Jonah's prayer from the depths of the ocean, recorded in chapter two, reveals his profound gratitude for God's miraculous deliverance from what seemed like certain death. The sermon highlights Jonah's acknowledgment of the overwhelming waters and the entanglement of weeds, yet his ultimate recognition of God's power to preserve him from corruption, drawing parallels to the greater deliverance found in Christ's salvation from eternal hell. The prophet's contrition is evident as he remembers the Lord in his distress, learning the folly of forsaking God and the mercy found in humble prayer, leading to a rededication of himself through vows of thanksgiving and the confession that salvation belongs to the Lord. Ultimately, God speaks to the fish, and Jonah is vomited onto dry land, illustrating that God's deliverance brings His people to their intended destination, serving as a powerful picture of God's preservation and restoration of the nation of Israel.
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Beloved friends, shall we continue our study in the book of Jonah, particularly in chapter two, as we continue meditating upon the prayer of Jonah. Our preceding message closed with the words of thanksgiving that Jonah prayed, as we found it in verses five and six, where the prophet acknowledged with profound gratitude in the amazing deliverance of God for him. His experience in the ocean's depth, while in the valley of the great fish provoked these words. The waters compassed me about even to the soul.
The depth closed me round about. The weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottom of the mountain. The earth wither bars was about me forever. yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God. We must again remember, these words were written by the beloved prophet Jonah, following his experiences, even perhaps after he went to Nineveh with that wonderful result of bringing the city to repentance.
But in the words that we have read in the prayer, the waters were ranging round about him, as though to extinguish physical life. The weeds, so abundant at the bottom of the sea, seemed to entangle him. He declares himself brought down to the bottom of the mountain, which were thought of as being the bottom of the sea. He considered himself cast out of the earth as a habitation, and its bars were shut against him lest he return. One can recognize, Jonah must have wondered, would he ever be able to return to the earth again?
Quite an unusual experience, three days and three nights, in the belly of the great fish, there in the depths of the ocean. Surely he must have wondered, would he ever see the earth again? Though it appeared to Jonah at the time it happened, that this was his permanent loss, yet God miraculously gone in fact from a pit of corruption, and this would have been his portion if God had not intervened upon his behalf. May we just be in memory? regarding the great deliverance of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Effect for every believer in him. One thinks of the words that the psalmist wrote in the fortiest psalm. He brought me up out of the horrible pit. What a joy to recognize when a soul finds Christ, they are delivered from the most terrible pit, even the pit of eternal hell. He brought me up out of a horrible hiss. Surely these would even express the words and the appreciation of Jonah. Yet in his memory he may have recalled the words of the psalmist that are quoted in Psalm eighteen and verse four.
The sorrows of death compassed me about. And again the words of Psalm sixty-nine verses one and two may have been repeated to his mind and heart. Say, me, O God. For as you think of the words of the psalmist, praying, save me, O God, for the waters have come into my soul. I sink in deep, Maya, where there is no standing. I am coming to deep waters, where the floods overwhelm me. These words are undoubtedly prophetically true of the great experience of Christ, when it was upon the cross in the deepest, infinite knowledge that only God the Father and Christ the Son and the eternal Spirit would ever know.
And yet they were so significant in the experience of Jonah too, in some measure. The prophet could testify as the psalmist declared in another psalm. Psalm thirty in verse three. Thou wert brought up my soul from the edge of the grave. Thou wert kept me alive that I should not go down to the pit. How truthfully the words of his prayer in verse two and through verse six were words of thanksgiving for God's miraculous preservation and his miraculous deliverance. We rejoice in the knowledge of the miracle that God performed on the behalf of his service.
But may we again emphasize the precious fact that there is a greater deliverance when God, by the Holy Spirit, through the redeeming work of his beloved Son upon the cross, delivers every believing sinner who puts his and her trust in the redemptive work of the Savior on that cross. God delivers them from the eternal pit of hell. Oh, the joy that we have a God who can effect a greater deliverance for the souls of men, greater than even what he did for Jonah.
Yet within the prayer of Jonah are words of contrition, which we find in verses seven and eight. When my soul painted within me, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple. They that observed lying in vanities forsake their own mercy. These are the words of the prophet, indicating the contrition of his soul. For the prophet had seen the hand of the Lord in the storm. He had seen the hand of the Lord. in the casting of lust by the sailors upon the ship.
