WEBVTT 00:00:04.160 --> 00:00:08.640 Hello, I'm Pastor Creighton, and thank you for tuning in to New Sun Churches Podcast. 00:00:08.800 --> 00:00:15.359 We're a gospel center church in Port Perry, Ontario, proclaiming the true and life-giving word of Jesus as we love and serve our neighbors. 00:00:15.519 --> 00:00:18.320 May God bless you today through his life-giving word. 00:00:43.280 --> 00:00:48.960 Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey in breadth. 00:00:49.200 --> 00:00:58.640 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey, and he called out, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. 00:00:58.880 --> 00:01:01.520 And the people of Nineveh believed God. 00:01:02.079 --> 00:01:08.560 They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. 00:01:09.920 --> 00:01:20.319 The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 00:01:20.480 --> 00:01:34.079 And he issued a proclamation and published throughout Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles, let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. 00:01:34.319 --> 00:01:42.959 Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:50.079 Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 00:01:50.319 --> 00:01:51.280 Who knows? 00:01:51.599 --> 00:02:01.680 God may turn and relent and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish. 00:02:02.159 --> 00:02:13.039 When God saw what they did, how they turned away from their evil way, God relented of the disaster he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. 00:02:13.360 --> 00:02:15.199 This is the word of the Lord. 00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:16.960 Thanks be to God. 00:02:17.919 --> 00:02:23.599 Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:25.199 Who knows? 00:02:26.000 --> 00:02:34.159 God may turn and relent, and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish. 00:02:34.879 --> 00:02:36.159 Let's pray. 00:02:44.879 --> 00:02:57.840 Gracious Lord, by your word and Holy Spirit, would you increase our deep sense of need for your forgiveness and grace? 00:02:59.439 --> 00:03:13.360 That our assurance of your generous and fatherly heart towards us would also increase to your glory and to our great reassurance. 00:03:13.919 --> 00:03:23.120 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be always pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. 00:03:23.439 --> 00:03:24.080 Amen. 00:03:24.400 --> 00:03:25.759 Please be seated. 00:03:32.960 --> 00:03:41.840 At the risk of outing myself as a millennial, I'm going to share with you one of my most frequent ads on social media. 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:43.840 You know how the algorithm works, right? 00:03:43.919 --> 00:03:52.560 Somehow it figures out what ad corresponds to your demographic and then just bombards you with that ad and similar ads. 00:03:53.039 --> 00:04:03.199 The thing I probably see most frequently, I wonder if you see it too, uh, are ads that that uh start off with something like, you need to be in therapy. 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:05.759 And here's seven reasons why. 00:04:05.919 --> 00:04:06.400 Something like that. 00:04:06.560 --> 00:04:07.439 Do you ever get those ads? 00:04:07.520 --> 00:04:08.240 No, that's just me? 00:04:08.400 --> 00:04:08.719 Okay. 00:04:09.280 --> 00:04:12.560 The algorithm probably knows me better than I know myself. 00:04:13.039 --> 00:04:24.480 Now, I I want to be mindful in how I uh talk about these ads, because uh I've had I've had tremendous experiences in therapy and counseling that have been extremely helpful. 00:04:24.560 --> 00:04:27.920 So by no means do I want to just paint with one brush here. 00:04:28.079 --> 00:04:39.680 But there is, I might suggest, a very kind of popular form of therapy that's often advertised on social media that um is popular for a reason. 00:04:40.079 --> 00:04:41.360 And I wonder what that reason is. 00:04:41.439 --> 00:04:42.079 Here's my theory. 00:04:42.160 --> 00:04:43.360 I'm gonna share with you my theory. 