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Introduction:
All of us need a second chance from time to time.
We mess up and blow things with God and with other people.
We are chronic failures if we are being completely honest!
And aren’t you glad that God is a God of second chances....and third, and fourth, and fifth chances.
That should not mean that we presume upon the grace of God, but we can say as the Psalmist says,
Psalm 103:8–14 (ESV)
8 The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9 He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever.
10 He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
13 As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
14 For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.
This morning, we are going to look into this truth a little more as we look at the second half of the Book of Jonah.
Look with me in your Bibles to Jonah 3.
Pray
Jonah is a story that leaves you hanging.
We are going to see what God does in a minute, but it leaves us with a question mark.
It is for you and me to answer the question.
Shall God have mercy on people?
Before you answer, we need to look into the character of the God of second chances this morning.
The first thing we notice is that:
1. God is Merciful (3:1-3)
The Bible says that the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.
Aren’t you glad that God gives us second chances?
None of these are guaranteed, but God is merciful.
No one could make it with just one shot.
Only Jesus could accomplish perfect holiness.
Jonah was given a second chance to obey God by going to Nineveh.
He was to do what God sent him to do in the first place.
Notice that the message is still a message of judgment.
Jonah is told in verse 2 to speak the message that God tells him to speak against the city.
As believers, that is the call that God has given to each one of us as well.
We are called to preach that message that God gives us.
We are not to change it or alter it to make people feel better about their situation with God.
Now, that message is first a message of judgment.
God is going to punish this wicked and sinful generation.
Every generation is the same.
Every generation is at war with God and comes into this world with original sin.
We have a fallen, sin nature and we rebel against God.
We chose our own way rather than obey the commands of God.
But God is also merciful and calls out those who are lost.
He has mercy on those who repent, or turn from their sins.
He sends people like Jonah to warn that judgment awaits the wicked.
That leads us to the next thing we need to realize.
2. God is Just (3:4)
God is just.
What does it mean to be just?
According to the Oxford English dictionary, to be just means to be morally right and fair.
So what does that mean concerning God?
It means that God is morally right and fair.
Nothing God does is wrong.
That also means that God is right when He punishes the wicked.
Nineveh was a wicked city.
We talked about last week how wicked they were.
They were a brutal people that worshiped false gods.
The chief god they worship was known as Dagon.
Dagon was a regional god that was worshiped by the Philistines as well.
Dagon is who the Philistines offered sacrifices to when the gouged out Samson’s eyes
Dagon is the god that the Philistines worshiped when they captured the ark in 1 Samuel 5. It is also the same god whose idol fell facedown multiple times in the presence of the ark of God
When Saul was killed his head was displayed in the temple of Dagon
The Ninevites were wicked and worshiped a false God and deserved to be punished by God.
But it is often easier for us to see why other people should be punished and not us.
The truth is that God is completely just and right in destroying every person.
He doesn’t owe any of us salvation.
So for Jonah to be sent to preach judgment to the people was a completely right thing for God to send him to do.
But remember that God is merciful and just at the same time.
This was why Jonah didn’t want to go in the first place.
Application
Before we move on, I want to ask you something.
Do we sometimes presume upon the mercy of God? Do we feel that God owes us a chance to be saved?
We don’t truly realize that it is a gift that God has given us of which we are totally undeserving.
We may not think we are as wicked as the Ninevites were and we may not worship an idol named Dagon, but we are wicked and we do make gods for ourselves.
Sometimes this god is our own selves, and sometimes it is something else like power, wealth, or fame.
Anytime we put someone or something before God, we commit idolatry.
A simple look at the 10 Commandments will show us how wicked we are.
So why does God give us a chance at salvation?
Why us?
It is his mercy alone.
This is not some doctrine that should cause us to have pride in ourselves, but rather it should cause us to bow before the throne of God in humility.
We should worship Him that He is a God who saves!
3. God is Forgiving (3:5-10)
It is very interesting that the Hebrew name for the fish that swallowed Jonah is the word “dag.”
Some ancient traditions believed that there was a connection between the words and that the reason that the people of Nineveh responded to the message was because the “dag” spit Jonah out.
It is also possible that the stomach acids changed the appearance of Jonah’s skin as well.
It think the answer is a little more simpler than that.
God gave to them the opportunity to repent and they did.
They were never told to repent.
They were only told that judgment was coming.
Yet the king called for a fast and a humbling of the people and they repented.
Spurgeon has a wonderful sermon on this passage called “Who Can Tell?”
It is an amazing message where over and over again the words from verse 9 are repeated.
In the KJV it reads,
You see, none of us really knows what God will do.
We preach the gospel and hand out tracts and have fall festivals and outreach events because “who can tell” what God might do?
God might decide to save someone through these events.
We aren’t privy to the list of the names of God’s elect.
We don’t know the appointed times of salvation to those who will believe.
But we know that God is merciful and forgiving, and when He works salvation in the heart of an unbeliever, He will grant them eternal life.
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