But in the hour of deepest distress he recognized and remembered the Lord as never before, finding that God is easily entreated by the humble soul. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came in unto thee. even unto thine holy temple. Like the psalmist, once more he learned, in my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God. He heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even unto his ears.
Words that are found in Psalm eighteen and verse six. May we repeat again, without question of doubt, In the mind and heart and the memory of the prophet, the words of God came back to him, and particularly abundantly they think to have come from the book of the Psalms. Yes, surely he could and did say, and we quote some other words from Psalm one hundred and forty-two and verse three. When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path. beloved one of wonderful testimonies, that though its path one of disobedience, but a path over which God ruled, and a path in which he overruled, God knew the way that he was taking, suddenly did not Job say, he knows the way that I take, and when he has tried me I shall come forth as those.
But there was Another lesson that Jonah learned with deep contrition, which is revealed in verse eight, they then observed lying vanities forsake their own mercy. The heathen were occupied with idle vanities, rather than trusting in the living and true God. That Jonah knew well, and by doing so they were forsaking the only source of mercy. But the prophet acknowledges that by fleeing from the Lord, he also had forsaken the only source of mercy, and in contrition and repentance he confesses it.
It was a great spiritual lesson, a priceless one, one for all of us to learn. How foolish it is to forsake the Lord and to disobey him. Jonah gives suitable expression to the Lord as we read in verse nine. But let us reaffirm the importance of learning the lesson well, what it means in chastening the disobey the word of the Lord. But following in verse nine, we find in rededicating himself in consecration.
Note the word. but I will sacrifice unto thee with the vows of thanksgiving. I will pay that that I have vows. We are now finding Jonah in the same position of the convicted sailors upon the ship. In chapter one and verse sixteen, do you remember that the sailors offered a sacrifice, and they made vows unto Jehovah? following the captain out of Jonah from the ship. Without doubt, the promised vows included the fulfilling of God's commission to go to Nineveh and preach God's message as Jonah thus prayed.
It is at this point that Jonah acknowledges. Wonderful word. Salvation is of the Lord. Now he has come to know, as never before, Salvation, the word meaning deliverance, whether of the soul or even of the body, can only come from the Lord himself. And that moment comes when God is able to deliver him, when he declares salvation is of the Lord. It is a wonderful confession when a soul makes this declaration.
Salvation is of the Lord. May I state just a brief word relative to the Gospel of Salvation. Salvation is a work that is done entirely by God on the behalf of a poor, guilty, holy, serving sinner, whereby God bestows upon that believing sinner, rescuing him from eternal hell, bestows upon him or her eternal life now. with the assurance of bringing him or her to eternal glory later. It is a wonderful thing when a soul will acknowledge, Lord save me. Like Peter, sinking under the waves of the sea as he took his eyes off the Lord Jesus, what could he say for three words?
A very brief but a very pointed prayer. Lord, save me. He called upon the right person. He also said, gave the right prayer, confessing his need, salvation. And the Lord immediately reached out his hand and lifted him up. My friend, if you ever acknowledge to the Lord that he alone can save you, for neither is there salvation in any other, for there's none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. You and I cannot save ourselves. Let us learn this lesson. And if you have never Come to the Lord Jesus.
Come to him now. The Son of God, who loved you and gave himself to save your soul through his precious redeeming blood, bid you come and be saved. In the closing verse of this second chapter of Jonah, we now see the intervention of God. For we read that the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land. Now that the chaste and prophets have been brought to the place of submission and yieldedness, the Lord releases the prisoner from his prison. God's command to his creature is more readily obeyed than we are willing to obey his word.
