preach his own word. He is going to cry out words that God puts in his mouth.

He is being sent with a messenger. He is an ambassador for the king to deliver the news that God is going to war with this great city. Jonah went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. God told him to go And he arose and went. Just like in chapter 1 God said, arise, go.

You have this urgency here. Like, stand up and go. There's an expectation of immediate obedience. And now, very different than chapter 1, Jonah arises and goes. We aren't given any time markers, but Nineveh is roughly 500 miles away, so if you're going on foot, and Jonah was probably going on foot, this would take you a good month.

This would take you a hard month of travel to go from somewhere in Israel, wherever he was to Nineveh. Nineveh is called that great city in verse 2. And it is called an exceedingly great city, a three day journey in extent in verse 3. That could mean that it takes you three days to walk from one edge to the opposite edge, or it could mean it would take a prophet three days to go through to preach in the prominent places in that city. Either way, God wants us to know it's a great city.

That great city. An exceedingly great city. Matthew Henry, in his commentary, quotes Diodorus Siculus. I looked him up, I googled him. And he is Diodorus of Sicily, a Greek historian who died about 30 years before the Lord Jesus was born.

So maybe 700 years after the time of Jonah, this Greek historian commented on Nineveh. Listen to this. This is what Matthew Henry said. It was much larger than Babylon. Such a city, says Deodorus Siculus, as no man ever after built.

The walls 100 feet high and so thick that three chariots might go abreast upon it. On them were 1, 500 towers, each of them 200 feet high. So this Greek historian says that the walls around the city were 100 feet high and so broad that three chariots abroad could go on the wall and that there were 1, 500 towers along the wall, 200 feet high. So 100 foot walls with 200 foot towers. Now This sounds to me like exaggeration.

I don't know but That's amazing if it's not exaggeration, but even if it's exaggeration it sort of proves the point This is a city of legendary Size and strength So think one of the greatest cities in the world. By the year 612 BC, which would be about 100 years later, by that year, historians say it was the largest city on earth by population. So you should be thinking one of the very greatest cities on earth may be the most populous city on earth. Chapter 4 says there's a hundred and twenty thousand people who live there. Now look at verse four.

And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day's walk. Then he cried out and said, yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. It's just eight words in English, it's five in Hebrews. So the great message from the prophet of God to Nineveh is five words in Hebrew. The Hebrew word rendered, cried out, is the same as preach in verse 2.

So Jonah is doing exactly what God told him to do. God told him to preach in verse two and in verse four. The first day as he enters the city he is preaching or he is crying out. That's the same Hebrew word. The point from the author of Jonah, whether that's Jonah or somebody else being, Jonah is doing exactly what God told him to do.

I look at those five Hebrew words, or those eight English words, and I say this, not much of a sermon. I suspect it's just the summary. If we go back to chapter 1, God told him to cry out against it for their wickedness had come up from before him. My guess is Jonah had a lot to say, pressing on their consciences that God had seen all their wickedness and naming the sins. But the text doesn't say that.

Jonah tells the Ninevites that Ninevah shall be overthrown. It's the exact same Hebrew word used in Genesis 19 repeatedly of Sodom and Gomorrah. That same Hebrew word is used before the utter total destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and after in Genesis 19. Same word. What does it mean to be overthrown?

It means to be utterly destroyed. And you can tell as we work through chapter 3 that the Ninevites got the point of what was being said. But unlike Sodom and Gomorrah, God sent them a prophet to warn them and he promised to delay forty days before their utter destruction. Don't miss the mercy that is built into this text. God sent a prophet to warn them.

God gave them time. Turn if you would to Jeremiah 18. Jeremiah 18. I want to read just two verses. Jeremiah 18 verses 7 and 8.

God says, the instant I speak Concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to pluck it up To pull down and destroy it so we're right here with our text right he sends the prophet to say I'm plucking you up I'm pulling you down and destroying you If that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. So you get God's purpose here. He sends a prophet to talk beyond the destruction as if it's already happened. He sends a prophet to say, because of your wickedness, I'm plucking you up. I'm pulling you down.

