Sinners in the Hands of A Forgiving God
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
In just a few weeks, millions around our country and around the world will walk across a stage and receive a diploma in one of the highlights of their lives: Graduation! Usually there will be some buildup, if you go to a Christian school possibly a worship song, a prayer, and undoubtedly, some graduation speeches.
Nearly 300 years ago, Jonathan Edwards was asked to preach the commencement at Harvard University. This address was often viewed as the “Super Bowl” for pastors and Edwards preached a message centered on God’s greatness and glory in saving sinners from the death we deserve. Edwards pastored one of the largest churches in New England, a rapidly growing area in the early 1700s. Fast forward to 1741 and Edwards was in attendance for a midweek service that he wasn’t scheduled to preach, but stepped up to preach because the preacher was sick - as a pastor, this is a reminder to always have a sermon ready to go! Edwards stepped to the pulpit, on a night he wasn’t expecting to preach, and delivered one of if not the most read sermons in the history of our country - Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God. Now, if this sermon was preached today, it would have a billion views on YouTube because of the title, and 2 billion views because of the content. Edwards dove deep into the sinfulness of mankind and preached on how God is just in judging unrepentant sinners because of our sin. Edwards used this picture of humans being like spiders dangling over the pit of hell itself and the only thing keeping us up is a tiny thread… the thread of redemption. With one hand, God holds back His wrath against sin… and with the other hand He pleads for sinners to repent of their sin and find salvation in Christ alone.
This incredible message paved the way for the First Great Awakening in our country as millions and millions turned from sin and trusted in Jesus as Savior. People responded to the Gospel. Not to flashy lights. Emotional music. Laser shows. It was the Gospel: We are sinners in need of a Savior. How we are hopeless without Jesus! This wasn’t a perfect sermon… but this was a sermon that faithfully shared the “bad news” of God’s Word. Did you know that the Gospel starts out with bad news? We all have sinned and fallen short of God’s perfect standard. We must repent and turn away from our sins and trust in Jesus. Only by understanding the seriousness of our sin do we begin to see the beauty of the Gospel!
This morning we’re going to see in Jonah 3 that Jonah was given a second chance and successfully did something challenging: He shared some bad news… the people of Nineveh needed to repent and trust in the One True Living God. This morning we’ll see that God takes sin seriously and how we as humans can be forgiven of our sin because of the finished work of Jesus!
1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time:
2 “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach the message that I tell you.”
3 Jonah got up and went to Nineveh according to the Lord’s command. Now Nineveh was an extremely great city, a three-day walk.
4 Jonah set out on the first day of his walk in the city and proclaimed, “In forty days Nineveh will be demolished!”
5 Then the people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth—from the greatest of them to the least.
6 When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7 Then he issued a decree in Nineveh: By order of the king and his nobles: No person or animal, herd or flock, is to taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink water.
8 Furthermore, both people and animals must be covered with sackcloth, and everyone must call out earnestly to God. Each must turn from his evil ways and from his wrongdoing.
9 Who knows? God may turn and relent; he may turn from his burning anger so that we will not perish.
10 God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways—so God relented from the disaster he had threatened them with. And he did not do it.
Aren’t you thankful this morning that God is merciful and forgives people who repent from their evil ways and trust in Him?
We Are Saved to Proclaim the Gospel (1-4)
We Are Saved to Proclaim the Gospel (1-4)
Jonah has been through a crazy situation by the time chapter 3 arrives! He was called by God to go to Nineveh. He sinned and went the opposite direction. He experienced God’s punishment and judgment with the storm and the fish… now he is back on dry land and we see that the word of the Lord came to him a second time. Jonah sinned. He dropped the ball. He deliberately disobeyed. Yet, God provides him with a second chance. Aren’t you thankful for this truth about God? What do you and I deserve today? Consider this reality - the wages of sin is death, and all have sinned. What do we deserve? Eternal separation from God - that would be “just”, yet what is happening? We’re alive. Each breath is a second chance that we didn’t deserve. Each day is a gift of grace that we could never earn. Yet, God gives it to us generously!
