God’s Will at Work, No Matter What / Father's Day

Join us as Pastor Tyler continues in the sermon series, Jonah - God's Grace For the Undeserving - God's Will at Work, No Matter What - Jonah 3

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Good morning, church. Nice to uh see everybody this morning, and those who are visiting with us this morning, you're welcome. Uh we're glad that you are you're here and those online as well. Uh we're glad that you are joining us. Um today is, of course, special day, as it's been mentioned a few times. It is Father's Day. Uh so again, happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there, and also to the fathers of the faith, um, those who God has used you in a unique way and continuing to use you in a unique way in the lives of children in the church. So we praise the Lord uh for the role of the father. Um, but even as Winston mentioned, we also want to remember those who are grieving the loss of their father. Um, especially even this week, uh, Nadia Scarrett, who lost her father just a few days ago. Uh, so I want to pray for her. Um, in fact, why don't we just take a moment now and just pray for that family? And then we'll continue, Father. Just think of those who are in a season of grief, especially on this Father's Day. I want to pray for Nadia and her family as they travel this difficult road. Lord, you would be a comfort to them. That God, you being the father of love and grace, compassion, the father of your children, Lord, we pray that you would just be near her. God, we thank you for your goodness to us. And this morning, as we reflect on your character, on your goodness as a good, good father, that we would be encouraged by your truth. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. You know, it's a tremendous comfort to all of us to know that God is who he is, and in his character being our heavenly father. You know, as we get to know the Lord more and we grow in our relationship with the Lord, we experience and see more of his graciousness and more of his compassion. I remember years ago asking one of my professors who uh who was teaching on the grace of God, and he was talking about how as we grow and get older as Christians, uh our our sin becomes clearer to us. We see more of the depths of the sin that it resides within our hearts. And so I asked him, how do you deal with that on a day-to-day basis? If as you grow as a Christian, you see more and more who you are and your sin, how do you deal with that? And he said, Because as we grow, we also grow in our understanding of the grace of God. And if it's not for the grace of God and his compassion and his character, he told me that, uh he said this to me, he's like, I probably wouldn't be able to get up out of bed in the morning. But you see, as we get to know God more, we of course see our sin more clearly, but we see the goodness, grace, and compassion character of our God, our heavenly father. And this, again, it's a tremendous comfort to us all. At least it should be, especially to those of us who have experienced the brokenness of fatherhood, the brokenness of the family. Because God becomes not just the father we hoped that we would all have, but he's the father we were all supposed to have. And so this morning, we're gonna encounter this unstoppable, gracious God the Father and His will in Jonah chapter 3. So, in doing so, we're going to consider that there is no obstacle, no matter the hardness of heart, no matter how undeserved the people are, no matter how broken or fragmented the situation, our compassionate Father's will is always at work no matter what. And so, first we're gonna see that his will is at work as he uses a reluctant prophet with a negative message. And then we're gonna see his will is at work as he reformed an evil people defined by wickedness, and then his will at work as he relented from destroying a people who deserve judgment. First thing in the passage. He uses a reluctant prophet with a negative message. Verses 1 to 5. You know, we ended last week in Jonah 2, where Jonah finds himself in the belly of the fish, and he's relaying to us what took place, and so Jonah obviously wrote this uh much later, talking about what he had said to God. So he's relaying to us what had taken place while he was down there. And so through this psalm, as we were reading, we see more of Jonah's experience. We also see uh Jonah's heart towards the Father. So God, so he understands and he knows that God's a compassionate God. He understands and knows that God is the type of father who delivers his children from despair and from hurt and from heartache and from the depths of the beast, so to speak, in his situation. Um, but this becomes a problem for Jonah. We're gonna talk about that next week. So they have to come back next week as we expand on that more. But in chapter 2, in his distress, he calls out for help to Yahweh. Yahweh hears him, listens to him, and delivers him. And this is where we pick up in chapter 3, starting in verse 1 of chapter 3. The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. Get up, go to the great city of Nineveh, and preach the message that I tell you. And so Jonah got up, went to Nineveh according to the Lord's command. You know, chapter 3 is resuming what had been the narrative in chapter 1. If you remember all the way back in chapter 1. And then we get Jonah on the boat, in the fish, and now that all of that is out of the way, Yahweh's like, let's get back to business. So the word of the Lord, uh, Vahi, the var Yahweh, the word of the Lord, came to Jonah a second time. Same word he got the first time, this