I'm utterly destroying you. And if they turn, he'll relent. He'll relent. His purpose isn't to destroy them, though he promises to destroy them. His purpose is to warn them so that they'll turn.

If he wanted to destroy them, he could make Nineveh like Sodom and Gomorrah like that. It's nothing to God to make Nineveh like Sodom and Gomorrah. To do that, He doesn't need to send a prophet to say a word. He just sends brimstone from heaven to make them nothing in an instant. Back to Jonah 3.

Now verses 5 through 10. Follow along. Jonah 3 verses 5 through 10. So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. Then word came to the king of Nineveh and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes.

And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Do not let them eat or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily to God, yes, let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands." Who can tell if God will turn and relent and turn away from his fierce anger so that we may not perish? Then God saw their works that they turned from their evil way. And God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.

In these verses we have God's dealings with the Ninevites. How wonderful. This whole chapter is so refreshing. You get the prophet who would run away the first time getting a second chance from God and then immediately rising and going to Nineveh and preaching exactly the words that God puts in his mouth. And now you get the people of Nineveh heeding the warning of God, believing that it's God talking to them, and wholesale repenting.

So The people of Nineveh, chapter 4 verse 11 says there are more than 120, 000 of them believed God proclaimed to fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. Find a more encouraging verse in the Bible than that one. You'd have a hard time. It would be a struggle. Men and women, old and young, The king and the beggars.

Everyone from the greatest to the least believe that the words of the prophet are actually the words of God. Notice, who did everyone believe? Jonah? No, The text doesn't say the people believed Jonah, it says the people believed God. Paul came with a warning and good news to a pagan people in Thessalonica?

Here's what he says after he came and brought the gospel to this pagan city somewhat like Nineveh I'm sure with the sins of pagan cities. Listen to what Paul says after he had come and gone from Thessalonica in 1 Thessalonians 2 verse 13. Paul writes this, for this reason we also thank God without ceasing Because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it, not as the word of man, but as it is in truth the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe. You who believe. What's Paul saying?

He says, we thank God that when you heard what we were preaching you had the grace to realize it wasn't Paul preaching. It was God warning you and giving you the good news of Jesus Christ. He could look and see the reception of his preaching as a sign that God had been there convincing them that it was really God's words and not Paul's words. Listen to what John MacArthur says in the study notes of his study bible. Nineveh's repentance may have been aided by two plagues, 765 and 759 BC, and a solar eclipse, 763 BC.

So you've got two plagues within a decade with a solar eclipse between them, preparing them for Jonah's judgment message. That's possible. The time frame is right. Historians outside of the Bible say that in Assyria during this time, they had experienced two plagues and a solar eclipse near the time when Jonah would have come there. Maybe God providentially worked in these ways and maybe others to prepare the ground for them to receive this seed so that it would grow and there would be a harvest.

Maybe God providentially worked in those ways. But at the center of it is God. Even if God did these things supernaturally, brought plagues, brought a solar eclipse, it doesn't make it less God, it makes it still God. Still God. It's supernatural.

The repentance that the greatest city on earth would receive a strange foreigner, his word, as the word of God, and repent at it is as supernatural as the tempest in chapter 1 and as the whale in chapter two. It is God's doings. Jonah preached, he cried out, claiming to bring a message from God and the people believed that God really sent him. And so they urgently responded. They believed that God had sent a prophet and they believed that unless they did something in 40 days their city would be wiped off the face of the earth.

They believed it. And so they acted on it. There is this physical symbol of their grief over their pronouncement. They proclaim a fast and they put on sackcloth. Word makes it to the king.

Of course word made it to the king. If you got a widespread fast and people in sackcloth publicly repenting and and he too is convinced that this is wonderful kings are notoriously prideful stubborn because they notoriously attribute the power and riches that are in their hands as their own doing, not God's. They misinterpret life's circumstances to be their own doing. But this king was given the grace to see that these words were the words of God. And so he gets up off the throne, he lays aside his kingly garments, and he joins the people in wearing sackcloth.