Earlier in the week, Lindsey and I watched a documentary about the 2011 Joplin Tornado. Some of you remember that tragic situation like it was yesterday as an EF5 tornado went right through the middle of the town and left a wake of destruction behind. One individual that was interviewed was actually caught up inside the tornado and survived! Not only was this teenage boy caught up in the tornado, but he suffered severe injuries and infections as a result of being in the tornado… he was in a coma for a period of time, but woke up and other than some of the scars, you wouldn’t know this happened to him. He was miraculously given a second chance at life.
Leonard Ravenhill once said, “Isn’t it amazing that God gives breath to a man who is going to blaspheme Him all day?” Our God is abundant in mercy. He not only gives us second chances, but third, fourth, hundreds and thousands of chances each day! Friend, it doesn’t matter where you’ve been, what you’ve done, you are never too far gone for the grace of Jesus Christ. Jesus died for your sin so that you don’t have to live in shame. He rose from the dead so that He could give you a hope and a future. He died so that your sin will be forever forgiven. Sin is serious, yet God’s grace is greater.
God calls Jonah to go back and do the right thing, the thing that he should’ve done the first time. See, Jonah knew that God is rich in mercy and believed that the people of Nineveh didn’t deserve God’s mercy and that if he didn’t go to Nineveh, they would get what they deserve and perish. God brings Jonah right back to that fork in the road where Jonah took the downward path the first time around, and God gives him the same marching orders: Go to Nineveh and preach my message. Sometimes, whenever we are given a second chance, God brings us right back to where we made the mistake the previous time. Back to the place where we sinned. Back to the place where we trusted in ourselves… and He does this so that we not only realize the foolishness of our decision, but that we repent of it and go down a different path the next time.
There was a time in each of our lives whenever we lived in opposition to God. We actively went the wrong direction, Jesus talks about how there are 2 routes: The wide road and the narrow path - there was a time for each of us whenever we walked along the wide road that leads towards destruction… the incredible thing that God does whenever He saves us is that we come back to this fork in the road, we know the wide road because we’ve walked it before… and God calls on us to follow Him and His Word on the narrow path. Like Jonah, we are called to get up, go, and proclaim God’s message. We are saved in order to proclaim the Gospel - we’ll study in 1 Corinthians 15 leading up to Easter and be reminded of the simplicity of the Gospel
3 For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
This is our message to share! That Jesus was born, lived a sinless life, died for our sins, and rose from the dead. Our world needs to hear this Gospel message because it is the only message that brings about eternal change and salvation! And this Gospel message involves bad news - look at 1 Corinthians 15:3 - Christ died for our sins… what is the bad news? We have to be honest. We aren’t perfect. We don’t have it all figured out. We are not our own savior. We can’t earn salvation. We have all sinned and sin separates us from God. This isn’t a fun message to share, but it’s the truth of Scripture - if you don’t repent and surrender to the Lordship of Jesus, you will forever be separated from God! That’s not judgmental, that’s Biblical. This is the bad news, but the Gospel doesn’t leave us with bad news - we are sinners and we see that Christ died in fact for sinners.
Jonah arrives in Nineveh and preaches the message that God gave him and it was 5 words in the Hebrew - can you imagine that? A 5 word sermon? Some of you all can only dream of such a short sermon. 5 Hebrew words - 7 in the English. In 40 days, Nineveh will be demolished. How can this be the case? One of two things will happen in 40 days - either the people of Nineveh will turn from their evil ways and repent and be a different place, or they will double down in their rebellion and God will destroy them. Why 40 days? We see that number, 40, show up at times in the Bible. It rained for 40 straight days when Noah was on the Ark. Saul, David, and Solomon ruled as King of Israel for 40 years. 40 is a number that appears and whenever it does, it often indicates the accomplishment of God’s sovereign purpose. In other words, in these 40 days, God was going to do something in Nineveh.