time a second time. What's also interesting about this in the construct of the Hebrew is uh chapter 1, verses 1 to 3, is very similar to the makeup of chapter 3, verses 1 to 3. You see, in chapter 1, we see Jonah got up, vayakam, he got up, uh, and he fled, and then here Jonah got up via com and what does he do? Instead of fleeing, he gets up and he goes to Nineveh. Same construct. So even in, as Jonah is likely the one who wrote this, uh wrote this short book for us, even as he's writing, the author is explaining to us and trying to draw our attention to these two events. It's almost like chapter 3 is opening up. Okay, now here we go. Here's what is supposed to happen the first time. And we get this understanding and idea, too, that uh he's back where he started. You know, it's likely that he's uh the shore that he was vomited onto by the fish would have been in uh Palestine, likely where he was when he first heard the word of the Lord, and then he went down to Joppa to try to go away to Tarshish, where Nineveh would have been north. And so we get this idea. It is the Lord in his grace and his mercy, he's sitting the he's hitting the reset button. But this time around, it's different. Verse 2. Things are different in the tone of what Yahweh says, and you get this more if you read in the in the original Hebrew, it comes out uh much more colorfully in the Hebrew. It's hard to translate this into English, but this is a good translation, as most of our uh English translations are, our faithful translations. But it says here, get up, go to the great city of Nineveh, preach the message that I tell you. It's very direct. And in the Hebrew, it's it's so precise. God is not leaving any wiggle room for Jonah here to interpret it any other way. It's get up and go and say exactly, precisely what I tell you to say. He's much more direct. You know, it reminds Jonah, I think, that he has no option but to obey. Jonah's held on a tight leash. You must say exactly what I say, Yahweh is saying. Speak only what I precisely tell you to say, Yahweh is saying. And then in verse 3 it goes on. What does Jonah do? He got up, he went to Nineveh according to the Lord's command. He got up and went to Nineveh according to the Lord's command. You know, it's important at this point that we keep something in mind. There is no evidence here that Jonah liked doing this. No evidence. No evidence that he liked it this time around more than he did the first time. You see, he's now been put in his place. He knows that he can't hide. He knows that he can run. So now he's going with the flow. Gets up, goes to Nineveh. You know, God's will is going to be accomplished whether Jonah likes it or not. And this is a good little bit of a check for us, too. God's will will always be accomplished, whether you or I like it or not. God will do what He does. Regardless of how we feel or what we think about it. You know, this is the case, uh, it's kind of like in the case of when you're instructing a child to say sorry, maybe to their brother or sister for hitting their brother or sister, and you're like, say sorry, and they're like, sorry. I mean, Jonah's basically like, sorry. His heart had not changed. The fact that Jonah does what Yahweh says doesn't mean that Yahweh had a hold of his heart. You know, it's possible to be a prophet of the Most High, but still be angry, still be disgruntled, and still be a total jerk. And we're gonna learn more about that next week in chapter 4. But you see, despite Jonah's reluctance, God's grace was at work, and it was going to be accomplished. So he gets up, he goes to Nineveh, and it's likely this was a several days' journey from where he was. Again, we don't know, the text doesn't tell us. But if he's in Palestine, it'd be several days, maybe even several weeks. There may be some time that has passed here. Uh, some suggest even months have passed. He maybe went home, had a shower. Um, who knows? But it's likely, most likely, there is some space of time that is uh that is uh separating from the whale or the or the fish vomiting Jonah up and the city and the time that he actually gets to the city of Nineveh. But in verse 3, look what happens. So, verse 3, now Nineveh, now here, this is interesting. This is like a little bit of a note that uh the author gives us. Uh, explain a little bit about Nineveh. And I need you to track with me here, because we're gonna we're gonna get into it a little bit here in this part of the verse. Um I just couldn't ignore this, okay? So now Nineveh was an extremely great city, a three-day walk. Nineveh was an extremely great city, a three-day walk. Something you have to understand about this passage, chapter 3. The name Yahweh that's been used of God up to this point, so God's name, the I am, the I am, God says, the same God who introduced himself that way to Moses back at the burning bush, Yahweh of the Pentateuch, Yahweh of the Old Testament, the big name of God Yahweh. So that's used in the first two chapters of Jonah and in the first part of chapter three. And in our English Bibles, if you see, again, like we said a few weeks ago, if you see Lord, uh every letter capitalized in Lord, that is referring to Yahweh. That's in the Hebrew the word that's used there is Yahweh. But here's what happens in chapter 3. You see, at this point in verse 3 on to the end of chapter 3, Yahweh isn't used. It's not used again until chapter 4. Instead, what we have here in these verses is we have six times in the Hebrew, five times in the English. I'm gonna explain that in just a moment. But six times in the Hebrew, five times in the English, we have Elohim, which is the