Is not this to our shame? That one of the creatures of his creation immediately obeys his voice. Would to God that we who are the children of God were just as willing to obey his word as the element, as well as the creases of his great creation, or that we may realize, God wants us to obey his word, the sinner to obey the word of salvation. For through the beloved Son and his atoning work on Calvary's cross, the Father is seeking the salvation of souls. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
But then Jonah was delivered, neither did the great fish spew his passenger out in the midst of the sea. But Jonah was delivered, please note it carefully, upon the dry land, and in all probability his passenger was spewed out Not in the midst of the ocean, but delivered upon dry land. The great fish did not spew Jonah out in the middle of the ocean. Let us see that. Let us know this. For when God saves the sinner, it's with the assurance he'll bring them to the destination. And in all probability, this may be rather conjecture, but in all probability the dry land upon which Jonah was cast would be the coast of Israel, and possibly near Joppa, from where he had sailed away, fleeing from the presence of the Lord.
But there is one aspect of divine truth illustrated for us in this story of Jonah that we would like to consider for our blessing and instruction. Have you ever discovered the dispensational aspect of this prophecy of Jonah? By that we mean... The events that happen to Jonah are a picture for us in presenting the history of the nation of Israel in a very graphic way. Let me seek to explain it as far as I possibly can from the story which we have covered in the first two chapters of the Book of Jonah. In chapter one, the disobedience of the prophet can portray to us the unfortunate experiences of the nation of Israel in their national disobedience.
In Exodus chapter nineteen, verses five and six, God said to his people Israel, If ye will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people. For all the earth is mine, and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. God's purposes for Israel was to exalt them above all other nations, but at the same time they were to obey his voice and magnify him before the nations. The history of Israel, which is well known to us, has reflected their unfortunate disobedience without any shadow of doubt.
Consequently, the storms of divine judgment that swept across the path of the nation. Throughout their sad history this has been true, and this none of us can deny. But in chapter two, where Jonah the prophet is preserved by God in the great fish, the wonder the chasing hand of God, we may well recognize that while Israel has been scattered among the nations of this world, by God's chasing rod, Nevertheless, the nation has been miraculously preserved by God, in spite of the many persecutions, under faith and power to destroy them.
Moses, that great prophet of God, long beforehand portrayed what would happen to the nation of Israel if they failed to obey their God. Many commend to you, if interested, A careful reading of Deuteronomy chapter twenty-eight, and verses fifty-eight through sixty-three. In that portion you will find that Moses, by divine inspiration, foretold that they would be oppressed, and that the nation would have no rest, they would have no comfort, for body and soul, their lives would be in constant danger and fear.
So likewise as Jonah feared, did he not fear again and again that his physical life would be at an end? So the nation of Israel has been brought into despair again and again in respect to their national existence. Any observant person with about any ounce of common sense can see this same condition prevailing today, even in our own day now. in the land of Israel, where God has permitted them to return, after all the chasing years they have passed through, through all the chasing experiences that they have been persecuted in by the nations of the world, truly, it depicts an illustration of it in the experience of Jonah.
Jonah was swallowed by the great fish in the midst of the sea. So the nation of Israel has been swallowed, as it were, by God's divine chasing. And? Has been swallowed up by the nations of the earth, as they were scattered throughout all the world. But did you ever notice, when the whale swallowed Jonah, he couldn't digest it? Oh, no. There came a time when Jonah at the end of his prayer said, Salvation is of the Lord. And when Jonah said that, the fish could not stomach Jonah any longer, and he spewed him out. Have you realized that when Jonah was thus swallowed by the great fish?
It was impossible for the fish to digest him. God preserved the prophet and kept him alive. Likewise, wherever the earthly people of God have been absorbed in and by the nations of the earth, they have maintained and retained their identity of their Jewish origin as a nation. This itself is a divine miracle, not to be considered as accidental, but providential under God. Therefore it is true that God has used the nations to chase any earthly people we know. But when God is finished with his dealings of punishment and chastening upon Israel, then God will reckon in judgment with the guilty nations, and this day of reckoning seems to be so very near.
Under the chastening hand of God, Jonah ultimately cried to the Lord in prayer for deliverance. The prophet Moses foretold that his keeper would be scattered. in Deuteronomy chapter four. But he added these words in chapter four and verse twenty nine. But from Thess ye shall seek Jehovah thy God, and thou shalt find him when thou searchest after him with all thine heart and with all thy soul. When Jonah turned to the Lord in complete repentance and truth, God heard his prayer.