00:04:43.439 --> 00:04:46.079 I'm still working on this, so you can help me craft it. 00:04:46.720 --> 00:04:59.920 My theory is the thing we desire to hear is someone in authority say to us with authority, it's not your fault. 00:05:00.480 --> 00:05:01.120 Right? 00:05:02.160 --> 00:05:09.600 Uh someone in authority to say with authority that your guilt is put away. 00:05:09.920 --> 00:05:11.120 Something like that. 00:05:12.480 --> 00:05:23.759 And so I wonder if if part of our appetite for a certain kind of therapy is our desperate need to hear those words and to see guilt expiated and sent away. 00:05:24.160 --> 00:05:35.199 Because I wonder if if we're honest with ourselves, we have an indelible and impossible to erase guilt that we feel existentially. 00:05:35.360 --> 00:05:43.360 There is something broken or wrong in the center of my being, and somehow that needs correction, and I don't know what that is. 00:05:43.519 --> 00:05:58.160 And so I wonder if part of our appetite for this therapy that so frequently pops up on my social media is that need to hear your guilt has been put away, because we feel that guilt inherently, indelibly. 00:05:58.399 --> 00:06:02.720 What do we do with that guilt is the question. 00:06:03.199 --> 00:06:15.199 We've been going through this book of Jonah, and we've discovered Jonah to be a very reluctant, rebellious blockhead of a prophet. 00:06:15.759 --> 00:06:23.120 He has done his best to resist God's call upon him, which is you need to go and preach to the people of Nineveh. 00:06:23.360 --> 00:06:26.319 You know the people you think are the worst sort of people who exist. 00:06:26.560 --> 00:06:29.839 You need to go and speak my word to them. 00:06:30.079 --> 00:06:37.680 And Jonah does his best to outrun God, but of course we know that even though we can try to resist God, we cannot outrun this God of grace. 00:06:37.839 --> 00:06:42.399 And so God finds him, and so God has him hurled into the sea. 00:06:42.639 --> 00:06:51.439 And in the depths of the sea, swallowed by this fish, Jonah is forced to reckon with God his creator. 00:06:52.160 --> 00:07:05.759 And he's forced to admit to God his wrongdoing, and in the depths of the sea, he comes to place his hope in the only one who can raise him back up to life again. 00:07:06.319 --> 00:07:16.240 And so, hilariously, Jonah gets spewed back up onto the beach in the direction he was supposed to be going this whole time. 00:07:16.720 --> 00:07:23.279 God's grace goes deeper than we can sink and brings us back from the very brink of death itself. 00:07:23.519 --> 00:07:27.920 And now we left Jonah last week on the beach with a choice to make. 00:07:28.240 --> 00:07:40.319 And as he makes his way to Nineveh, here's what we're going to see in chapter three God's word proclaims death to sin, but life to sinners. 00:07:40.959 --> 00:07:46.959 God's word proclaims death to sin, but life to sinners. 00:07:48.160 --> 00:08:00.959 And so if you can resonate with that deep existential sense of dread and guilt, perhaps there's good news for people like you and I. 00:08:01.920 --> 00:08:19.199 Because perhaps the gospel gives us permission to be honest about that guilt we feel so deeply, but gives us hope for seeing it truly and completely put away in a way we cannot do for ourselves. 00:08:19.519 --> 00:08:33.759 So I want us to reckon, pardon me, I think the author of Jonah wants us to reckon with the reality of repentance, but the great gift of assurance of forgiveness of sins. 00:08:34.720 --> 00:08:45.519 One Puritan preacher Thomas Watson puts it this way the two great graces essential to a saint in this life are faith and repentance. 00:08:45.840 --> 00:08:51.360 These are two wings by which the saint flies to heaven. 00:08:52.080 --> 00:08:54.480 Let's make a heavenly flight today. 00:08:54.639 --> 00:08:56.000 Let's dare to do that. 00:08:56.240 --> 00:09:07.279 Open up your uh order of service, your Bibles, uh Pew Bibles to page 727, and let's look at Jonah chapter 3 together. 00:09:10.320 --> 00:09:16.399 God's word proclaims death to sin, but life to sinners, and this is good news. 00:09:16.559 --> 00:09:18.480 Here's what I want us to see: three things. 