name of God. Just means God. Okay? And so for some reason, the narrator changes from using Yahweh when he's interacting with the Ninevehes to using Elohim. Uh and so that's one of the textual questions that we have as we come to this text in the original. Now track with me for a moment, because here in verse 3, if you were to literally render the Hebrew, if you're just to take the Hebrew at uh face value, what it says, woodenly, literally, it literally says this in the Hebrew, okay? And Nineveh was city great to God, Lo Elohim, journey of three days. That's verse three. You're like, wait a second. You said Elohim's in there. God's in there. I don't see it in my English text. Well, this was interesting. Um, I couldn't find it in any English translation. Uh Elohim to God is not in any of our English translations. Now the Subtuagent, so there's some points for the Greek, for the Greeks. The Subtuagent translation, so the Greek translation of the Old Testament, uh, puts in uh Tolfael, so to God, so it puts it in there in the Subtuagent translation. The Latin Vulgate doesn't include it. But out of the eight or nine English translations that I looked at, uh, I couldn't find one that includes Lo Elohim. Even the KJV didn't include it. Even our most, what we would say, the most literal translations didn't include it. So then the question becomes why did they not include to God? Why did they not include it? Well, see, it's important for us to understand, we can't get into all of the nuance and understanding of English translation from the original biblical text. That's why we have scholars that do so. That's why we have uh great English versions of the Bible uh that we can trust, and they have committees of scholarship. And if all of them are translating it a certain way, then then we when we trust that translation. Well, you see, a lot of these, a lot of our English translations, they'll they'll translate this word, um, which is in the CSB translates it as extremely, they'll uh they'll they'll that is what uh was um Lo Elohim. So they'll translate it as extremely, or some translations call it exceedingly great city. And I and I think what what is happening here, and and this is this is the emphasis that the translators are pulling out of the the context. And we kind of we understand this from the context, we understand this from church history, we understand this from all the great study and scholarship that we have today, but the emphasis here of the writer is to emphasize how great this city was, how big this city was, how much of a task this city was. And so in the in the in the author's translation, he says, he puts in there, Lo Elohim, it is a great city. But I also think it's kind of like a little bit of a double meaning here. So if we understand it in the original, we'd understand not only is this a great city, but this is a city that is important to God. And that's what we get. That great city, Nineveh. Great or important to God, large or important to God. You see, another translation of the text could literally say that Nineveh was important to God, that great city. So I think both can be true in the Hebrew, both are emphasized in the Hebrew. The idea is that we are to get this and grasp this understanding that it is a magnificently great city and it's important to Elohim, to God, to Yahweh. You know, our city is important to God. You and I are important to God. Our nation is important to God. The people and the cities of our world, all 8.3 billion people, are important to God. Nineveh wasn't special because it was a big city, or it happened to be the capital of Assyria. It was special because it was important to God, but sadly it wasn't important to Jonah. And so it even emphasizes the greatness of this city, a three-day walk. Now, chapter chapter 3, verse 3 has to be one of the most difficult verses in the book to translate. There's a lot of nuance in this verse. Even with this three-day walk thing, there's different ideas as to what this um this could mean. It's pretty ambiguous in the original text. It could mean the literal size of Nineveh. It takes three days to walk through it. And so even uh uh contemporary archaeology has said, you know, there's 60 kilometers from the towns of the outskirts of Nineveh to the other side of the other towns, the outskirts, which would be about a three-day walk. So they maybe justify it that way. But more likely than not, it was it was a measurement of what it would have been common for in those days for a business person or a prophet to go into a city. So they would go the first day into the city, they would talk with some people, spend the whole second day in the city talking with some more other important people and businesses within the city, and the third day would be their walk home, their walk back. And so when the text says that it was a three-day walk, it's likely Jonah is expressing it in such a way as it would have been common in those days, that he would have expected to go in one day, uh start preaching his message, talking to some important people the first day, and then the second day, spend the whole day preaching the message, more important people, and then the third day walking back. So, but we get this idea. It is a great city, three day walk. And then verse four this is what he does. Goes to the city. Jonah set out on the first day of his walk in the city, and he proclaimed, In 40 days Nineveh will be demolished. 