God restored him. God delivered him. God brought him back to his land again. So that we can say, the nation of Israel will be restored to the land of their fathers. They will be brought back from the far corners of the globe. You may ask the question, has not this been done in our day? My beloved, What you and I are seeing today is only the preliminary stage for the complete event that is yet to take place. The nation of Israel has yet to suffer further persecution under God's chastening hand at the very hands of the nations around them.
The Great Tribulation, if you please, For the nation will yet go through the day of Jacob's trouble, as it is called in Jeremiah, chapter thirty, and verse seven. That period which we call in the New Testament, often called the Great Tribulation, and also in the Old and New Testament, the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord. So then what we see now is to be greatly accelerated. and facilitated, when God sent forth, his angels with a great trumpet sound, to gather his people from one end of the earth to the other to come back to Jerusalem and the land.
Did not the Lord Jesus say of that day when they would be regathered, and God shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Matthew chapter twenty-four and verse thirty-one. So just as surely as Israel has been scattered, preserved and chastened, she will yet be fully restored by the Lord to her own land and heritage in the hour when she will turn to the Lord.
Not to any nation, but to the Lord with all her heart. We must recognize today the nation of Israel has not turned to Jehovah the Lord. But the nation of Israel, as we can well see, day by day, is seeking the protection and the security of herself as a nation, not from Jehovah, but unfortunately from the nations around them. But when the day comes, when God is finished with the chasing of his people Israel, it will be the Lord himself who will be their deliverer and become their everlasting protector.
God then will turn her captivity. God then will have compassion and return his people the godly remnant of that day who turned to the Lord. He will restore the nation and glorify the nation under the reign of their Messiah, the soon-coming King, even our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Beyond everything else, Israel needs to learn today the great words that Jonah the prophet prayed in the closing of his prayer in Jonah chapter two and verse nine. May I say faithfully, empathically.
The day must come when the prayer, the closing words of Jonah's prayer, will be the language, and the prayer of the godly remnant of Israel in the day of their greatest danger, when the nations will be surrounding them to exterminate them finally, if they possibly can. They then will say, salvation, meaning deliverance, is of the Lord. Today the nation clearly understands the perils they face. They recognize the diabolical enemy that seeks to persecute and destroy them. But one thing that Israel must learn and will learn through further testing and trial and trouble are the words of this prayer that say salvation is of the Lord.
All the political intrigue And the political alliances which they are seeking today will fail to solve their present problems, and fail to solve their problems at all. Whether social, whether educational effort, this will also fail. These and thousands of other devices can only fail. But when repentant Israel, like Jonah, confessing their helplessness, hopelessness, to effect deliverance for the nation, when he confesses salvation is of the Lord, then God will forever plant them in their new land, never to be removed again, but to be glorified under the reign of their coming Messiah, even our Lord and Savior.
Jesus Christ. It has been well stated, you can cover the history of Israel by the history of Jacob, their ancestor. The life of Jacob in the history of the Word of God can be divided into three sections. The first section of his life he lived in the land of Canaan with his father Isaac and his mother Rebecca. So likewise the nation, when brought into the land of Canaan, came into the land to possess the land and to enjoy its fruitfulness, and for at times they were in the land. The centuries went by, then driven by persecution, by those whom God raised up to be their enemy, and to bring his judgment, and to express his displeasure upon the disobedience, the sinfulness, and the awful character of his people, who went into idolatry in a deeper way, than even the nations around them that were heathen.
God scattered them. Their crowning sin, when they crucified their Messiah, brought the scattering of the nation even in a greater manner, together with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in the Danes, as we well know the Danes of the Roman general Titus who destroyed the city and the Temple. From that time they have been scattered throughout the earth. Centuries have elapsed, But the next step in the nation of Israel's history would be their restoration. They would be in the land, once again restored, like their ancestor Jacob, in the land, second, out of the land for twenty years of exile, in the land of Penan Aaron, suffering, testing, and chasing, under the hand of God, and then restored to the land, and brought back only able, as God crippled him at the brook to kneel, and thrust his thigh in such a way that he was lame on his feet, and he could only cling to his deliverer, and say, I will not let thee go, except thou blessed me, and Jacob's name was changed to Israel, and he became a prince of God,
and back again in the land where he belonged. Such will be the history, and it's the history, of the nation of Israel. May we see this to the glory of God and to the enlightenment of our minds and hearts as we're instructed through the word of God in this truth. Beloved friends, we have now reached chapter three in the prophecy of Jonah. We have noted in the first chapter that the prophet Jonah was a disobedient prophet. in the storm fleeing from the presence of the Lord.