00:09:18.639 --> 00:09:29.759 God's word announces God's anger against sin, God's word awakens the sinner to repent, and God's word assures the repentant sinner of grace. 00:09:29.919 --> 00:09:33.039 These are three things that God's word works. 00:09:33.279 --> 00:09:36.159 It announces, it awakens, it assures. 00:09:36.480 --> 00:09:41.600 Point number one, God's word announces God's anger against sin. 00:09:41.919 --> 00:09:44.240 This is a challenge to be honest, isn't it? 00:09:44.480 --> 00:09:46.000 Verses 1 to 4. 00:09:46.240 --> 00:09:53.679 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, because remember, it's come to him in chapter 1, and we know what Jonah did with that. 00:09:53.919 --> 00:10:04.720 It's now come to him a second time, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you. 00:10:05.039 --> 00:10:09.120 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. 00:10:09.360 --> 00:10:14.240 Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, we're told, three days' journey in breadth. 00:10:14.480 --> 00:10:27.919 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey, and he called out yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. 00:10:28.240 --> 00:10:29.919 Let's pause right there. 00:10:30.240 --> 00:10:34.799 Let's pause that there and remember what Nineveh represents to Jonah. 00:10:35.120 --> 00:10:39.679 Nineveh is not full of nice, kindly people, is it? 00:10:39.840 --> 00:10:46.799 The Assyrian Empire is a brutal empire built on warfare and expansion. 00:10:47.039 --> 00:10:57.679 Those who live in Nineveh could not be more politically or ideologically opposed to Jonah and what the people of God represent. 00:10:57.840 --> 00:11:08.000 These people in Nineveh represent to Jonah surely the very worst of sinners, the very least deserving of God's grace. 00:11:08.240 --> 00:11:11.120 They are the worst of sinners to Jonah. 00:11:11.440 --> 00:11:12.399 What are sins? 00:11:12.480 --> 00:11:14.480 Here's how our catechism defines sin. 00:11:14.799 --> 00:11:26.000 Sins are intentions, acts, or failures to act that arise out of our corrupted human nature and fall short of conformity to God's revealed will. 00:11:26.159 --> 00:11:30.960 I want to return to the second half of that definition, but let's pay attention to that first half for now. 00:11:31.200 --> 00:11:34.480 Intentions, acts, or failures to act. 00:11:34.720 --> 00:11:36.320 That's what sins are. 00:11:36.720 --> 00:11:40.639 It's what's opposed to God's good will for us. 00:11:41.200 --> 00:11:47.919 And even the king of Nineveh is going to have to admit that the people have been up to no good, violence, and evil ways. 00:11:48.159 --> 00:11:58.799 So Jonah is called to go to the very least deserving, to the very worst of enemies, and call out in the middle of the city God's message for that city. 00:11:58.960 --> 00:12:00.799 And what's God's message? 00:12:01.039 --> 00:12:06.320 Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. 00:12:06.799 --> 00:12:13.919 Now, maybe this is a summary statement of a much longer sermon that Jonah gave in the midst of the city. 00:12:14.080 --> 00:12:16.720 Maybe several sermons that Jonah gave in the midst of the city. 00:12:16.879 --> 00:12:27.120 Maybe, and I wonder if this would be in keeping of Jonah's character, maybe this is the bare minimum Jonah can do to check that box of what God is asking him to do in Nineveh. 00:12:27.519 --> 00:12:32.480 Either way, this is the message, the essential message that God has for Nineveh. 00:12:32.799 --> 00:12:35.200 It shall be overthrown in 40 days. 00:12:35.279 --> 00:12:36.399 It will be thrown down. 00:12:36.559 --> 00:12:38.320 It will be done away with. 00:12:38.480 --> 00:12:45.120 This is the same word overthrown that's used to describe the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in the book of Genesis. 00:12:45.440 --> 00:12:50.000 Sin, it's clear, provokes God's wrath. 00:12:50.399 --> 00:12:52.879 God is angry with sin. 00:12:53.279 --> 00:12:59.519 He is angry with the things that contradict his good will for his creation. 