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Saturday, December 30, 2017

Last 4 books of OT, Bible Project videos on YouTube


SS notes:

I----------------------I------------------I-------------------I------------------I
2000                1500/1200         1000             500                   0
Abraham         Exodus              David              Exile               Christ

By this time Israel is split in 2: Israel to North destroyed by Assyrians & Judah in the South would be taken over by Babylon.

5 books: Torah (law or teaching), History, Wisdom writings & Prophets
Examples: Geneses, Kings, Psalms, Jonah

Zephaniah-
Theme’s: Israel’s idolatry & injustice; the more idolatry the more unjust (cycle).
Nearing the end of the Southern Kingdom (Judah)
Topic: God’s Justice & Mercy
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Expectations: A king like David will come to lead a repentant people (a remnant) into a new relationship with God. Almost all the prophets ended in Future Hope

Haggai -
Topic: Humility & Action
Reminder Jesus in Hebrews is Joshua so the same way Joshua lead the Jews into the Promised Land (not Moses) Joshua now leads a remnant of God’s people back to reestablish Jerusalem after Exile & will another like Joshua, be their Messiah?
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2 Hanging questions – Who will be the Messianic King? & What will the Messianic Kingdom be like?

Zachary –
Topic: God’s future kingdom & our current faithfulness

Jesus enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday (before crucifixion) riding on a Donkey. Shepherd & Pastor are the same word so the Messiah will lead his people like a Shepherd does his sheep.

More than 1 prophet ends their book with a picture of a New Jerusalem (sometimes called Zion) from which a river of life & renewal flow to heal the land & the people.
Paralleled finally in Rev 22 – River of life.

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Malachi -
Post exile

God is still looking for a perfectly obedient people & even after God’s judgment of the Exile the Jews aren’t obedient.

Final Topic: remember my law/teachings I will send a prophet / messiah / king before the Day of Judgment to heal God’s people & turn them back to Him.

Man's Great Need! Jonah 3 Sermon


                  Good morning, Calvary!  It is good to be with you once again.  Please open to the OT Minor Prophets, the book of Jonah.  We are going to read all of Chapter 3, don’t worry its not that long.  I am a bit obsessed, to be honest, with the book of Jonah, I’m not really sure why I find it endlessly interesting as both a writer, history lover & the theology behind the book. It’s an oddly subversive book hidden in a much under-appreciated section of Scripture.    
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Let’s read: ----Jonah Goes to Nineveh
Chapter 3 - Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days journey in breadth. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.
And the People of Nineveh Repent
The Word of the Lord reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 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! Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may yet turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
10 When God saw what they 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.
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Let’s pray:
Our Great & Glorious God, you are righteous & holy while we are not. You are just & merciful where we fail so often to be either. You call & we run, you warn & we ignore…lay hold of us God, make us heed the messages in your Word, gift us with your repentance, turn us from our sin & make us more like you.  Amen!  


Man’s Great Need!

Intro:
                  There is some good news in today’s passage for us friends. Good news in the form of universality. It applies not to some, but to all. Part of this good news for me as a pastor is that I don’t necessarily need to know all the secret dreams & unfulfilled wishes of your life. I don’t need to know all your personal failings & shortcomings to preach to you. I don’t even need to know your latest MRI results, therapy session notes, family dynamics, or frustrations with work or even your amount of mounting debt. And I honestly don’t mean to sound insensitive in that line of thinking but why, you ask? Because primarily the Gospel of Jesus Christ isn’t all that concerned with your felt needs!

Many other pastors today in the American seeker-driven church culture will be happy getting rich writing you books about these secondary (or more likely tertiary problems) you may have in your life. If you’re interested I could point out all the purpose-driven, get-rich-quick by sending me your seed offering, best-life-now, name-it-&-claim-it, circle-maker-prayer “shacks” full of theological error & false doctrine! Got itching ears, they sure do yearn to scratch them! But the universality of today’s message is regarding the need for a Gospel & our response to the Gospel. The gospel is God’s answer to your biggest problem (one that you may not even realize you have) & it’s not related not your health (or even your death), it’s not your finances, it’s not even your current level of sexual satisfaction – its sin & a Just Judge. Your main problem in life is not a million little self-help issues. It’s this; God wants, desires, and expects you to be perfect! Are you perfect, friend?