In chapter two we found him a chastened prophet, inside the great fish, praying unto the Lord. We now begin the consideration of chapter three, where we find Jonah as a successful prophet, inside the great city of Nineveh, speaking for the Lord. The opening words of chapter three, verses one and two, tell us, and the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.
The chapter opens with another commission, a renewed commission from God, given to the prophet, telling him to thus go and preach the message God had bidden him to tell. 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 work and for the purpose that the Lord had called him for. The call to preach in Nineveh comes a second time as God in his marvelous grace recommissioned his service.
It is wonderful to realize and recognize that our blessed God gives his children renewed opportunities to serve him, even though they may have been unwilling and disobedient before. We think of the beloved Apostle Peter. We think also of the servant of God by the name of Mark in the New Testament. They are examples of the same fact that both of them, though they fail the Lord, get later restored to the Lord, they resume their service in a faithful manner.
These words and incidents can be certainly an example and an encouragement for us. that we ourselves may take heart, and permit the Lord to restore us when so needful, and to recommission us to a renewed and a faithful service for him, we can certainly rejoice and give thanks to God for his grace, even to his erring, wandering, disobedient servants, that he is willing to give them the message the second time. Again, let me repeat the lesson that we can take to our conscience in heart, that God may chasten us, that we might be more profitable and fruitful for him when thus he calls us to serve him when restored.
What a God we have, and I'll bless to see, though he went after his servant Jonah, and brought him down to the bottoms of the ocean, yet it was to recommission him and go to the city of Nineveh. The great city of Nineveh would be an interesting city to consider for just a moment or two. It would be a point of place for Jonah's message. We note what it says in verse two of our third chapter. God calls it that great city. An ancient authority states that the city was sixty miles in circumference, even much larger than even the great city of Babylon.
The walls of the city of Nineveh, according to the report, were one hundred feet in height, and those walls were broad enough to permit three chariots to ride abreast upon the top of the walls. And let me repeat, we would like to re-emphasize the greatness, even physically, the greatness of the city. The walls of the city were one hundred feet in height. The top of the walls were broad enough to allow three chariots to ride a breath upon it. Then there were fifteen hundred towers surrounding the city with great height over the city, and according to chapter four and verse eleven of our chapter, of our book of Jonah, there were one hundred and twenty thousand children alone in the city.
Therefore the city may have possessed about one million inhabitants. It was no small city, and God's message was sent to it a message of warning and also of divine concern for its people. A little word of explanation would be proper, relating to that verse we mentioned, the refer to, in chapter four and verse, where we have in verse eleven, the mention that God told his servant Jonah later that there were a hundred and twenty thousand who knew not their right hand from their left hand, Now this was not the complete population of the city.
Without question of doubt, God was referring to the little ones, the innocent ones. Who would be the victims of his judgment if the judgment fell upon the whole city? So when you take a hundred and twenty thousand as representing the little ones, we can subtly multiply in a greater measure the whole population, and perhaps suggest, without any overbearing any overemphasis, suggest the population of this great city could have been about a million inhabitants. A city that was sixty miles in circumference.
Now let's look at the message that Jonah was told to preach, which we have in verse three. So Jonah arose and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city, a three-day journey. Here again, we can recognize the greatness of the city in a physical way, taking three days to go across and around. And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey. And he cried and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. Here we have Jonah's message.
Thank God we have his obedience too. And how different the record is now. He is readily obedient. He does as the Lord commands. If only we who were the followers of Christ were as obedient, instead of being like Jonah in the days of his disobedience. But Jonah now is a living example. Of God's mercy, which he has received through repentance, and also we can rejoice that even the Savior declared that Jonah was assigned to the Ninevites. He himself had been saved from death, and he was now assigned to the people of Nineveh of God's mercy.