Again, God is in control. Today, God is still in control. He still works through people like you and me as we share His Gospel message with those around us. He still extends mercy to people of all shapes and sizes. He still uses sinners to share His Gospel.
The Word of God Does the Work of God (5-6)
The Word of God Does the Work of God (5-6)
If you’re a Christian, chances are you have had a Gospel conversation with someone. Maybe a family member, maybe a friend, maybe a teammate or classmate, maybe a coworker, maybe someone you just met! Whenever we have Gospel conversations, we know that people respond in different ways. One of the best places in Scripture to see the different response options people have to the Gospel is in the book of Acts 17 as we see Paul preach the Gospel publicly and we see 3 responses:
Some people Reject
Some people Request Time
Some people Repent
Now, wouldn’t it be incredible if every single time you shared the Gospel, the person automatically repented of their sin and was saved on the spot? Man, that would be incredible! This doesn’t always happen, though. Sometimes, in fact many times, people reject this message. One of my heroes is William Carey - the first Baptist Missionary to India. He was a pastor in England but believed that the Lord was opening up a door for him and calling him to go to India and proclaim the Gospel to people who had never heard about Jesus. Carey shared this passion with other pastors and established the first Baptist mission sending society… but he was met with resistance. One pastor said this, “When God determines to evangelize the heathen, He will do it without you or me.” Is God in control? Does Salvation belong to the Lord? Yes! But does God use people to accomplish His plans? You’d better believe it. Carey believed that God was sovereign and in control, and that God was calling him to this monumental task. He left with his family and went to work in India, proclaiming the Gospel. Any guess how long it took for the first person to convert to Christianity? 7 years. Not 7 days. Weeks. Conversations. 7 long years. During that time, the Word of God continued to do the Work of God, though. Let me encourage you with this as you share the Gospel with those around you and it seems as though nothing is happening or working
11 so my word that comes from my mouth will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish what I please and will prosper in what I send it to do.”
What makes a service successful? I’ve heard many churchgoers say that if no one walks the aisle, it’s not successful. If no one raises their hands when we sing, we didn’t worship, or we worshiped better if we raised our hands. This verse is so encouraging! Our responsibility is to proclaim the message, God alone is in control of the outcome. We can’t change hearts, but we can and must tell people the truth. This is what Jonah did - he shared the truth that God had called him to share, and what happens? Verse 5 - the people believed. Jonah’s message wasn’t incredibly in depth. He didn’t answer all of their questions. The text doesn’t tell us why the people did what they did. We aren’t told that Jonah held an altar call after his 5 word sermon. But what happens? God’s Word does God’s Work. We see that these people repent - not just some, but the Bible says the greatest all the way to the least of the citizens of Nineveh, meaning a city nearly the size of Springfield is changed because of this short sermon.
Adam Bradley shares that Jonah’s words were, “Amoebic in form but Jurassic in size.”
KEY: text doesn’t say they believed IN God, they simply believed God. They believed God’s message. They believed God’s threat of disaster and destruction and they turned from their evil. What can we figure out here, though? God desires the worship of all people’s - including the Gentiles. Are you an ethnic Jew? Most of us are not. How are you saved?
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.
God’s plan has always been a worldwide plan that includes people of every people, tribe, and tongue.