00:13:00.320 --> 00:13:07.679 And when God's word is announced in the midst of sin, it proclaims death to sin. 00:13:08.639 --> 00:13:12.159 It announces God's anger against it. 00:13:12.960 --> 00:13:14.960 This is pretty sobering stuff. 00:13:15.200 --> 00:13:19.600 And it's sobering because it comes with a responsibility, doesn't it? 00:13:19.759 --> 00:13:34.159 For those of us responsible, we Christians responsible to handle God's word rightly and to make his word known rightly, we have to confront the reality of the confrontation of God's word with sin. 00:13:34.799 --> 00:13:39.519 Do we take sin as seriously as God does? 00:13:40.080 --> 00:13:42.879 Because God takes it very seriously, doesn't he? 00:13:43.519 --> 00:13:45.279 And the answer is surely not. 00:13:45.519 --> 00:13:47.120 Surely we don't take it seriously. 00:13:47.200 --> 00:13:49.360 I don't take it as seriously as God does. 00:13:49.679 --> 00:13:50.480 Surely. 00:13:51.519 --> 00:13:58.480 I wonder if we have a habit of defining sin purely in kind of moralistic terms. 00:13:59.279 --> 00:14:08.480 Sin are those, you know, maybe it's minor piccadillos, maybe it's those more serious acts of immorality, you know, your murder, your embezzling, whatever. 00:14:08.720 --> 00:14:17.759 I wonder if we do our best to expiate this guilt we feel as a result of sin by either trivializing it or minimizing it. 00:14:18.240 --> 00:14:20.399 But God's word does neither. 00:14:20.720 --> 00:14:31.279 God's word addresses sin for exactly what it is: those actions, those thoughts, those deeds, those words that contradict God's good will for us. 00:14:31.440 --> 00:14:34.799 But even more than that, do you remember that second half of that definition of sin? 00:14:34.960 --> 00:14:38.480 They arise from the corruption of our human nature. 00:14:38.720 --> 00:15:00.399 It's not just we chose to do the bad thing instead of the good thing, it's that choosing the bad thing arose deep within us from something that is so profoundly broken and rebellious against God, so so self-determining, so idolatrous, that we have put ourselves on God's own throne in our life and make these determinations for ourselves. 00:15:00.480 --> 00:15:08.240 Something is broken deep within the fallen human person that we cannot choose the ultimate good even if we desire it. 00:15:09.279 --> 00:15:10.639 Something is so broken. 00:15:12.320 --> 00:15:25.120 This is this means sin is less like um less like choosing to eat junk food when we could have eaten good food, and more like a spiritual cancer that eats at us from the inside, isn't it? 00:15:25.279 --> 00:15:26.240 It's like a condition. 00:15:27.519 --> 00:15:43.840 And God hates sin in the way, perhaps, that we might sit by the bedside of a loved one dying of cancer, and hate that cancer that is eating away in the in their eating their body away, withering them away. 00:15:44.159 --> 00:15:53.279 So God hates that sin that eats us away, that corrupts us, that tears us away from him and his grace and his love for us. 00:15:53.440 --> 00:16:04.480 When God announces his anger against sin, it is an anger against that thing that corrupts us, that destroys us from within, that promises us the life that we desire for ourselves, but never delivers. 00:16:04.879 --> 00:16:10.720 And God is jealous to win us back for his love and his goodness and grace. 00:16:10.960 --> 00:16:19.440 He will not abide by the sin that Nineveh is committing anymore, because it's time, Nineveh, to turn back to me. 00:16:19.679 --> 00:16:22.320 That's the announcement that God is giving. 00:16:23.600 --> 00:16:27.039 God cares for the Ninevehites, surely. 00:16:27.200 --> 00:16:30.480 Because if he did not care, he would not call them back, would he? 00:16:32.320 --> 00:16:36.799 God's word announces God's anger at sin. 00:16:37.679 --> 00:16:40.480 God takes sin very seriously, do we? 00:16:41.440 --> 00:16:55.440 But not only does God's word announce God's anger against sin, that he will not tolerate it, that it's time to put it to an end, God's word also awakens the sinner to repent. 