The king's heart really is in the hands of the Lord. Proverbs 21.1. You see it here. The people had proclaimed a fast. The king intensifies it.

You see that? It says that the people believed God and proclaimed a fast, but now he intensifies it all. He backs it with a royal decree from himself and the nobles. And he says that no one or nothing, not even the animals, should eat or drink. You can't do that for very long.

We don't know how long the fast lasted. We know if they're not eating or drinking, you can't do that for long. Everyone is told what not to do. Don't eat, don't drink so much as water. Don't let your animals eat or drink.

By the way, this sounds very strange to us, putting your animals in sackcloth. Historians say, yep, that's exactly what the Assyrians did. They included their livestock in their mourning rituals, in their rituals of sorrow. They included their livestock in that. And so they're told what not to do, and they're told what to do.

One, cry mightily to God. Imagine if you prayed like your life depended on it. That's what these people are doing. They're praying like their life depends on it. They're crying mightily to God.

These are not lukewarm, unimpassioned prayers. These are people who are praying like their life depends on it because their life depends on it. And two, they are to turn from doing evil and the violence that's in their hands. Listen to Proverbs 28-13. I actually think Proverbs 28-13 is a very important Bible verse that we should know well.

Proverbs 28-13. He who covers his sins will not prosper. But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. So the word repentance doesn't even appear in Proverbs 28-13, but I think it's a wonderful definition of repentance, because the two elements of true repentance are brought together. The confession of sin, owning it, Agreeing with God that what you've done is not right.

Owning it. And turning from it. Some people Own their sin, confess their sin, but they never turn from it. That's not true repentance. But both of these elements are required for true repentance.

And both of these elements are found here. It's at least the start of the forsaking of sin. Turn to Matthew chapter 3. Matthew chapter 3, John the Baptist could be preaching a sermon on Proverbs 28-13, the confessing and the forsaking of sin. Matthew chapter 3.

I'll be reading verses 1 through 10. This is right before the baptism of Jesus. We won't get all the way there, but this is that same chapter. Matthew chapter 3 verses 1 through 10. Follow along.

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Now John himself was clothed in camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem, all Judea and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized him in the Jordan confessing their sins. So everyone is coming out to see this wild man, this prophet who wears camel's hair and eats locusts.

And he is preaching repentance. He is crying out, preaching repentance. And the people are coming out to be baptized confessing their sins. Verse 7. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, brood of vipers who warns you to flee from the wrath to come.

Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance. I said the people are coming out And they are repenting, they are confessing their sins, but John the Baptist points at Pharisees and Sadducees and says bear fruits worthy of repentance. And do not think to say to yourselves we have Abraham as our father. For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones and even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

John the Baptist is preaching and acknowledging that it's not enough just to come out and do some outward religious things. It is good to be baptized. It's good to confess sin, to own sin, but it's not enough. All those things can be done without actually ever turning away from sin. Now look back to Jonah chapter 3.

Look again at what the king says in verse 9. It's part of the decree. Who can tell if God will turn and relent and turn away from his fierce anger so that we may not perish. The King acknowledges that no amount of confessing sin or even forsaking sin obligates God to have mercy. No amount of confessing, no amount makes you have unsinned.

You can hold out hope for a pardon, but Confessing and turning doesn't make you not guilty of the sins that you already did. You understand? This is such an important concept. If that's not true, it would be enough just to turn over a new leaf. And there's no need for Jesus because nobody has to die for their sins.

The least of all Jesus for your sins. You just turn over a new leaf and do better. No, no, no. The Gospel has nothing to do with turning over a new leaf. It has to do with receiving a pardon and that pardon is paid for by Jesus' blood.

So they are right to hope for a pardon but not presume that all their confession and even all of their forsaking of sin obligates God to turn away his wrath. Verse 10, wonderful. Let your eyes rest on verse 10. And God saw their works that they had turned from their evil way, and God relented from the disaster that he had said he would bring upon them and he did not do it. The people repented and God relented.