9 After this I looked, and there was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands.
This is because of the power of the Gospel! God has the power to humble the have’s and the have nots. Here we see that the king humbles himself. After the Assyrians comes the Babylonians and if you read Daniel 4, you’ll see how God humbles the mighty king Nebuchadnezzar. Church, the Word of God truly does the Work of God. Do we believe this? I’m not convinced the American Church does. I know of many friends and co-laborers who are trying to determine how they and their church can best minister to their community and culture, a world in which Biblical illiteracy is continuing to grow as people don’t know what the Bible says. How can we reach out community? Methods change. Methods that worked in the 1960s, might or might not work in 2025. Methods that worked in 2015 might or might not work in 2025. The way that church looks and the programs that churches use are different today than they were a generation ago. Methods change… but the message must never change. Our message is that Jesus Christ Alone Saves Sinners. Lots of people believe in Jesus - a counselor Jesus, a social justice Jesus, a boyfriend Jesus, a hip teacher Jesus. The Muslims believe in Jesus. Jews believe in Jesus. Mormons believe in Jesus. But they’re all lost. Who is Jesus? The Son of God who alone came into this world to live a sinless life and seek and save lost sinners just like you and me. Jesus is the only way to be saved. Jesus is our Lord. Jesus Is King. This is what His Word says… and whenever we proclaim this truth, lives change. Jonah’s sermon was 5 words in the Hebrew, this week you have a 5 word sermon to share: Jesus Christ Alone Saves Sinners. Abandon all hope in your good works. Abandon all hope in thinking you are good enough. Abandon all teaching that says there are multiple ways to be saved. Abandon it all, and trust alone in Jesus.
God Relents When His People Repent (7-10)
God Relents When His People Repent (7-10)
This is Jonah’s message - disaster is coming in 40 days. Now, Jonah didn’t do everything right as we’ll look at more next week… but Jonah was a faithful mouthpiece and we see that the people get the memo and the king issues an order for the people of Nineveh to “turn from his evil ways and from his wrongdoing.” What does the king admit? That the people are guilty of wrongdoing. The king himself is guilty of this as he covered himself in sackcloth. The entire city, including the animals, were not to eat or drink during this situation. We’ll dive into this more next week in chapter 4, but we see several animals in the book of Jonah. We see the fish, we see the livestock in Nineveh, and next week we’ll see a worm. Each of them do what God commands that they do. The fish is appointed by God to swallow Jonah and swallows Jonah. The fish is commanded to vomit Jonah out, and vomits Jonah out. These livestock are commanded to not eat or drink, and they don’t eat or drink. The worm in chapter 4 is appointed by God to eat the plant that He had given Jonah, and the worm ate the plant. These animals are obedient to their Creator. Yet, throughout this story, who is not? Jonah. The one who is God’s own prophet. Does this strike you as interesting? Does this strike you as convicting?
Let me share a comforting truth and then a convicting truth. For those who are saved, here is a piece of comfort whenever you look back and realize at times that you have dropped the ball - God uses crooked sticks to hit straight shots. This is comforting, isn’t it? You weren’t saved because you were smart enough, good enough, or because you did something to earn your salvation. You are saved because of the finished work of Jesus. You are saved because of His perfection. You are saved because of His grace. God is big enough to save even the biggest of sinners and gracious enough to use us for His purposes. He uses crooked sticks like Jonah to his straight shots and share His Gospel message and see lives changed! This is comforting… Here are these people who Jonah wanted to see punished, who hear God’s message demanding they repent, they do repent, and we see God’s mercy in not giving them what they do deserve. We see a change take place because of their repentance! This is what Jeremiah 18 talks about
7 At one moment I might announce concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will uproot, tear down, and destroy it.
8 However, if that nation about which I have made the announcement turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the disaster I had planned to do to it.
Notice again, God’s sovereignty. I will uproot it. I will destroy it. But, if they repent, I will relent. Friends, God is in control. God has the power. We wonder why would God do this or do that, sometimes God extends mercy… sometimes God extends just judgment. What God never does is unjust, or not fair, as many claim. He is perfectly just. What God provides us with is an invitation to repentance - to turn away from sin and evil. Nineveh accepts this gracious invitation! Have you accepted this invitation today? Have you turned away from your sin and trusted in Jesus for salvation?