In Luke chapter eleven and verse thirty, the Lord Jesus speaks of Jonah as being assigned to the Ninevites. Please let us realize, back of the story, which we have already covered, was the mercy of God in delivering Jonah from his great and terrible dilemma, and from the judgment not only of the storm, but especially the deliverance out of the bowels of the great fish. God was merciful. And of course it is very unfortunate, as we shall later see, that the prophet Jonah did not imbibe to his own heart and conscience and attitude of soul the mercy of the Lord toward the Ninevites.
But nevertheless, the Ninevites, may I suggest, without any impossibility of the suggestion being untrue, they could have heard what happened to Jonah. They could have recognized in this man was a living example of the mercy of God. God miraculously delivered him from the powers of the great fish. We repeat again, as we have formerly, the possibility that even the sailors certainly would tell their side of the story. And also, surely Jonah had a testimony to tell how the Lord musterfully had preserved and delivered him from the bottom of the ocean out of the bowels of the great fish.
He was a sign. He was a miracle. As the word sign means in the New Testament, he was a miracle for the Ninevites to see and to realize. And so again, God emphasizes the great signs of Nineveh, as we have noticed in verse four, as he goes across the city a day's journey only. He cries, yet forty days, Nineveh shall be overthrown. In verse three it is said that Nineveh was an exceeding great city, of three days' journey. So we must readily realize it would be approximately sixty miles across it.
Surely Jonah couldn't go more than twenty miles in one day, as he went one day's journey, and he had a three days' journey to make. But as Jonah thus journeying into the city, he preached his message. of warning and judgment. Listen again to the word. Yet forty days in Nineveh shall be overthrown. That's not a very long sermon. How many places within the city he may have stopped, we do not know. But if he went along, he delivered his God-given message, one 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. Yet, have those people understand his message? For he was a Hebrew. They were Assyrians. He could easily have made himself intelligible to the Assyrians. For we have in Isaiah chapter thirty-six and verse eleven. A definite evidence that the Jews understood the Assyrian language. If you read Isaiah thirty-six, in the days of Hezekiah, the Assyrians besieged the city of Jerusalem. They spoke in the Jews' language to them.
But the inhabitants and the leaders of the city begged them to talk. If they would, in the Assyrian language which they said, those leaders of the city said, we understand it. So it was not an impossibility that Jonah himself knew the language of the Assyrians. But then let us consider the words of warning very carefully. In forty days Nineveh shall be overthrown. This was the message of approaching judgment. It indicated a very short period will elapse before the judgment would fall just forty days. Why forty days? Why not but one day? The very fact that God said forty days was a very indication of His grace and mercy.
He gave them space for serious reflection and possible repentance. God would test the people in relation to their responsibility to this announcement. We often note forty, the numeral forty in the Scriptures, is the number employed in relation to testing. The flood upon the earth in Genesis seven. The great flood in the days of Noah is an example of forty days. And forty-nine. Moses more than once was forty days on Mount Sinai in the book of Exodus. Elijah had to travel forty days to Mount Horeb in first Kings nineteen. And our beloved and blessed Lord was tempted forty days in the wilderness by Satan as we read in Matthew chapter four.
And again and again the number forty is unquestionably the indication and suggestion of testing. But what did God intend doing at the end of the forty days? Nineveh said God shall be overthrown. And the word overthrown is the same word that is used of the destruction of Solomon Gomorrah in Genesis nineteen. God overthrew those cities we read in Genesis nineteen twenty eight. So God threatened to turn the city of Nineveh upside down and destroy it from the very foundation. Oh, my beloved, let us be faithfully realizing that a universal danger of coming judgment lies ahead for all the cities of the nation.
We think particularly in our present time of the book of the Revelation. We see in the book of the Revelation unprecedented judgments and destruction that are yet to fall upon not just the city, but the whole world. Who can conceive, and who can indeed conceive the righteous anger and wrath of God that is yet to be poured out? We would faithfully declare that the judgments of an angry but a righteous God are fast approaching the world, and the warning of coming judgment is really a message of God's grace to those who may not yet be saved, that they may call upon him while they may.
Now we have alluded in our study of this chapter to the fact that Jonah was a successful prophet. As he proclaimed the message of coming judgment, yet forty days in Nineveh shall be overthrown. From the fifth verse of this third chapter down to the end, we have recorded the repentance of Nineveh. We read verse five, saying, So the people of Nineveh believe God, and proclaim the fact and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them, even to the least of them. Now let us focus our thought very thoroughly on this record in the Word of God.
