How to Recieve God's Mercy

Introduction

The internet has changed out live a lot. One of the ways it has changed our lives is how quickly information can be found and problems solved...

What if we googled “how to receive mercy”? Would we be able to solve the problem of our sin and the divine wrath that stands against sinners?

Although the message of the Gospel is simple, it is not so simple to carry out with our sinful hearts. In our text today, we will look at the way God shows mercy to the city of Nineveh and answer the question, “how can someone receive God’s mercy?”

Nineveh Believes

Last week we looked at the mission of God. It is the mission God gave to his people Israel and how Jonah’s response to that mission mirror’s Israel’s general attitude towards it. Disobedience driven by self preservation and pride leads to the discipline of God, which produces an outward obedience that lasts for a time but is not truly infused with the character of God.

This will lead Jonah to do what God called him to do, but will in the end drive Jonah away from God and bitter against his mercy for others. Although Jonah had repented in chapter 2, sin made those like Jonah under the old covenant resistant to God’s will.

Romans 7:11 ESV

For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.

But despite his weakness and the people of God waiting for the power of the new Covenant, God still made his his message effectively known to the Ninevites.

Again we see God’s mission at work, and it goes forward despite the failure of his people.

Nineveh Mourns

Next we read of the effect this message has on Nineveh. It comes in stages:

Ninevites believe God’s Word.

They mourn greatly without hope.

The King calls a universal fast with a sliver of hope (vs 9)

Nineveh Repents

Nineveh’s response to the preaching is not merely mourning, but when hope is given repentance comes. Repentance needs hope, because there must be hope that the change and turning from sin will effect their doom.

The nature of repentance: not just doing better, but turning to God fully, submissively, humbly, and obediently.

Repentance founded on the mercy of God.

Mark 1:15 ESV

and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Because the Kingdom of God has come, because God’s righteous presence has come to dwell with men, repentance should be the immediate response.

Nineveh’s repentance is immediate, intense, focused, convicted, non-negotiable. It covers all of life, it is sorrowful, and it brings real change to their lives.

God Responds

Verse 10

God sees, he has not closed his eyes to them. He is watching to see if they will repent. God was hoping for this.

“what they did…how they turned from their evil.” Not works righteousness. Rather, their works demonstrate their faith, which we see in verse 5. They believed God, and so they acted. Faith without works is dead:

James 2:21–22 ESV

Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works;

James is not saying that Abraham worked his own righteousness, but rather than Abraham’s actions showed a genuine faith that affected his life in such a dramatic way.

Conclusion

The Gospel is for the worst people.

God’s heart is always that the lost would come to him. This must be the heart of God’s people as well.

Passive repentance does not exist. We can easily be tricked by a notion of repentance without actually being changed.

God is a merciful God, and if you are still breathing today than there is mercy for you if you will repent and believe the Gospel.