(Pause)


                  In the New Testament, Matthew 5:48 – this is Jesus reaching the pentacle of his famous Sermon on the Mount, he’s already addressed our errors in philosophy, the OT Law, anger, lust, divorce, the making & breaking of oaths & vows, revenge & he caps off this chapter by saying, “Therefore (or because of all this) you must be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Maybe we don’t like this Expectant Perfection language we could replace it perhaps with a few other choice ideas. We could be Cosmically Complete, or Divinely Moral, or like Peter says we could be set apart, be Holy like God Himself is holy. But God isn’t just holy, is he’s holy to Nth degree. He’s Holy, Holy, Holy…as the angels say. Are you transcendently holy, Calvary?  But perfect gets across the point. Basically, what does it mean to obey the OT Law & stand righteous before God on your own? Perfection! And implied here too, by the way, God is Just so he will justly judge us for not being perfect. 
(Pause)
So what’s the answer to Man’s Great Need then? Maybe we can reboot the OT Law (reboots are popular these days) but this time we can make it easier to obey & then judge ourselves off based off our own law like the pagans do. Do we dig down deep & become legalistic? What if we picket sinner’s houses & pagans places of employment, will that make them more righteous? What if we picket each other’s houses will that make each of us righteous?

Once upon a time when I was just waking up to theology & Christian doctrine I spent about 2 years as a faithful disciple of Rob Bell. Rob is a populist liberal theologian & pastor from about 5-10 years ago. Well once I was watching Rob on a panel of modern “spirituality & thought” (I think it was Super Soul Sunday), you know Oprah’s friends: Deepak Chopra, Rob Bell, probably had Tony Robbins, TD Jakes, Osteen – these kinds of people & a sincere young man asked Rob directly, I’ve done something, something I know is sinful, something wrong, something bad & now what do I do?

Clearly the Holy Spirit was working on this boy, grieving him over his sin, convicting him of unrighteousness, he should have been called to repentance, faith in the works of Christ done for him & good works in keeping with that genuine repentance! But softly & sweetly Rob in all his vegan hippie love-y dove-y voice basically said, Friend, Christianity is like Buddhism, there is no Just God that’s angry over your sin, so just forgive yourself, wake up tomorrow, paint a picture of your feelings if you need to, pet a cat & try harder next time. Don’t believe me, buy a copy of Rob Bell’s the “The gods aren’t angry” DVD & you’ll see his point for yourself. So I guess try harder Calvary, try harder to be self-righteous, try harder to be perfect, try harder to be self-justified; if you think you can pull it off.

Friends, this god that ignores sin (even your sin), isn’t the God who was, who is & who will be your final judge on the Last Day. That god that I heard described on TV isn’t the God who judged Babel in its arrogance & pride, who judged Sodom & Gomorrah in their perversion & lack of charity, it’s not the God of the Book of Judges or the Prophets who called out even God’s own Elect nation Israel from their sinful idolatry & faithlessness & judged them nationally time & time & time & time again, calling them to repentance. Calvary this Just-less Judge I heard of on TV is not the God who becoming Man was Crucified over sin: your sin, my sin. This isn’t the God of the Bible. So what is the God of the Bible really like? Jonah teaches us quite a bit.

The main children’s story version of Jonah has already happened. And don’t get me started on how much “whitewashing” so-called Christian children’s books do to the actual biblical stories…Jonah we learn was a real, historic prophet of Israel confirmed to us by the book of 2nd Kings Chapter 14. Jonah we can assume liked being a prophet of God to God’s people at least. He was granted the job by God to bring some good news to Israel under a bad king Jeroboam II. Israel will be blessed in battle, expand, succeed, increase, have divine favor – Woo! He sounds like a property preacher. Oh man, isn’t it great to be the bearer of good news to God’s people? It feels good, they’re happy, you’re happy, God’s happy, right? Well this same well-known prophet receives another message from God. Alright great! What now, will our produce multiply, will our flocks double, will gold coins fall from the sky & directly into our pre-modern 401K’s?! What’s the news, God!? God wants Jonah to head to the kingdom of their fiercest enemies & warn them of God’s coming judgment. Wait what!? No God, they aren’t Your people like we’re Your people. Are they sinful? Then smite them in all your awful smite-y-ness! Don’t warn them! God forbid! And what if they repented? And we know from the story that Jonah is told to go to Nineveh (capital of the Assyrian Empire) told to preach & proclaim God’s Justice to God’s enemies.