It is one of the most impressive results of any preacher's message. Remember that the Lord Jesus Christ, when he was upon the earth, as we have stated previously, he said that Jonah was assigned to the Nineveh. Meaning that what had happened to the prophet, his miraculous preservation in the great fish, was in itself a sign from God. The events of chapter one and chapter two, which are recorded, which we have studied, they must have reached the ears of the people of Nineveh before Jonah arrived in the capital. So that when he came, they may have said, why this is a man, who was miraculously delivered from the depths of the sea.
This is the prophet who ran away from his God. And we have heard what happened to him. By the prophet's experience, they could readily realize that if God punished and chastened Jonah for his sin, and yet spared him, perhaps God would spare them. Now we have made comment that only five words of Jonah's message of pound or the words of Jonah's message let me just mention this which is interesting Jonah preach as we have it in our authorized version yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown but in the Hebrew language of the original text this message is one of only five words in the Hebrew language covering the translation yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown A very brief and short message.
Yet one of the greatest messages that a man ever preached. For where can you find any one message accomplishing such great and effective results? You remember Peter preached one sermon on the day of Pentecost and three thousand with faith. But look at the record. In relation to Jonah, there was a hundred percent result. in his preaching in the city of Nineveh. Verse five tells us, so the people of Nineveh believe God. The whole city of Nineveh believe God. Now this, perhaps, we must not say, meant that all of them received their soul salvation, but we know from the context they received deliverance physically, but they believe the message.
Can you name any time in the history of revivals that such a thing took place? Jonah was the prophet, yes. And Jonah was assigned to the people of Nirmah. But when Jonah preached his brief but pointed message, they were not taken up with Jonah, nor were they concerned about his miraculous preservation. They listened to the message that came from God. A preacher's message must be more important than the preacher. They do not talk about Jonah in the record as we read. nor about the miracle that happened to him, for they talk about the God that he mentioned, who would judge them, which was more important.
But perhaps today we find often the preacher is more important in the minds of people, himself more important to them than the message he may proclaim. Oh, that we could get the facts straight. God's message is more important than the preacher. That's what the inhabitants of Nineveh realized. Even though Jonah was assigned to them, we're not dealing with a preacher. The Ninevites said, we have to have to do with God. And that is how the people of Nineveh felt. And it is therefore recorded. So the people believe God. They didn't say we believe Jonah.
They believe God. and the message that the servant of God gave from him. When people believe God, then God will honor their faith. Everyone, old and younger like, without exception, turned to God in the city. They perhaps rightly reasoned amongst themselves. Why should God send a prophet to warn them? If God wanted to destroy us outright, he would have left us without a warning. Why then did he give us forty days? My beloved unsaved friend, if you are listening, would to God that you realize that God is speaking to you now. He is calling the unsaved to come to Christ before his judgment and before his wrath may fall upon the sons of men.
It is his mercy that is being extended to the unsaved when he warns them, for we well know from the word of God, that he is not willing that any should perish. but that all should come to repentance and live. A word in season to any perhaps unsaved. God wants you to avail yourself of his willingness and his readiness to forgive your sins. We may ask the question of any person that may be unsaved. Are you willing to believe what his word says? Then he quotes some scriptures. God hath appointed a day in the which He will judge the world.
Acts seventeen and verse thirty-one. We would like to present very faithfully that the world is coming under the divine judgment and retribution of God. The clouds of judgment seem to be darkening, and that day drawing nearer. But may I point out, God has already set the day. He hath appointed the day, in the which he will judge the world. The writer to the book of Hebrews, in the epistles of the Hebrews in chapter nine and verse twenty-seven, made a statement very important in the same regard. And as it is appointed and the men wants to die, but after this the judgment, did you ever realize, my unsaved friend, you have two divine appointments in this one verse, you must, and you will keep them.
The first appointment is with death. It is appointed and the men wants to die. Let me ask, how do you think you could ever avoid it? Figure it out if you can. Has anyone a plan? How they can evade death? Do you know the very date of your coming death? Do you know whether it would be even today? Who knows? Do you know if it will be tomorrow? Both not myself. of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day will bring forth, said the wise man. Have you, my unsaved friend, any conception? When? Gone will keep, or call you to keep this appointment.