00:16:55.679 --> 00:16:56.639 Did you see this? 00:16:56.799 --> 00:16:58.799 Let's look at verses 5 to 9 here. 00:16:59.039 --> 00:17:02.240 And the people of Nineveh believed God. 00:17:02.879 --> 00:17:10.319 They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. 00:17:10.559 --> 00:17:12.000 And not just the people. 00:17:12.400 --> 00:17:36.480 The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackloth, and sat in ashes, and he issued a proclamation, and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, let neither men nor beast, herd nor flock taste anything. 00:17:36.640 --> 00:17:44.799 Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. 00:17:45.279 --> 00:17:51.680 Let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 00:17:51.839 --> 00:17:52.880 Who knows? 00:17:53.359 --> 00:18:00.880 God may turn and relent, and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish. 00:18:02.160 --> 00:18:13.039 Jonah in the midst of the city announces that Nineveh shall be overthrown as a result of the ongoing rebellion and sin that Nineveh is committing. 00:18:13.200 --> 00:18:18.079 And the people hear this word, and believe it or not, they believe it. 00:18:18.319 --> 00:18:19.680 They receive it. 00:18:20.079 --> 00:18:22.400 And they say, we gotta act on this. 00:18:22.559 --> 00:18:26.160 I mean, that's pretty mind-blowing stuff, especially I gotta think of your Jonah. 00:18:26.319 --> 00:18:29.039 Like, imagine Jonah's reaction, seriously. 00:18:31.440 --> 00:18:38.000 The people of Nineveh hear and trust the word that Jonah delivers from the Lord. 00:18:38.240 --> 00:18:40.799 Perhaps there are circumstantial reasons for that. 00:18:41.119 --> 00:18:47.119 Some scholars talk about how this is a particular point of political upheaval or weakness for Nineveh. 00:18:47.359 --> 00:18:51.440 Perhaps it's time for them to reevaluate their own moral framework. 00:18:52.079 --> 00:19:01.119 One commentator puts it this way, and I gotta say, this is the single greatest phrase I've ever read in the Bible commentary, so I just really want you guys to hear this. 00:19:01.359 --> 00:19:18.160 There may well have been something about Jonah that drew many after him, his bearing, his dress, or his quote, gastric juice tan from the fish's belly, as he strode towards the center of the city. 00:19:19.359 --> 00:19:25.200 Maybe there's circumstantial reasons that the Ninevites are saying, okay, we got to take this guy seriously. 00:19:27.599 --> 00:19:40.960 But the commentator nails it when the commentator concludes with this but the word of the Lord worked the miracle, not Jonah or his commentary. 00:19:41.200 --> 00:19:42.640 What's happening here? 00:19:42.960 --> 00:19:50.000 God is working by his word in the way that his word works with power. 00:19:50.799 --> 00:20:04.559 In whatever is going on in the life of these Ninevites, politically, socially, what have you, God has clearly already been at work preparing their hearts and minds to receive the word exactly when they received it. 00:20:04.720 --> 00:20:06.240 And now it's time. 00:20:06.640 --> 00:20:08.960 Now it's time to return to the Lord. 00:20:09.279 --> 00:20:16.640 Chesterton has a great phrase about the twitch upon the thread, as though God has a thread attached to each and every one of us. 00:20:16.720 --> 00:20:20.720 And at the right time and the right way, he just pulls us right back to himself. 00:20:21.119 --> 00:20:22.559 Doesn't matter how far we run. 00:20:22.720 --> 00:20:24.720 And that's what's happening in the life of these Ninvites. 00:20:24.799 --> 00:20:25.279 It's time. 00:20:25.440 --> 00:20:29.839 It's time to deal with our sin and return to the Lord. 00:20:29.920 --> 00:20:32.799 And so they fast and they put on sackcloth, right? 00:20:32.880 --> 00:20:35.839 This is a symbol for mourning for sin. 00:20:36.640 --> 00:20:43.839 They're realizing as grievous as sin is to God, it needs to grieve us to our core. 00:20:44.559 --> 00:20:49.440 James chapter 4 tells us to draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. 00:20:49.680 --> 00:20:51.440 Cleanse your hands, you sinners. 00:20:51.599 --> 00:20:53.599 Purify your hearts, you double-minded. 