And Jonah says - nope! And he runs the opposite way; instead of renting a 4 X 4 for the long trek inland to Nineveh (modern Iraq, I believe) he does the opposite & rents a spot on a boat & sails to Tarshish thought to be in the region of Modern Spain. Now I’m gonna skip over the drama of Jonah Chapters 1 & 2 as great as they are & how clearly they points us to Jesus cause I preached that sermon already, you can listen to that sermon online some other time.

The Gospel point is: as terrible & sinful & selfish as Jonah was; God was still there. As far as Jonah ran from God by land or sea, God was still there. As Jonah hid the truth from the sailors; God was still there, and when Jonah prefigured Christ in the Calming of the Stormy Sea & his self-sacrifice to save the pagan sailors; God was there & as Jonah drowned in the depths of the sea God was there. And when Jonah repented, friends, God was already ahead of him armed with a miraculous fish, an early submarine you might say, and God used this fish to raise Jonah up from the depths of the sea the way Jesus brought forth Lazarus from the depths of the grave!
 
                  Now 4 quick points to consider as we step back into the past. And these are not sermon points but simply confessional ideas to mull over & consider as you listen. Point 1 – honestly, Jonah kinda sucks: he’s worthless, selfish, disobedient, longs for the destruction of his enemies & is either an implied racist or at least xenophobic. Point 2 – And I’m sorry to say it beloved, but you remind me (at times) of this Jonah. Point 3 – Not to be outdone by you, but I remind me of this jerk Jonah. Point 4 - Unbelievers, you remind me of both pagan Ninevah & this Jonah! And finally point 5: thank God that God is sooooo unlike you & me, pagan Ninevah & Jonah. Recognizing, what the NT tells us that Jesus is the better Jonah! 

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My sermon is entitled: Man’s Great Need!
The sovereignty of God – verse 1
Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you."
Verse 1 says God told Jonah to go a 2nd time. Why a 2nd time? Well we already discussed it. Jonah had already disobeyed, fled, lied & cheated God & God did not let him go, God was faithful (when Jonah wasn’t). Faithful to bring him back & restore him & use Jonah as he does later for Peter the denier, Paul the persecutor, as he does for you & me.  
This shows the amazing love of God to His wayward people. Though Jonah did everything he could to resist the first call of God, after Jonah repented God called him again - though God was under no obligation to do it. He did it out of mercy and grace, and I think once you read through all 4 chapters of Jonah, God did it to teach Jonah & us a lesson about Himself.
Commentators say: "By paralleling the book's opening, almost word for word, the author skillfully conveys the idea that Jonah is being offered a new beginning."  A new life after his repentance, a chance to obey now where he hadn’t before, sound familiar? This is Salvation language; this is Sanctification on display!  
Let’s be honest. How many of us who have been called to deliver the Word of the Lord, would still be doing it, if it were not for this patient and perfecting grace of God? Surely not many! Fellow preachers & pastors realize how have we failed Him, and broken down in our ministry. Know that yes even for preachers this God of grace still saves, forgives, restores & uses.
To this passage the Great Spurgeon once said, But God was determined to do the work through Jonah, so God did not give up on the reluctant prophet. "Suppose that this problem had been given to us to solve - how shall this particular city be moved to repentance? How shall Nineveh’s vice be forsaken and the God of Israel worshipped by all its inhabitants from the highest to the lowest?
First off, if we had not been paralyzed with fear by the scope of this project, which is the most probable, we should, nevertheless, have sat down carefully to consider our plans. We should have parceled it out into this & that missionary; we should have needed at least several hundreds, if not thousands, of able ministers; at once, expenses would have to be incurred, and we should have considered ourselves bound to contemplate the erection of innumerable churches in which the Word of God might be preached. Our machinery would necessarily become cumbrous; we should find that we, unless we had the full resources of an empire, could not even begin the work of bringing Nineveh to repentance.  
But what says the Lord concerning this? Putting aside the judgments of (Man’s) reason, and all the plans and schemes which flesh and blood so naturally follow, he raises up one man. (Here’s a Messiah illusion if I’ve ever heard one) By a singular providence he qualifies that one man for this mission…to bring many to repentance." What Spurgeon is getting at is 1 weak preacher backed by God is better than an entire infrastructure of men working under Man’s own schemes & so much church-growth devices. 
This time, Jonah went to preach with unquestioned obedience. But we must ask, "Why Nineveh? Why now?" The People of Nineveh were not praying for revival, nor were they interested in it. To a degree, Jonah has a point. The Assyrians qualified better as candidates for God's sovereign judgment than as candidates for God's sovereign grace. But then again, don’t we all & isn’t that the point of Grace that you don’t deserve it? 

