Beloved radio, friends, we greet you in the ever-precious and the worthy name of our beloved Savior, the Lord Jesus. This is your Bible teacher of the air speaking, J.W. Graham Hall, giving you a hearty welcome to the continued study of the prophecy of Jonah. We have now reached the third chapter in this book. In the first chapter, we consider Jonah as a disobedient prophet. in the storm and fleeing from the presence of the Lord. In chapter two we found Jonah to be a chastened prophet, inside the grapefish, praying unto the Lord. We now begin the consideration of chapter three, where we shall find Jonah as a successful prophet within the great city of Nineveh, speaking for the Lord. The chapter opens in verses one and two, where we find the renewed commission of God given to the prophet. And these are the words. And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go into Nineveh, that great city and preach unto it, the preaching that I bid thee. We must first of all realize, that the purpose of the Lord in chastening his servant Jonah was to make him more useful for the specific word which God had told him to preach and the work to which he had been called. The call to preach in Nineveh comes the second time, for God in marvelous grace recommissioned his servant. In doing this, we ourselves can recognize that our God gives his children renewed opportunities to serve him, even though we may have been unwilling and disobedient. Peter the Apostle, Mark, the servant of God also in the New Testament, are both examples of this fact. For they failed the Lord, but were later restored to faithful service. So may we ourselves take heart and courage to and permit the Lord to restore us if necessary, and recommission us to a renewed and faithful service for him. We should thank God for his grace, even to his unfaithful servants, that he is willing to give them the message the second time. The great city of Nineveh is the appointed place for Jonah's message. In verse two of our chapter it is called that Great City. Some ancient authorities declare it was sixty miles in circumference, a city that was even much larger than Babylon the Great. The walls of the city were one hundred feet, one hundred feet high. They were broad enough upon the top to allow three chariots to ride abreast. There were fifteen hundred towers with great height over the city. And according to chapter four in verse eleven of Jonah's prophecy, there were one hundred and twenty thousand children alone in the city. Therefore the city may have possessed somewhat upward from six hundred thousand to a million inhabitants. It was no small city and God's message was sent to it, a message of warning and judgment as well as of concern for the people. In verse three of our chapter in Jonah, chapter three, we read the message. So Jonah arose and went on to Nineveh. How different! The record is now. Jonah is readily obedient, and he does as the Lord commands. If only we who claim to be followers of Christ were obedient to the will of God, instead of being like Jonah was in his disobedience. Jonah is now a living example of God's mercy, having, through repentance, received the declaration again to go to the city of Nineveh and preach. In Luke chapter eleven and verse thirty, the Lord Jesus declared that Jonah was assigned to the Ninevites. Well, might he be assigned For had he not himself been saved from death, and now he becomes a sign to the people of Nineveh of God's mercy. So God emphasizes the great signs of Nineveh in verse four again. As he declares, Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. Verse three we noted, records that Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey. We may readily recognize that it would be approximately sixty miles across it. For as Jonah journeyed into the city, he preached his message of warning and judgment, very brief, very short, saying, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. How many places within that city he may have stopped? We have no way of knowing. But as he went along, he delivered his God-given message, and it was a message of imminent judgment from God. There are many scoffers and skeptics who may ask how Jonah could have preached to a people whom he did not know, and have them understand his preaching. May we not forget that it could easily be that Jonah himself knew the language of the Assyrians? For we have in Isaiah chapter thirty-six and verse eleven very definite evidence that the Jews did understand the Assyrian language. But now let us consider God's words of warning very carefully. Yet in forty days Nineveh shall be overthrown. This was a message of approaching judgment, indicating a short period would elapse before that judgment would fall. Forty days. We may question why forty days? Why not in one day? Why not in ten? Why not in twenty? The very fact that God said forty days was a proof of his mercy and of his grace. For the forty days gave space for very serious reflection and possible repentance upon the part of the Ninevites. God would test the people in relation to their responsibility toward this pronouncement of judgment. You may have often noticed, as I have, that the numeral forty in the Word of God is frequently employed, and always in relation to testing. You may remember that in Genesis chapter seven, where we have recorded the great flood in the days of Noah, that the waters of the deep, as well as the heavens, poured down their rain, for forty days and forty nights upon the earth. Even Moses, if you may recall, in his history in the wilderness, more than once was forty days upon Mount Sinai, as recorded in the book of Exodus. Elijah too had to travel on one occasion, according to First Kings chapter nineteen, forty days until he came to Mount Horeb. And I'm sure that we well remember, if we know the New Testament, that our Lord Jesus was tempted forty days in the wilderness by Satan, according to Matthew chapter four and verse two. Now what did God intend doing at the end of these forty days? Nineveh shall be overthrown. I would like you to dwell with me on the meaning of that word overthrown. You will find it to be the same word that was used on a historic occasion many years before. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, as you may find it in Genesis chapter nineteen recorded. We read in that account that God overthrew the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis nineteen and verse twenty eight. It was complete destruction So God threatened to turn the city of Nineveh upside down and destroy it from its very foundations. Now my radio listeners, let us not minimize the warning of judgment that God gave to the city of Nineveh and its inhabitants, but also be reminded that according to the word of God, There is yet to come upon the world at large, universal judgment, in which many of the cities of the nations will be overthrown and destroyed. You have not to read the book of the Revelation, and you will realize that unprecedented judgments and terrific destruction is yet to fall upon the whole world. May I repeat that, please? Oh, I wish to be faithful to the truth of God. We are dealing in the story of Jonah with just one city. But may we reflect with realization and serious consideration, the word of God very plainly declares that the whole world is yet to be visited by his divine judgments. And who can measure the righteous anger and the righteous wrath of God, which is ultimately and perhaps very soon to be poured out upon this sin-loving, Christ-rejecting, God-hating world. We would be very faithful as Jonah was when he went through the city to declare that the judgments of God are righteous and they are fast approaching. Now this brings before us The necessity of reminding our unsaved listeners that the warning of coming judgment is a message of God's love and grace to you, advising you when seeking to bring you to the knowledge of salvation before it may be ever too late. When God preaches judgment, it is a warning that you may flee from that. Well, did the Savior say, flee from the wrath to come. My beloved radio listener without Christ, may I be faithful to declare the word of God substantiates the fact judgment is coming ahead. Come to the Savior, find him as your own today and be saved. Bless thy word, O Father, we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus for his glory. Amen.