But let me assure you, where one conclusive fact, the appointment will be kept. Then why not be wise and get ready for it? Said the prophet Amos in chapter four in verse twelve to Israel, O Israel! prepare to meet thy God. But then after death there is another appointment. Oh, you say, no, death will be the end. Oh, no. Not on your life. Death is not the end. It's but the beginning of eternity. And God says, after death, the judgment. Oh, beloved, we look at the city of Nineveh facing judgment.
They heard the message. They repented. But oh today, how many are repenting? How mankind faces the judgment? And the unsaved will stand before the judgment bar of God? Nineveh had forty days. You do not know if you have forty days, as did Nineveh to repent. But this is God's message to the unsaved. Divine appointments are ahead. Death is sure. And after that, the judgment. My beloved, if you're unsaved, do you want God to show his mercy to you now? How necessary for you to consider this?
For God in his gospel is telling you today that he wants to save you. Why wait until it would be forever too late? And we have the message, blessed message in this wonderful story of Nineveh. The people of Nineveh believe who? They believe God. And my beloved friend, I'm saved. God in his gospel is saying to you, Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. The words of the Lord Jesus, in John three sixteen you may well know. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
The question is raised, have you believed? If the heathen Ninevites believed God, so can you, if you will. They made no delay. Neither should you, my beloved friend, if you're unsaved, make any delay. With the hymn-writer, God grants that you would be able to say, I do believe, I now believe, that Jesus died for me, that on the cross he shed his blood, from sin that set me free. Please note in our story the fifth verse of our chapter, We like particularly to read it again, and meditate upon it in our closing moments. So the people of Nineveh believed God. They gave the evidence of that faith.
They gave their evidence of believing him. They proclaimed the fact. They put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them, even to the least of them, and thus in repentance toward God, and in faith upon the message that Jonah preached. they turned to the Lord in simple trusting faith believing his word. Oh, what a wonderful occasion it must have been, the most successful preaching perhaps than any servant of God ever had, and yet struck that was preached, really by an unwilling servant, who wanted to see the destruction of the Nineveh, who desired to have Nineveh overthrown, but who failed to realize the mercy and the compassion so great of a God in glory above, even to the most wicked city upon the earth in the days of Jonah, the wicked city of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire.
But in that short preaching of a message, in forty days, and none of us shall be overthrown. Just forty days' time. We wonder today how much longer the Lord will put up with the conditions upon the earth. Forty days? Oh, when we look at the increasing wickedness and lawlessness of this being, today we wonder at the patience and marvel at the patience of our God. yet not willing that any should perish. There are many that criticize the judgments of God, the divine retribution that he puts out, and pours out upon the sons of men.
My beloved, may we say faithfully that when you read of the divine retribution of God poured out upon the earth as it is recorded in the Holy Scripture, every visitation of divine judgment was justified. by the holy God that poured it out. And we should always realize there was a long period of abeyance, of mercy, and of grace before the judgment came. Let me remind you concerning the great judgment of the flood. As you read the account of it in Genesis chapter six, God gave the whole world one hundred and twenty years to repent.
And Noah preached for one hundred and twenty years while he was building the ark, and he warned of coming judgment. He prepared for himself and for his house the ark for his safety under the will and command and counsel of God. But all that period of the building of the ark, Noah was a preacher of righteousness, as we have told in the Word of God. And for one hundred and twenty years God's spirit strove with mankind. The great flood with his judgment did not come hastily. And may I state, likewise today, God's love and mercy and grace has been extended so long, how much longer I cannot know, that God may reach in his mercy and grace some poor sinner that will trust the Savior.
My beloved friend, if you've never trusted him, listen to the words of coming judgment. And the appointment you may have, with death and after death the judgment, make the Savior yours, and be saved from the coming judgment. In Christ, the Ark of Saviour. Father, we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus, sanctify thy truth. If any of the Ninevites and all of them, Father, we thank thee, did turn to thee in faith. Surely men and women and boys and girls can do so today by trusting thy beloved son as faith