The story teaches us Jonah's successful preaching campaign had nothing to do with Jonah's ability or the Assyrian's worthiness. It’s Sola Gratia! All of grace. All we can say for sure is that God had a purpose beyond mere human understanding. And if we take John 3:16 seriously, then we must conclude that before God showered Nineveh with grace; He reached out to them because he loved even them. If a just God can love even wicked Nineveh, then he can love even us who don’t feel at times worth His trouble.
Perhaps we can look at God's Sovereign choice in saving the Assyrians differently. Maybe this represented God's plan to produce more good in the world by saving the worse people in the world, as an example to others. Modernizing this event would be akin to famed theologian Deitrich Bonhoffer in Germany marching to Hitler’s house during WWII & ending up with Hitler & all of Nazi Germany crying out to God for mercy & turning from their violence against the Jews, gays, Christians & gypsies. In the end, the revival at Nineveh is nothing short of a sovereign work of forgiveness that actually produced change. The great irony of the book of Jonah is not a crazy fish story but that the greatest miracle in Jonah is the Salvation of Nineveh & that he didn’t lightning bolt his own worthless prophet.

The work of God’s Word – verse 2
God told Jonah go and "preach the message that I tell you." While spiritual renewal may occur without a particular preacher or prophet, it never occurs without divine truth. And here Jonah declared the Word of God. Interestingly, the prophet didn't sugar-coat the truth out of fear of offending the audience. He neither clamored for their favor, nor practice friendship evangelism, nor trembled from their threats. This scenario reminds the preacher of his duty as a messenger of God to preach the Word in season & out of season.
Now listen. Let consider if I took Sandra out somewhere expensive to eat on a date. If I caught my waiter redoing my meal on the way to the table I’d be like wait! You’re not the cook, why are you all up in my food? We preachers do NOT give up our own messages; we merely deliver the message already served up to the waiting ears of God’s people. We preach the Word & if we do not we are not God’s preachers! Open your eyes & unstop your ears Calvary EVERY thing the bible tells pastors not to do is on grand display in pulpits across the country. The HS says preach the Word, and pastors tell folksy stories. The Bible says feed the flock & pastors present 5-minute stand-up routines. The bible says this is already the Word of God & its all you will need for every good work & many young pastors like myself are want to preach anything BUT this Word. There is a warning here to you all preachers or people under preachers to NOT put up with worldly philosophy or poetic sophistry from the pulpit. Preach the message; receive the message that God has told us to!    
But we must speak the truth in love  
While we might question Jonah's motives based on the last chapter of the book notice here that surprisingly declaring the message of God's pending judgment against a lost humanity qualifies as an act of love. Its shocking; I know. But it is God’s Love & His Mercy that warns of coming destruction!

Think of Sodom & Gomorrah no warning, except for Lot & his family but think of Israel’s long history the entire point of prophets & judges is Israel sins, God sends prophets to warn & after Israel fails to repent, they is sacked or enslaved or whatever.

Now think of the 1 that is Love personified friends: Jesus Christ talked more of hell than anyone in Scripture not some enraged bible-thumper but someone who knows as fact what lies beyond the veil of death & cares enough to tell you Halt! Caution! Bridge out, don’t keep going!