When Nineveh Repented, God Relented - God is merciful and gracious. Even here, though, they didn’t deserve God to withhold judgment. There is a danger in this story to think that if we press A, then God is obligated to press B. If we do _____, then God must do ______. This is why it’s called mercy. Or not receiving what we should deserve. Nineveh repents, and God graciously shows them mercy. Why would God do this? Not because they deserved it… but because of His very character. Consider who God is… He is slow to anger. Forgiving iniquity, transgressions, and sins. He is a good and gracious King!
6 The Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed: The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth,
7 maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But he will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.
How can we experience God’s mercy and forgiveness? Some believe that God could just snap His fingers and everyone gets a participation trophy, everyone wins, everyone goes to heaven, that sin doesn’t have to be atoned for. This sounds good to our ears! But it would require for God to no longer be just. This is the problem. God is just, so sin will be punished. So, how can we experience forgiveness? By God taking our sin and placing it upon His Son. Every sin ever committed must be punished - anything less than this and God stops being just. But because of God’s mercy. Because of God’s love. Because of God’s grace. Because of God’s compassion. He made a way for sinners like you and me to be redeemed and forgiven. See, just as Jonah was sent by God to preach a message of repentance, the Second Jonah, Jesus Christ, was sent by God to preach a message of repentance. “Repent and believe!” See, whenever you repent or have a change of direction about your sin, and whenever you trust in Jesus, something radical happens in your life. That sin that used to separate you from God is now cleansed… not through your goodness or greatness, but through the finished work of Jesus Christ! For God to forgive you, His Son had to die. For God to give you salvation, His Son had to bear your sin. For you to receive a crown, Jesus had to carry His cross… Some stop here, but this isn’t where the Bible stops! Forgiveness. Mercy. Crowns! Sign me up! What does Luke 9:23 tell us? To wear that crown in eternity, you must take up your cross and die to self on earth. This is what happens whenever Jesus saves you. He changes you.
How does this take place?
In the book of Exodus the Israelites were in Egyptian slavery for years and years. Eventually, the Bible tells us that God remembered His people and heard their cries and uses Moses to deliver them. Right before that deliverance takes place, though, they are instructed that they must offer a sacrificial lamb and some of the blood of that lamb must cover the doorpost of their house. If they did this, God’s angel would pass over their house and the family would be safe. Next month is Easter Sunday and Jesus, on Passover, had the Lord’s Supper with His disciples and part of that included the New Covenant in His blood. Jesus, on Passover, shed His blood on the Cross of Calvary and for all those who repent of their sins and place their faith in Christ, that blood is applied to the doorpost of their house so that whenever they stand before God on the Last Day, they don’t experience death… because of the lamb that was sacrificed in their place. Friends, God relents whenever His people repent. God brings about this New Covenant that is good news to all people, Jews and Gentiles. Young and old. Tall and short. Men and women. As God Himself promises to give His people a new heart of flesh, instead of a heart of stone.
16 This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, the Lord says, I will put my laws on their hearts and write them on their minds,
17 and I will never again remember their sins and their lawless acts.
18 Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.
Church, this is good news! There is forgiveness available to you today in Jesus. Some translations render Jonah 3:10 in a way that says that God repented. Hear this clear as can be: God doesn’t repent. As the hymn Great is Thy Faithfulness reminds us, “There is no shadow of turning with Thee.” Some believe that this is grounds to say that God changes His mind.
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
6 “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.
17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
19 God is not a man, that he might lie, or a son of man, that he might change his mind. Does he speak and not act, or promise and not fulfill?
This is the doctrine of divine immutability and it’s an important doctrine. Who God is cannot change. His power cannot change. His knowledge cannot change. If God could change, you wouldn’t want to serve Him because who is to say that in the year 10,025 He changes His mind and says that humans really aren’t that great and starts over from scratch and sends all of humanity to everlasting judgment?
It might feel like God changes, but His nature is unchanging.
It might feel like God’s love is reckless, but His love is endless.
It might feel like God isn’t fair, but God is perfectly just.