40 days Nineveh will be demolished. I mean, how about that gospel presentation? No mention of God, no mention of repentance, no mention of grace, no mention of forgiveness. In 40 days, Nineveh will be demolished. And in the a literal rendering is even more like, okay, this is very direct. But we have to understand, too, right? God said to Jonah, you're gonna say exactly what I tell you to say. You're gonna say the message that I precisely give you. And so we're not sure if this was precisely the message God gave Jonah. Probably, maybe. I mean, he doesn't call him out for his message or lack of message later. So maybe this was precisely the message God gave Jonah, but maybe it wasn't. Maybe Jonah was more interested in their destruction than he was their salvation. We know that to be true. Chapter 4 illuminates that. He leaves the city after this revival breaks out and he looks back hoping to see, you know, fire and brimstone. Just like the Sodom and Gomorrah experience, just hoping to see it just rain fire on the city, but it doesn't. So we know that he's more interested in their destruction than he is their salvation. But this message is interesting. Some have said that Jonah's message also provides a little bit of hope in the sense that he says, You got 40 days. So there's your hope. You got 40 days to turn. Now, of course, he would have spoken these words in Assyrian, in the ancient Assyrian language, which again is also five words like it is in the Hebrew. But most importantly, I do think this was God's message. And God used it regardless. John Calvin puts it this way, as he's talking about this passage in his Institutes. He said, Who does not see that by threatening of this kind, God wished to arouse those to repentance whom he terrified, that they might escape the judgment which their sins deserved. And this is precisely what happens. Jonah can hardly get the words out. It was only day one of this three-day visit, and here comes verse five. Forty days, Nineveh will be demolished. Verse five. Then the people of Nineveh believed God. Hardly got the words out, and the people are turning and repenting. The people immediately respond. And what do they do? They believed God, and they proclaimed a fast, dressed in sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least. They believed God, they responded, they stopped eating, they began fasting, they dressed in sackcloth, as was the custom to show outwardly that you were repentant. And then we see from the greatest of them to the least, and I love this phrase. Just think about it. This was Yahweh's will at work, his grace, our great heavenly father's compassion at work. It was all encompassing, from the greatest to the least. From chapter 4, verse 11, we understand that Nineveh at the time had a population of about 120,000. You know, similar to the population of Ajax, give or take 20,000 people. The idea is this nobody was left out. The grace of the Heavenly Father was extended to every wicked person, every evil act, every man, woman, and child in this entire city of Nineveh, from the greatest to the least. You know, if God can do this in such circumstances as in Jonah, can He not do this in our city? If we all got busy in prayerful, personal evangelism, making disciples as we've been talking about, imagine what God can do in our city. Discipleship, prayer, evangelism, these are normal things of the Christian life. If you're a child of God, you call God your father. This is your calling. It's a responsibility of every single one of us who claims the name of Jesus Christ. It starts with us. It's not just a budget line, it's not just a program. It's not just an event. It's a lifestyle. It starts with our life. And so when we see this take place in Nineveh, we should be asking, Lord, what do you want to do in our city? What do you want to do with us as a church? With me as an individual, with my neighbors, with my family, with those I come in contact with. If you remember, a few weeks ago we talked about how, on average, uh, if we did the math of everybody that's in this room, on average, in a week, we're interacting with tens of thousands of people. Just those in this room. Imagine what the Lord can do in our city. But we see that Jonah, even though he was a disgruntled prophet, even though he was reluctant, and even though his message was so negative, the grace and compassion of God reigned true. And then we see the next big thing in the passage. Um, the next two things are actually smaller things, just so you know, uh, in the passage. Next thing is this smaller but big. He reformed an evil people defined by wickedness in verses six to nine. You see, this uh this starts in verse five. He reformed an evil people defined by wickedness. As the people immediately respond to Jonah's message, they're dressed in sackcloth. I mean, just like think about it. Uh, when you're dressed in sackcloth, everybody knows. You're not hiding that. It's meant to be uncomfortable, it's meant to even be humiliating. And we all get dressed up and we come to church in our comfort and in our fashion. It's traditional, it's wonderful. There's no biblical principle as to what we should or we shouldn't wear when we come into worship. But it's something that we appreciate. But you see, these people, Nineveh, their Sunday best was sackcloth. And it was beautiful. Because you see what happens is the sackcloth represented what was actually going on inside their hearts, the repentance. And then in verse 6, when the when the word reached the king of Nineveh, again in the Hebrew, we get this, and when the Lord, and when the word reached the king of Nineveh, and he got up from his throne, and then he took off his royal robe, and then he covered himself with sackcloth, and then he sat in ashes, and then he issued a decree in Nineveh. So, so we get this, uh