I once heard this story from a missionary Lou Nicholes of a huge rainstorm down near Louisiana where a bridge across a large stream was washed out. Soon after the storm a man was driving down the road in his car, and just as he rounded a sharp curve, he saw ahead of him the tail lights of a car suddenly disappearing; he threw on his brakes…good thing because a barge had struck the bridge and knocked a section out. Several other cars had already plunged over into the waters below unable to see through the rain the bridge was out. He immediately applied his brakes and barely got stopped before plunging in to the swollen waters. After he backed his car to the side of the road he was still trembling with emotion as he thought about what would have happened if he hadn’t been able to stop. As he got out of his car he heard a familiar sound in the distance, from the direction he has just traveled. He was sure it was some large bus coming and probably loaded with kids and if the driver wasn’t warned he would not have time to stop the bus before plunging into the water and probably many would be killed. Immediately he ran in the direction of the approaching bus. He could have stood by the side of the road smiling and waving “being positive” but instead he got out in front of the bus frantically waving his hands shouting STOP before it was too late and many would lose their lives. 
Now suppose you’re the bus driver however, & you miss the warning or choose to ignore it.  Maybe you don’t think it applies to you; perhaps you don’t believe in gravity, or you just don’t want anybody telling you what to do.  Whatever the reason, you find the Law of Gravity holds true despite your apathy, ignorance, rebellion, or unbelief regarding the warning.
Our society today is fast approaching the “bridge out warning!”  Our Creator has ordained a final Day of Judgment and has lovingly erected “warning sings” in both nature and in His Word, but too many people are spurning these “warning signs,” and society is heading for disaster.  It is in Love that we warn others of the coming judgment, not glee for the judgment to come.
As preachers, we offer the truth to all people
The Word of God extended to the commoners in the streets and leaders in the palace. God's offer of grace extends to all races in all places. This, of course, reminds us of our commission to go into the entire world with the gospel. Through the Spirit, God the Father gives faith through the Word of Christ to whomever He choses; or more simply God brings sinners to repentant faith. But conversion that’s His job; our job is to defend the faith; to share our faith. Our job is to do good to others & make disciples, to extend grace & love, even to our enemies as we were once God’s enemies & he graced us.  
Now we come to verses 3-4
So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey. And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day's walk. Then he cried out and said, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overturned!"
Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD: Having learned the lesson that resisting the will of God is both futile and counter-productive; Jonah now obeys the call and goes to Nineveh.

But Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey: Atheists love to pick at this statement. Three days travel to cross Nineveh; it couldn’t have been that big! The idea behind this statement probably refers to how long it would take to walk through the city of "Greater Nineveh" think the metropolitan area around the city or time it took to travel through its various districts preaching this message Jonah had been called to share. 3 days journey my best guess is suburb by suburb or market by market Jonah traveled here & there & did as God required of him but read ch 4 before you give him a pat on the back he’s still a pretty petty & wretched man.

Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown! Jonah emphasized to the people of Nineveh what would happen if they did not repent - the city would be overthrown in judgment. Undoubtedly, we can assume this was not Jonah's whole message to the people of Nineveh; but clearly it was his emphasis.
"Overthrown" is a word applied to the destruction of Sodom. I thought about calling this sermon: A tale of 2 cities contrasting God’s judgment on Sodom & God’s grace at Nineveh. Sodom is the example of what happens when we do not repent – sure destruction. Sodom & Ninevah are to us examples like the 2 thieves on the crosses with Christ, we will end up like 1 of the 2, unrepentant destined to destruction or calling out for mercy & destined for Paradise to use Jesus’ word for the repentant thief. The sheep or the goat, the wheat or the chaff, the Rich man or Lazarus, we also will exemplify to others 1 of these 2 options, which will you be? 
We see that Jonah preached this message with earnestness. And such earnestness becomes a ministry that has to do with immortal souls, asleep and dead in sin, hanging on the brink of distruction, and ignorant of their state. So sinners & people perk up your ears yet 40 days & you might yet be overthrown! Do no dare to presume upon the gracious patience of Christ to see you through the next 41 days when there is time enough for repentance now!
The response of the people of Nineveh – verse 6
This revival was totally unexpected. And, initially, it was undesirable by even the preacher Jonah. Jonah himself admits in chapter 4 that he did not want to preach in Nineveh NOT because he was scared of them; but because he hated them & knew God to be merciful. Consider the probability that this brutal king would suddenly repent and turn to God. For that matter, why did they even listen to Jonah? Some commentators have suggested that the gastric juices of the fish bleached Jonah's skin & their pagan religion would have made them sensitive to this “Fish Prophet.” Others cite existing fear around heavenly occurrences like meteors or eclipses that had already been seen by the Assyrians & would have already superstitiously caution them against an impending disaster; but we cannot quantify any of this without it being in the actual text. All we do know is God wanted this to be, and God used Jonah &these events for His means & to His ends & it was so – sovereign divine Election & conversion on the part of the “free-will” of Yahweh.
Paul, the Apostle, had a similar experience with God. While traveling to Damascus to imprison & persecute more Christians, this hostile enemy of Christ suddenly and unexpectedly encountered Christ. And that confrontation resulted in a radical change in his life - Sovereign conversion.
This truth brings hope to all those parents that plead with their wayward children to return to God and to all those pastors that plead with their indifferent congregations to return to God. God has and can move suddenly even on those that don't even expect or want to hear from Him. He can call & lead to repentance those who aren’t even seeking Him, since God is not seeker-sensitive (whatever that term is supposed to mean)!
Revival – verse 10
When God's people experience revival, lost people that once completely ignored God come to Him in repentance. To say it differently, God must do something to us first before He does anything through us.
"God relented" or spared the Assyrians from destruction. Of course, this pictures God's grace because the people did not deserve His mercy. We should be careful to remember that no one deserves Divine mercy. But, from a human perspective, if anyone lacked moral decency and deserved wrath, it was they.  ** Archeology – example ask for mercy w/o fight**
The word "repentance" isn't in this passage; but repentance isn't really a word, it is something you do – you turn from your anger; from your former ways & former un-belief in the act called repentance & call our for mercy and these people didn’t say repentance, they did repentance.
The people of Nineveh believed God: Repentance begins with believing God. As we believe Him and His Word, we have the power to transform our lives such as He allows. You can do many other things associated with repentance, but if they do not begin with believing on and trusting God, they are all useless works of the flesh.
The people of Nineveh … proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth: Repentance means doing something. The people of Nineveh fasted, mourned as if for the dead, and they did it from the highest to the lowest (from the greatest to the least of them).
If repentance is anything, it is not business as usual. When repentance comes, something has to change and something has to be different. In their case, the people of Nineveh took off their normal clothes and put on sackcloth - a thick coarse cloth, normally made from goat's hair. Wearing it displayed the rejection of all their earthly comforts and pleasures.
Let man and beast be covered with sackcloth: They even repented on behalf of their animals, dressing them as if the animals were in mourning for the dead. Their beast? Theologically their beasts didn’t need to repent but EVEN THIS teaches us that genuine baby faith need not be 100% theologically astute to still be TRUE faith. That’s good news for all of us.
But let man and beast … cry mightily to God: Repentance means crying mightily to God. It means coming to God with a passion and seriousness about your sin and your need for His mercy and forgiveness.
So much of modern "repentance" today with its claims of excuses and reasons why we sinned, is really not repentance at all. It is only an attempt to justify and excuse our sin. **very whiny** But God my up bringing….but God my circumstances….but God my income bracket….Nevertheless, you sinned or you didn't; if you did, there is no excuse, and if you haven't, there is no need to repent. Repentance and excuses simply don't belong together. Friends I’ve sinned soo much that I need to even repent of my “good works;” which could be better & more frequent, meaning even my good works aren’t “good” enough!
Yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands: Repentance means to change your mind and turn from your previous sinful thoughts & actions.
In the Christian life, repentance does not describe what you must do to turn to God; it describes the very process of turning from sin & to God. When we truly turn to Him, we turn away from the things that displease Him.
Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger: Finally repentance is hope – a new hope – in the mercy and love of God. It hopes that God will relent and that the repentant people will not perish.
Ironically Jonah (of all people) could more effectively preach a message of repentance because he had known his own need to repent. Being a repentant sinner didn't disqualify Jonah from preaching repentance; it made his preaching all the more effective. That’s a good reminder for us today.  
Salvation is a sanctifying work of God– 3:7-9