00:20:53.759 --> 00:20:55.440 Be wretched and mourn and weep. 00:20:55.519 --> 00:20:58.720 Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 00:20:58.960 --> 00:21:02.960 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. 00:21:04.799 --> 00:21:11.039 When we realize how grievous sin is to the Lord, it grieves us to our core. 00:21:11.599 --> 00:21:13.519 And we are ready to turn to Him. 00:21:13.680 --> 00:21:14.880 That's exactly what the people do. 00:21:15.039 --> 00:21:15.839 It's what the king does. 00:21:16.000 --> 00:21:20.559 He issues this proclamation that we're going to do this on a municipal scale. 00:21:20.720 --> 00:21:26.000 We're going to have far-reaching social reform in accordance with God's word. 00:21:26.319 --> 00:21:29.279 And the rationale that the king gives is crucial. 00:21:29.519 --> 00:21:30.240 Who knows? 00:21:30.559 --> 00:21:36.559 God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish. 00:21:37.119 --> 00:21:40.160 God's word works repentance. 00:21:40.640 --> 00:21:50.799 It orients the sinner away from the death that results from the wrath of God and turns us towards the life that He offers to us by grace. 00:21:51.359 --> 00:21:55.279 That's the invitation of repentance. 00:21:56.000 --> 00:21:59.039 Again, our catechism writes of repentance. 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:09.440 Means that I have a change of heart, turning from sinfully serving myself to serving God as I follow Jesus Christ. 00:22:09.759 --> 00:22:13.680 I need God's help to make this change. 00:22:14.960 --> 00:22:19.519 So too with the Ninevites, so too with all the great saints through history. 00:22:19.680 --> 00:22:21.519 So too, I hope for you and I. 00:22:21.759 --> 00:22:36.480 I was just rereading Augustine's confessions earlier this week, and Augustine, to make a long story short, is an amazing genius of a man, but he is trying to fill a desperate restlessness with intellectual pursuits and with sex, frankly. 00:22:37.359 --> 00:22:48.400 But in all these ways they don't deliver on their promises, and in the right way, in the right time, the twitch of the thread happens, and Augustine hears Romans chapter 15 being read. 00:22:48.799 --> 00:23:04.799 Pardon me, Romans 13, let us walk properly, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires. 00:23:04.960 --> 00:23:08.160 And believe it or not, that's the twitch of the thread. 00:23:08.400 --> 00:23:12.799 And Augustine says, this is the God I need to turn back to. 00:23:13.119 --> 00:23:19.039 I need to turn away from all of my vain pursuits and turn to Him for life. 00:23:21.759 --> 00:23:23.440 This is the heart of repentance. 00:23:23.599 --> 00:23:25.359 Do we mourn for sin? 00:23:25.599 --> 00:23:28.079 Do we grieve our sin as God grieves? 00:23:28.559 --> 00:23:34.400 Do we grieve it because we desire more of life and his life and the life that he promises us? 00:23:34.559 --> 00:23:38.960 And we so quickly turn to vain and false substitutes. 00:23:39.839 --> 00:23:44.400 Repentance is always an invitation, an invitation to come to Jesus. 00:23:44.559 --> 00:23:58.720 Yes, when you first put your faith in him in conversion, but on an ongoing basis, day to day as a Christian, turning away from false promises and towards the truth, towards the God of grace. 00:23:59.279 --> 00:24:03.119 This is why we confess our sins as a church Sunday for Sunday, isn't it? 00:24:03.359 --> 00:24:07.200 Because we recognize our hearts so easily go astray, prone to wander. 00:24:07.359 --> 00:24:08.640 Lord, I feel it. 00:24:09.920 --> 00:24:12.480 But even greater is his grace towards us. 00:24:12.720 --> 00:24:15.039 God's word announces God's anger against sin. 00:24:15.119 --> 00:24:16.880 That's true, and that's sobering. 00:24:17.519 --> 00:24:27.759 But God's word awakens the sinner to repent and place this his or her trust in God's mercy. 00:24:28.240 --> 00:24:30.880 So therefore, here's where we want to land. 00:24:31.039 --> 00:24:33.359 Here's the third thing God's word works. 00:24:34.160 --> 00:24:39.119 God's word assures the repentant sinner of his grace. 