And that's what God had in mind all along. Now, I think this question has to be asked. Were the people of Nineveh saved from destruction in forty days? Yes. From the eternal penalty for their sins?

I don't think we can tell. My guess is that some were, I think it would be cynical and pessimistic to come away from chapter 3 just with what the words are given to us here and say for sure everyone in Nineveh was saved. We know that about a hundred years later in 612 BC the Babylonians conquered and destroyed Nineveh for their wickedness. And that was God's judgment on them. When you read the minor prophet Nahum, it's the burden against Nineveh.

And the Babylonians conquering and destroying Nineveh in 612 BC is just a fulfillment of that prophecy. So whatever you think about whether the Ninevites were saved or not, you know for sure that it wasn't a widespread and lasting revival. It was not that. In 2 Peter 3, Peter addresses that people are saying, where is the promise of Jesus' coming? He said he was returning, and now it's decades later, and he hasn't come back, and he's not going to come back.

That's the point that they're getting to with their statement. Where is the promise of his coming? It's scoffing at the promise of Jesus returning. Here's what Peter writes in 2 Peter 3 verse 9. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some count slackness, but is long suffering toward us.

Not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. I think we should think of Jonah chapter 3 this way. That God was about to shut the door on the Ninevites opportunity to repent unto life. And that at a minimum this left the door open. I'm guessing some people were swept into his kingdom and they really followed him.

I'll say this, God is going to destroy you for your sins is not the gospel. That's not the gospel. It can lead you to the good news. It's designed to lead you to the good news, but That's not the good news. The Gospel, at least in the words, the five Hebrew words, which isn't much, at least in the words that we have in Jonah chapter 3, the Gospel is not preached.

To go further than saying that God has left the door open so that they could repent unto life when he was about to slam that door forever by utterly destroying the city. The time is up then. There's no more opportunity to repent. To go further than that based on the text, is to put King Ahab into heaven. You have to realize that.

Here's what I mean. King Ahab is maybe the most wicked king. I mean if you had to list the top five wicked kings in Israel, Ahab would make everyone's list. However you ordered them he would make your list of most wicked kings. In 1 Kings 21 Elijah the prophet goes to Ahab and says, I'm cutting off your whole household, all your lineage, I'm wiping them off the face of the earth.

And he actually mourned, put on sackcloth, and went around sorrowing. And God said to Elijah, see how Ahab has humbled himself. I won't bring, I relent, I won't bring on him in his own lifetime what I said. I'll do it in the lifetime of the son. So God relented because King Ahab humbled himself and then in 1 Kings 22 Ahab's back to his old ways and he dies the death of the wicked.

I do not expect to see Ahab in heaven. But he put on sackcloth, he mourned, and God relented in that case. Ok next section. What Jesus concludes. What Jesus concludes from Jonah chapter 3.

You can just listen to one verse, Matthew 12, 41, or Luke 11, 32. They say almost identical words. Matthew 12.41, Luke 11.32. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it. Because they repented at the preaching of Jonah.

And indeed a greater than Jonah is here. Judgment day comes. The great day comes. Nineveh stands before God to be judged. Jesus' generation stands before God to be judged.

Jesus says, the men of Nineveh will condemn you in that day Because they repented at the preaching of Jonah and you didn't repent at my preaching They had more and better in me and then it invites had in Jonah what what is Jesus talking about Jesus is talking about what we do with what we are given. What do you do with what you are given? The truth is, some do more with less. True? Some do more with less than Inovites.

An unknown foreigner comes saying, I tell you on God's behalf that in 40 days God is wiping you off of the face of the earth for your wickedness, and they believed God is speaking to us, and they humbled themselves, and they turned away from their violence. That's doing more with less. The truth is, Some do less with more. True? The Israelites.

Jeremiah chapter 26. God sends Jeremiah to warn the people. They throw him in prison. He languishes in prison. They send him to say, According to the text that we are given, they send him to say more than Jonah was sent to Nineveh to say.

And the people of Israel, they don't receive it as a message from God and humble themselves and repent. They throw the prophet into prison. Jesus in Matthew 23 says, Oh Jerusalem, you who killed the prophets, Which one of the prophets did your fathers not kill? That's doing less with more. Applications.