Notice the transformation of the prevailing culture. Only God could produce such a radical change in an entire city. Remember that when God regenerates the soul, outward manifestations of holiness should follow. The convert that still feels comfortable in his former rebellion probably was never converted in the 1st place.
So finally, what’s God's response to the people's repentance?
Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.
God saw their works … and God relented: God honored their repentance, even though their past sin was still reason enough for an outpouring of judgment. The State would never forgive a cold-blooded serial killer who merely vowed to never do it again, yet God being even more merciful than the State relented from His judgment against the people of Nineveh.
Remember we do not obligate God to forgive us when we repent. Instead, repentance appeals to God's mercy, instead of His justice.
God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it: So we must ask. Did God's relenting make Jonah a false prophet, when he prophesied Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown? Not at all, for a few good reasons.
First, God acted in total consistency with His Word: The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck them up, to pull down, and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. (Jeremiah 18:7-8) Jonah's preaching was like all warnings of judgment: it was an invitation to repent and a chance to avert the promised judgment. Jonah’s words had an implied "if you do not repent" along with them. Remember that we are probably not told the sum total of Jonah's preaching; though we should assume that the statement in Jonah 3:5 is the central theme of what Jonah said, we should not assume it was all that he said.
Calvary, Jonah knows the God of heaven…this is who I am a God of both mercy & justice! This is how God described Himself to Moses way back in Exodus - The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with Moses there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “Yahweh, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7keeping steadfast love for thousands,a forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” 8And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. 9And Moses said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”
God is a god of grace yes, but a God of grace & justice both so let us not presume upon either but call out for his mercy. Eventually, God did judge Nineveh (as recorded in the book of Nahum). Nevertheless, in light of their repentance He delayed it another 150 years, probably passing this entire generation before executing His justice against the next generation that did not continue in their repentance.
Conclusion
If you are here & you’re already a Christian I’ll tell you again continue to Repent & put your faith in the Merciful works of God in Christ for your Salvation. If you are here & you are not a Christian, let me briefly tell you about The Great Exchange. Man’s Great Need is fixed in this idea. You are not perfect. You need someone else’s perfection to stand in your place. This is the idea that lead Dr. Martin Luther out of trying to earn God’s favor & into the History books.
Christianity is uniquely different from all the other world religions, in this aspect.
God reconciled sinful man to Himself by making His sinless Son the sin-substitute and dying in the sinner's place. Jesus Christ paid the death penalty for the sinner so that God could set the sinner free and declare him righteous in His holy presence. Moreover, He did more than just forgive us our sins; He imputed the perfect righteousness of His Son in to us. A great exchange took place. Christ got all our sin and guilt; we got His perfect righteousness. His righteousness was exchanged for our sin. Repent! Believe in this Great Exchange done for you from a gracious heart of a merciful God! Then honor this God by being gracious & merciful to others, not to earn your station before Him; He’s already done the hard parts for you. But just to say thank you, because you will want to, because his spirit will be in you making you more & more like him. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, For our sake God made Jesus to become sin who knew no sin, so that in Christ we might become the righteousness of God. And because God did all the work He gets all the Glory, Soli Deo Gloria.
**Believe in this God! Not the Justice-less god I was taught of from TV, this is the God of Scripture, repent! & not just maybe…he will relent from His Justice that is due you, I’m quite sure from the NT that He WILL relent & give you mercy instead of justice on that last day! 
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Let’s pray:
                  Today we’ve seen in the example of the history of Jonah an example of Your love & mercy not just for the Jews only but for the whole world. We have been called in their example to repentance & faith, to cry out for mercy & to do deeds in keeping with an honest repentance. We pray that by your Spirit & grace we mature further than that of poor Jonah & do not exalt in the coming destruction of others, nor claim that You’ve have done evil when you extend mercy even to those we don’t like. Let us not run from your presence but follow you & preach your Word, warning the world of the Judgment to come that we might save some. We thank you too for the New Testament that shows us that the bar you have set for Salvation is beyond our grasp & realizing this, have firmly planted our faith in the Great Exchange of your Son. Thank you for the gift of faith & for Christ’s perfection given to us & for Your sovereign grace in Salvation.
                  Christ your work on the cross becomes that bridge that connects a sinful humanity with a sinless God. Without that bridge no man could cross the stormy sea of sin that separates a rebellious world & a Just God.  God you’ve done it all for us; we do not do it for ourselves. For this you are eternally worthy of praise & worship & the example to us in this next year that we begin to exemplify this same selflessness, charity, justice & mercy. May your name be praised on Earth as it is in Heaven. Amen.

Man’s Great Need! - Jonah ch. 3 sermon outline


Man’s Great Need! - Jonah ch. 3

In which Jonah goes to Nineveh and the people of Nineveh repent.
Man’s Great Need & how can imperfect men stand righteous before a perfect God?
Salvation is a sovereign work of God – 3:1
            Romans 8 – The Golden Chain of Salvation
Salvation is a stalwart work of God’s Word – 3:2
            Ezekiel 37 – Valley of Dry Bones
Salvation is a sudden work of God even on apathetic people – 3:6
            Acts 9 – Paul’s conversion
Salvation is a saving work of God that produces repentance – 3:8, 10
            Psalm 51 – David’s Hymn
Salvation is a sanctifying work of God– 3:7-9
            Romans 12:1-2
Man’s Great Need & how can imperfect men stand righteous before a perfect God?
The Great Exchange! Jesus the better Jonah!