00:24:39.279 --> 00:24:41.440 Let's look at verse 10 really quickly. 00:24:41.759 --> 00:24:54.240 When God saw what they, the Ninevites, did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. 00:24:54.880 --> 00:24:56.720 Two really key verbs here. 00:24:56.880 --> 00:24:58.319 Did you notice those? 00:24:58.640 --> 00:25:01.839 God saw, and God relented. 00:25:02.079 --> 00:25:14.160 God saw the Ninevites turn away from their sin and towards him, much as God saw Jonah in the belly of the fish, in the very depths of the earth, in Sheol itself, turn to him. 00:25:14.400 --> 00:25:18.079 There is no repentance God overlooks. 00:25:18.319 --> 00:25:30.720 No matter how far we have gone from him, no matter how terrible our sin may be, God beholds the repentance, the turning away of a sinner towards him. 00:25:32.799 --> 00:25:37.119 God saw, he beheld, he considered their repentance. 00:25:37.359 --> 00:25:41.200 And God relented, is our second verb, isn't it? 00:25:41.359 --> 00:25:46.000 Some translations say this that God had compassion. 00:25:46.319 --> 00:25:50.400 He is responding to their response to his word. 00:25:51.200 --> 00:25:56.720 And as surely as the sinner repents, surely the sinner will be forgiven. 00:25:57.039 --> 00:26:01.200 This is the unstated premise in Jonah's preaching. 00:26:01.599 --> 00:26:08.000 Isaiah chapter 42 gives us a very vivid illustration of God's heart for the repentant sinner. 00:26:08.160 --> 00:26:10.960 A bruised reed the Lord will not break. 00:26:11.200 --> 00:26:13.759 A faintly burning wick he will not quench. 00:26:14.000 --> 00:26:17.200 He will faithfully bring forth justice. 00:26:18.000 --> 00:26:23.279 God is not in the business of breaking bruised reeds that turn to him. 00:26:24.400 --> 00:26:30.559 God is not interested in putting out our faintly burning wicks, and we do have faintly burning wicks, don't we? 00:26:31.680 --> 00:26:33.519 No, God protects us. 00:26:33.920 --> 00:26:45.839 He cherishes it, he cultivates it, he calls us back to himself and assures us of his goodness and grace, because God works life to sinners. 00:26:47.200 --> 00:26:59.359 God's word offers us what we can't achieve or attain for ourselves, and that is grace, forgiveness, the expiation of our guilt. 00:26:59.680 --> 00:27:02.240 Because God Himself has put it away. 00:27:04.319 --> 00:27:08.160 One sinner who experiences this, we meet in Luke chapter 7. 00:27:08.480 --> 00:27:15.119 Jesus has been invited over to the table of a very important person, Simon the Pharisee. 00:27:15.920 --> 00:27:25.839 And in walks a very well-known sinner, and she is weeping, and she anoints Jesus' feet as an expression of her repentance. 00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:34.880 And this Pharisee, Simon, doubts Jesus because he knows this woman's reputation, and Jesus ought to know, no, he ought to know this woman's reputation. 00:27:35.039 --> 00:27:46.480 But Jesus responds by giving a parable of two debtors and declaring that the one with greater debt, the one who experienced greater forgiveness, responds with greater love. 00:27:48.880 --> 00:27:52.079 This woman understands the grace that God offers her. 00:27:52.400 --> 00:27:53.920 Simon does not. 00:27:54.160 --> 00:28:01.519 And so Jesus says to this woman, your sins are forgiven, past tense, they're done away with. 00:28:01.839 --> 00:28:05.839 And he declares, Your faith has saved you, go in peace. 00:28:06.079 --> 00:28:18.079 Friends, when we bring ourselves sinners as we are, bruised reeds as we are, faintly burning wicks as we are, we do not hear Jesus' harsh word towards us. 00:28:18.240 --> 00:28:22.799 We hear the Lord Jesus say to us, your sins are forgiven. 00:28:23.359 --> 00:28:27.920 Your faith has saved you because you've put your trust in me. 00:28:28.559 --> 00:28:30.000 Go in peace. 00:28:30.799 --> 00:28:33.759 That is assurance we cannot give to ourselves. 00:28:34.000 --> 00:28:37.039 Only God Himself can pronounce that to us. 00:28:37.119 --> 00:28:51.279 And that is exactly the assurance we see through the cross, where God bears our sin upon himself and puts its power to death in his death, so that we can have the forgiveness that he is won for us by his resurrection. 