we get this construct in the Hebrew that it's the sequence that's going on. So if you're reading in the Hebrew, if you're Hebrew reading it, you're like, okay, this is this is important. One thing leads to the next, leads to the next, leads to the next, leads to the next, and this is what takes place. So the king sees the sackcloth coming. He's on his throne. He sees and he hears what's happening. The sackcloth is coming. Listen, nothing honors God more than a repentant heart in sackcloth and ashes, figuratively speaking. You know, there is good evidence to believe that the king at this time in Assyria was um king uh Assurdin III, which would, he would have reigned uh circa around 773 to 756 BC. And if this was the case, and if this was King Aserdon, it lines up with uh what we know from 2 Kings 14, with King Jeroboam, who at that time Jonah was uh prophesizing, prophesying for uh King Jeroboam and for the Lord in Israel. And so uh Surdon III, uh his timeline matches up with King Jeroboam and with 2 Kings 14, 25. And so uh if it if it was, again, we were not sure if it's a Serdin, but if it's Assurdin III, there were circumstances and events that were going on during his reign that set the stage for Jonah's message to strike a particular chord. See, at this time, little remained of Assyria's former empire power, their great power, the previous kings were weak. And then in 765 uh BC, there was a great plague that swept through that took the lives of many people. Uh, and a commentator, the the late Leon Morris, or sorry, not Leon Morris, but Leon Wood, mentions that on June 15th, 763, uh the Assyrians in this area, and then including um including Nineveh, they experienced a total eclipse of the sun and earthquakes that were going on. And so, but this is important. See, you gotta put yourself, your mind in the ancient person. Because when they would see a solar eclipse, or they would see earthquakes, they would see them as judgments from their gods that applied significant spiritual meaning, um, and then they would apply this significant spiritual meaning to these events. So, in other words, so you just picture this a Surdon is reigning uh as the king, the empire isn't quite what it used to be. There's plagues going on, and also we understand that there is famine probably going on, there is a drought going on, there's a total solar eclipse that happened, there's earthquakes, and so they're interpreting this that the gods are gonna judge us, and then all of a sudden, some dude arrives and says, 40 days you're gonna be destroyed. You see, Yahweh was at work, and this is what God does. The conditions were perfect for such a message. And as a response, the king orders this decree that everyone would join in fasting and not drinking water, verse 7. Again, signaling that this was during the reign of a Surtain. And then we see in uh in verse 8 that everyone is to put on sackcloth and call out earnestly to God, to Elohim. Everyone must turn from their evil ways, so there's understanding that the nation was evil, the people were evil, they knew exactly what they had done, they knew who they were, they knew um that they would definitely displeasing to Yahweh, to the God of Israel. And then in verse 9, what is the hope here? So I'm gonna start in uh verse 7. Then he issued a decree in Nineveh by the orders of the king and nobles, no person or animal, herd or flock is to taste anything at all. And again, this might be more of a practical thing. If they're experiencing famine, um he may have issued this uh in order to save the food that they had. So no person or animal, herd or flock, is to taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink water. So again, it's a part of their repentance, but also might be a very practical thing for uh for the people, for the nation. Furthermore, verse 8 both people and animals must be covered with sackcloth, and everyone must call out earnestly to God. Each must turn from his evil ways and from his wrongdoing. And verse 9, who knows? I mean, we hope, but who knows? God, Elohim, may turn and relent. He may turn from his burning anger, so that we will not perish. Who knows? This is similar to what we see in Joel 2.14, where it says, Who knows, he being God, again, Elohim, may turn and relent. Same words in Joel 2.14. But here's here's what I think is important. They weren't certain yet that God would turn. They weren't certain. And isn't isn't that interesting? It's almost as if they knew the depths of their own wickedness. They knew that they didn't even deserve deliverance. I mean, who knows? Hopefully, we're desperate, but who knows? And then this phrase here, burning anger. God may turn from his burning anger. This is an important phrase as we'll talk more about uh it a little bit next week, as Jonah was burning with anger towards Yahweh. But this often described, this phrase, burning anger, often described hatred and disposition towards sin. You see, the phrase literally means his nose or his nostrils burned hot. That's what it means in the original. God's anger towards sin burns hot through his nostrils. You know, if you ever experienced somebody who's really, really angry and their nostrils are flaring, well, that's how our heavenly father thinks of sin. And see, the first time, this is interesting, the first time that we see this reference to God's hot burning anger with his nostrils flaring, isn't in the book of Genesis. It's in the book of Exodus, chapter 4, verses 14 to 15, when Moses hesitates. And what does the text tell us? The text tells us that he burned, Yahweh burned with anger against Moses. His nostrils burned with anger