This is why we don’t base our theology on our feelings. This is why Proverbs 3 says to lean not on our own understanding.
“As Thou hast been, Thou forever wilt be.” Who God is, He will be forever. Faithful. Merciful. Just. God didn’t change His mind with the people of Nineveh - He gave them a prophetic threat. Destruction is coming because of your wickedness.
Think about some of the threats that we see in our world today. What sign do they have at state parks around dangerous cliffs? They look like this! “Danger, falling can cause serious injury or death.” What is the point? If you climb over the line, you might fall. If you fall, you might die. But what if you stay where the path is? You’re safe and you’re fine. God threatens judgment… and God does this as One who loves to forgive and extend mercy. Jonah admits this in the next chapter
2 He prayed to the Lord, “Please, Lord, isn’t this what I said while I was still in my own country? That’s why I fled toward Tarshish in the first place. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in faithful love, and one who relents from sending disaster.
The Gospel reminds us that God’s delivers people from their greatest problem: Sin and Death. However, we must first understand the bad news… We deserve destruction because of our sin. God demonstrates His power and might chiefly in His grace as He forgives sinners of all shapes, sizes, and backgrounds. We can’t boast in ourselves and our goodness as we too are in desperate need of His mercy, grace, and forgiveness today. As those who have tasted His mercy, we should desire to see others come to know His mercy too!
Every other religion, “Clean yourself up and then come to or become God.”
Christianity, “Come to God and He will make you clean.”
The God of the Bible cannot stand sin. As much as our world hates to say it, God hates sin. We all have sinned, and we stand guilty before Him. Like Nineveh, we deserve destruction … but God is rich in mercy. Aren’t you thankful for this truth, friend? I pray that you’ve received His mercy today by repenting of your sins and trusting in the finished work of Christ to justify you before God. If this is where we’re at, which for many of us, it is, then how can we see lives changed by the Gospel just like Jonah saw in the city of Nineveh?
How can we see lives changed by the Gospel?
Study God’s Word
In order to proclaim the Word, you have to first know the Word yourself. A lot of people in our world talk about following the Spirit and being filled with the Spirit, living spirit filled lives begins with being a Scripture-saturated Christian. We must study God’s Word and know the Word in order to proclaim the Word.
Share God’s Word
Romans 10 reminds us that faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of God… God’s Word changes lives. But lives won’t be changed for eternity whenever the Word hasn’t been proclaimed. What is preventing you from sharing the Gospel with a co-worker who you know doesn’t go to church and doesn’t believe in Jesus? If you’re waiting for the perfect opportunity, you’ll always be waiting because perfection doesn’t exist! If we believe in what the Bible says about the seriousness of sin and the length of eternity, we must be passionate about sharing the Gospel with those God places around us because eternity is too long to get Jesus wrong!
Spend time in Prayer
Salvation belongs to the Lord. At the end of the day, you can know the Word and share the Word as best as you can, and it will do nothing unless the Lord opens the eyes of the unbeliever. Do you know what Jesus’ prayer was for His enemies while He was dying on the cross? Father, forgive them. This was Jesus’ prayer for you! Shouldn’t this be our prayer for those who don’t know Him today? Jesus, save them! Who are you praying for? If God were to save every lost person that you are actively praying for, how many would be saved? God has the power to open blind eyes and save dead souls… but He uses people like you and I to show up and share His Gospel. South Gate, are we engaging our society with the Gospel? Are we faithfully sharing the message that we are sinners, but that God is not only able but willing to forgive?
Wherever you are today, whatever you’re been through, turn your eyes to Jesus. You are not beyond the reach of His mercy and forgiveness. Today, turn away from your sins, trust in what the Bible tells us about Jesus, that He died to take YOUR place on the cross and rose to accomplish your salvation, and confess Him as your Lord - submit to Him, follow Him, and today, you will be a new creation. It doesn’t mean that your life becomes easy or perfect. But it does mean that you have Jesus every step of the way!
Let’s pray