00:28:51.519 --> 00:28:59.599 There is now therefore no condemnation, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 00:29:00.079 --> 00:29:13.599 Friends, for those who feel existential guilt that we would rather just ignore or do away with, that is the word we need to hear, and we need to hear the Lord say it to us. 00:29:23.039 --> 00:29:26.720 God's word announces his anger against sin, that's true. 00:29:27.119 --> 00:29:29.680 And we need to repent and put it away. 00:29:29.839 --> 00:29:35.200 It awakens us to the reality of repentance, but God's word does not leave us anxious or uncertain. 00:29:35.440 --> 00:29:41.200 God's word assures us of his grace towards repentant sinners. 00:29:41.519 --> 00:29:50.319 He alone can embrace us for exactly who we are, without any hiding, without any masks. 00:29:52.960 --> 00:29:54.720 It erases our guilt. 00:29:55.279 --> 00:29:56.559 It puts it away. 00:29:56.799 --> 00:30:00.319 Because God's word proclaims death to sin, but life to sinners. 00:30:00.480 --> 00:30:01.599 But notice this. 00:30:01.920 --> 00:30:06.000 Verse 10 is a word to the reader, isn't it? 00:30:06.160 --> 00:30:08.880 It's an assurance to the reader who's reflecting on the story. 00:30:09.039 --> 00:30:14.400 Jonah doesn't pronounce that same assurance to the Ninevites, does he? 00:30:14.640 --> 00:30:16.079 What does he say to the Ninevites? 00:30:16.160 --> 00:30:21.920 He says, Yet forty days the Nineveh shall be overthrown, and it leaves them wondering, who knows? 00:30:22.160 --> 00:30:26.400 God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish. 00:30:26.640 --> 00:30:32.160 Boy, we hope for the best, and our only hope is in God's mercy, so I think that's the best place to put it. 00:30:32.559 --> 00:30:41.039 But friends, we in Christ, we know that assurance that Jonah failed to proclaim, don't we? 00:30:42.319 --> 00:31:03.039 We know that God has turned the fullness of his fierce anger not upon us, but upon our Lord Jesus Christ, who was our willing Savior and substitute, so that you and I may not perish, but have everlasting life. 00:31:03.359 --> 00:31:08.160 Friends, if you are in Christ, that is your reality today. 00:31:08.799 --> 00:31:10.160 That is who you are. 00:31:10.319 --> 00:31:19.680 And that is the assurance you can cling to as you come to the Lord's table and hear God's word of grace proclaimed to you all over again. 00:31:20.160 --> 00:31:31.119 There may be some here who know that in their heart of hearts there is sin that they've yet to repent of, that they need to turn themselves once again over to the grace of God in Christ. 00:31:31.279 --> 00:31:32.880 Would you do that today? 00:31:33.440 --> 00:31:37.200 Would you speak that to the Lord as we confess our sins together? 00:31:37.519 --> 00:31:44.960 But, friends, there are those here who are unsure, anxious, or crippled by that guilt that nothing else can seem to do away with. 00:31:45.119 --> 00:31:50.799 Friends, you need to hear that assurance that there is no condemnation. 00:31:51.359 --> 00:31:53.680 And that is what we have in Christ. 00:31:55.039 --> 00:31:58.240 Repent and believe the gospel. 00:31:58.720 --> 00:31:59.359 Amen. 00:32:08.319 --> 00:32:10.960 We hope that you've been blessed by God's Word today. 00:32:11.119 --> 00:32:16.559 If you live in the Port Perry area, we hope that you'll come and worship with us in person on Sunday at 10 a.m. 00:32:16.880 --> 00:32:20.240 If you'd like to learn more about Newsong Church, we'd love to connect with you. 00:32:20.480 --> 00:32:25.279 Please find our contact information at newsongportperry.ca and reach out to us. 00:32:25.519 --> 00:32:30.640 Newsong's ministry is entirely funded by the generous giving of those who worship and journey with us. 00:32:30.880 --> 00:32:38.960 If you feel called to support our ministry with a financial gift, please go to newsportperry.ca slash giving to make your contribution. 00:32:39.279 --> 00:32:42.000 Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.