against Moses. And then he suggests Aaron, and we all know how that kind of turned out a little bit later. Um, that Aaron can aid him as his mouthpiece. But that's the first time that we see it. But here again, we see it again. This is how God responds to sin with his burning anger. But you see, he referred he reformed an evil people defined by wickedness, and we see this come out so beautifully in verse 10, as it says, God saw their actions and he did not turn from, and they and that they had turned from their evil ways, so God relented from the disaster he had threatened them with, and he did not do it. You see, he relented, God's will played out in this way, he relented from destroying a people that deserved judgment. Does that story sound familiar to you? I mean, how beautiful are these words? He saw their actions, he saw that they had turned, and so he relented from the disaster that he threatened them with. Sinners who are undeserving of grace and forgiveness, spared of their judgment. Does that story sound familiar to you, to me? You see, the message of Jonah sparked belief in God, leading to repentance and pleading with God, turning from their ways, resulting in God relenting in his judgment. The story of the Ninevehites that it reminds us that Yahweh relents from judgment when repentance is made. We too can and should, after we see this story, that the Lord does what he says he's going to do, his will is accomplished by his grace and his compassion, regardless. We too can and should trust that Yahweh's redemption works through repentance. Our Father, rich in mercy, freely gives all grace we need for forgiveness. And so the story of the Nineveh reminds us that our own wickedness and sin is deserving of judgment and in need of great relenting deliverance from God. And just as God relents and spares the Nineveh, he does so and more with us. For Jesus has come, forgiveness has been secured. And when Jesus arrived, he told us about the importance of the story of Jonah and of Nineveh. And how what he has to offer is far better than Jonah. If you turn your Bibles to Luke, chapter 11, the words will also be on the screen behind me. Luke chapter 11. Similar passages also in Matthew 12. Well, Luke chapter 11. This is the point of Jonah according to Jesus. Verse 29. As the crowds were increasing, he began saying, so he's looking at the crowds of his day. He says, This generation is an evil generation. It demands a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation. The queen of the south will rise up to judgment with the men of this generation. Condemn it, because she came to the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And look, something greater than Solomon is here. Verse 32. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation. And they will condemn it. Because they repented at Jonah's preaching. And look, something greater than Jonah is here. Think about who Jesus is talking to. He's talking to the Jews. He's talking to the religious people. He's talking to the people who knew their Torah. They knew their Tanakh. They knew their Bibles. They practiced their religion. They knew their history. They knew the ins and outs of the law. They would have, like so many people Jesus talking to would have had the whole Torah memorized. Like book, chapter, verse. They didn't have chapters and verses back then, but the whole thing, just imagine that, the whole thing memorized. They knew Deuteronomy. They knew Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers. They knew these books better than anybody else. And here Jesus is talking to them. These are the people he's calling out. And he's declaring to them that their own wickedness and refusal to repent, regardless of all the things that they know and all the things that they've seen, will end in their judgment. The men of Nineveh who repented way back in Jonah's time, they're going to be standing at that judgment, declaring that to you in that day of judgment for you. You see. Jesus is telling them that those who repented in Nineveh will judge even them. And I wonder, like, what would the men of Nineveh say about us? I mean, these people Jesus is talking to, they were religious, but without repentance. You see, God cares about our hearts more than he does about our heads. And that's our loving Father, who's gracious and compassionate. And his will cannot be stopped or subverted. No matter how much wickedness, no matter how reluctant and disgruntled anyone is, Nineveh was important to God. You and I are important to God. And we are the called to live the love, grace, and mercy of Jesus Christ, for he is far better. Let's pray. If you're here this morning and you've never repented of your sin and turned to Christ to save you, I implore, I encourage, I welcome you to do that today. Jesus is holding his arms wide open. God as the loving Father wants to welcome you into his family. But you have to repent and turn to Christ. If you're here this morning and you're a Christian, what is it about this story that resonates with you? Are you like Jonah? Reluctant to share your faith? You don't believe in the power of God even to change our city, whatever it might be. You're hoarding the grace of God for yourself instead of extending it to others. I encourage you to talk to the Lord about that. Repent even of that. Father, we ask you that you would help us to see ourselves, to see our city, to see our communities the way you see them. Father, we ask you to help us to see you for who you truly are. As our good, gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, heavenly Father, who has called us to yourself. Amen.