One, where does that leave you? That leave you? The men of Nineveh repented at the preaching of a stranger. John the Baptist John the Baptist says this in John 3, verse 36. John chapter 3, verse 36.

He who believes in the Son has everlasting life. And he who does not believe in the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." For all who don't believe in Jesus Christ, that's more than just believing some propositions of New Testament facts. That is entrusting yourself to Christ. For all who fail to do that, God's burning anger sticks to them like glue. The only thing that can separate you from God's anger at your rebellion is Jesus's cleansing blood.

There is nothing else. What will hell be like for the person who was offered peace over and over and over again? Jesus' blood has been shed. He will not turn away anyone who comes to him by faith. He turns away none.

Friends, know this for sure. God knows exactly how many days it is until each unbeliever will be overthrown. Have you ever thought about that? There are people, there are probably people in this room who will never repent. And God knows exactly the number of days until He will overthrow you.

There's a real number, there's a real number of days and God knows the exact number of days till He will overthrow you. Number two, Rejoice in the God who sends and warns and relents. God is on display in this chapter and I do think there should be a heaviness to bringing the warning that Jonah brought to Nineveh. I don't think a preacher can come and go from this chapter and not do that. But on the other hand, you have to see a God who didn't just let Nineveh drift into destruction.

He sent a prophet to halt their drift, to cry out in their streets, 40 days. Repent, today is the day of salvation. We're gonna find out next week. He sent a prophet because he loved them. He was concerned with them.

This is the God who delights in mercy. He sent a prophet to say the hardest thing that can be said because he delights in mercy. It was an act of mercy to raise up a prophet, to send the prophet, and then to give them the grace to see God was speaking to them. Listen to Ezekiel 33, 11. Ezekiel 33, 11.

God says to Ezekiel, say to them, Say to the people, Ezekiel, as I live says the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. But let the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways for why should you die, O house of Israel. I love Calvinism because I think it's really Paulism, which I think is really Jesusism. But if our Calvinism makes Ezekiel 33, 11 disorienting to us, Then we've gone further than Calvin went.

Calvin wasn't disoriented by Ezekiel 33, 11. God doesn't have pleasure in the death of the wicked. God desires that the wicked turn from his way and live. He invites them. Turn!

Turn from your evil ways! Why would you die? Is the blood of Christ unshed? It is shed! Is the work still to be done?

It has been done! Number three. Learn to pray as if Jonah 3 was true. I'm not calling into question whether Jonah 3 is true. I'm saying that because Jonah 3 is true, that should affect our prayers.

God can send a foreigner into the streets of the greatest city on earth and convince the people that that man is speaking for him, is an ambassador for him, and turn their hearts to repent. There are these two things. We should hold them both. When we think of turkey, we should think of William Carey and how it was probably eight years before they had their first real live convert. So we should be prepared to be farmers who are patient in plant seed and water and plant seed and water and weed, knowing that it doesn't grow up overnight.

But on the other hand is a God who can send a prophet into the midst of the greatest city on earth. A city filled with every filth known to man. You can believe it. And he can turn them, he can turn their hearts like that. I believe Jonah 3 is history, it's not a story, it's history.

And that the God of Jonah 3 is the only God there ever has been, only God there is now, only God there will be through eternity, and he can turn hearts like that. As we pray for our neighbors, for Youngsville, for our nation, for Turkey. We should pray with Jonah 3 in mind. We should cry mightily to the Lord like the Ninevites did, knowing that God has a heart of mercy. God actually wants people to turn and be saved.

So we were just joining him when we pray that way. Oh God, It is scandalous to be saved by grace and then to be so cold towards the lost. I know my life bears the marks of that scandal inside and out. Oh forgive me Lord. Teach me to pray like a man who believes that Jonah chapter 3 is history not a story.

That the God of tender hearted mercy who desires to see sinners repent is the same yesterday, today and forever. To pray expectantly. Help us Lord in Jesus name, amen.