Three. David, are we videoing tonight? Okay. I was thinking about moving down there, but I'll stay up here for videoing. So you wanna see what the light looks like down there?

I just feel like I'm forever away from I'm a sit right in front of you, Dan. So you might wanna move back just a little bit. See if the light is is decent here, David. I gotta grab my Bible. Alright.

Okay. Maybe this ought to go over here. Give me just a second. There we go. Now I'm closer to some of you anyway.

So y'all can move over if you want, then Cindy don't wanna move. Cosan, you can move. Yeah. Cindy's on the aisle anyway. Okay.

There. That's better. Alright. Jonah chapter Jonah chapter three. So in the first chapter of Jonah, we have Jonah runs from God.

In the second chapter, we have Jonah submits to God. In the third chapter, Jonah fulfills God's calling, finally. Okay? After all that mess of running away and getting drugged back by the whale. Finally, Jonah fulfills Yes.

Joshua and David, now I have this little dot right in right in the middle of my eyeballs. Alright. That's an awful bright light. Alright. So, okay.

So Jonah chapter three, Jonah has now been spit up by the whale on land, and he is now God now comes back to him and says, okay, let's try this again. So Jonah chapter three verse one, and the word of the Lord came unto Jonah in the second time saying, arise, go into Nineveh, that great city and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah arose and went on to Nineveh. So, so first point this evening, God repeats his command that he gave at the very beginning in Jonah chapter one in verse two, where God said, arise go to Nineveh, that great city and cry against it for their wickedness has come up before me. So, very similar.

Basically just God repeats himself and says, okay Jonah, let's try this again. On the map, and I didn't bring my pointer with me, so I'll get back in the camera. Here I am. Alright. So in the map there, right here is the shore of the Mediterranean, in Israel, right about here.

And then over here, right in there somewhere is the city of Nineveh. It's several days, probably several weeks journey back then. Similar distance that Abraham traveled to get to Canaan in the first place. So, again, Jonah got on a ship right here and he headed across the Mediterranean. God brought him back, spitting back up on shore and now says, okay Jonah, let's try this again to go to Nineveh.

So, God is sort of a determined sort. So, God wants us to do something. He isn't likely to relent and change his mind and say, oh, you don't want to do that? Oh, I'm sorry. No.

That's that's not likely what God is going to do because he is the potter and we are the what? With the clay. The clay shouldn't be telling the potter how to make it or what to do with it. And so God has every right to command our obedience, particularly now as his children. And so he repeated his command to Jonah and said, okay, we tried let's try this again.

He had to go through an ordeal there. Yes. But we're back on shore. Let's let's put that behind us and let's, try again. He gave the command to Jonah, that he first gave as though he hadn't disobeyed really at all.

It just says, okay. Now Jonah, get up and go to Nineveh. God didn't remind Jonah of his failure. God didn't say, okay Jonah, now you really blew it the first time. You really messed up.

I had to go through all this trouble of bringing a storm and sending a whale and bringing you back and now you better do it this time. Is that what God said? No. God simply said, okay Jonah, get up. Go to Nineveh.

He didn't remind him of his failure. He didn't browbeat him. He didn't try to make him feel feel get it guilty. Have you ever done that or has anybody ever done that to you? They say, oh, yeah.

I know you messed up. I forgive you, you know, but, you know, you really shouldn't have done it and this was really bad and this is gonna, you know, and they they kind of browbeat you over it, but that isn't our God. When we repent, which Jonah did in chapter two, what does God do? He he forgives. And God doesn't forgive often like we forgive.

When we say we forgive and then we bring it back up over and over again, when God forgives, he forgives indeed. In Hebrews chapter 10 verses 16 through 18, it says, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds and I will write them, and their sins and iniquities will I, what? Remember no more. Now, where remission or we would put in there forgiveness maybe of of these is, there is no more offering for sin.

There is no more need for any offering for sin. Christ died on the cross for our sins. We accepted his payment as the penalty to pay the penalty for our sins. Thus, we have been forgiven through faith in Jesus Christ by his grace and there is no need for another offering. God says, I will not bring them up, what?

I won't bring them up again. When we stand before God in heaven, he's not gonna pull out the books that he's going to pull out at the great white throne judgment for the unsaved and start rattling off every sin that we ever committed. Because those sins are under the blood of who? They're under the blood of Jesus Christ. And he says, he will remember them no more.

We do not need to feel this terrible load of guilt on our shoulders as children of God. Particularly, if we are willing to confess our sins, we need to carry not carry those burdens because Jesus says, I have forgiven you. So let them go. Let them go. Paul said, forgetting those things which are behind, I press forward into those things which are before.

Paul says, I'm not stuck back there feeling burdened and overwhelmed by the things that I did. Did Paul have a few things to be overwhelmed and burdened by? Yeah, he did. Deaths of many Christians, families torn apart because of what he did. But those things were what?

They were forgiven. God had forgiven him. Quoting from this passage in Hebrews here is a quote from Jeremiah which asserts that in Christ our sins are forgiven and will not be brought up against us again. So is the extent of the mercy of God when he forgives. He will not hold them over our head.

They're gone. Another passage, Psalm one zero three ten to 12. Hath He has not dealt with us after our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him. As far as the East is from the West, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

Is that far? The East is from the West. They they keep going in opposite what? Opposite directions. And as far as the East is from the West, so has God removed our transgressions for us.

We do not need to carry them. We do not need to be weighted down by them. He has forgiven our sins. Praise God for his abundant mercies which are new every morning and for the second chances he gives us like he did to Jonah and like he is going to do to Nineveh. So that brings us to verse three in chapter three, and we see God repeats his command, and then Jonah obeys this time.

So verse three, so Jonah rose and went on to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days journey. That doesn't mean it takes took three days to get there. It took a lot more than three days to get there. If you notice it says it was a great city of three days journey, that is a description of how big the city was.

So if you were walking through the city of Nineveh at a normal casual clip, it would have taken you three days to get from one side of Nineveh to the other side of Nineveh. So is that a pretty big city? In those days, yeah. That that's a big city. Now, you know, if you're gonna walk through New York City, it might take you weeks to get from one side to the other, but but as far as cities went, that was a city.

A city of hundreds of thousands, more likely millions of people lived in the ancient city of Nineveh in the capital of Assyria. So it was a great city. Verse four, and Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey and he cried and said, yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God. So we'll stop there for just a moment.

So God repeats his command to Jonah. Jonah this time obeys and he immediately heads off to Nineveh. He learned his what? He learned his lesson. Yep.

Was it a hard lesson to learn? Yeah. Should he have known better the first time? Yes. Should should we?

Yes. But sometimes we also have to learn things the hard way. We kinda knock on Jonah and but sometimes we're just as stubborn as he is. And sometimes we fail and we have to learn the hard way. The most important thing is that we want, that we learn.

And we don't keep making the same bad decision, committing the same sin, rebelling against the Lord in the same manner over and over and over again. This time, Jonah obeyed. In Proverbs seventeen ten, it says, a reproof entereth more into a wise man than a 100 stripes into a fool. What is one thing that differentiates a wise person from a fool? A wise person it isn't that a wise person never fails.

It's that the wise person does what? They learn from their mistakes. And the fool doesn't. He keeps making the same error over and over and over again. In Psalm 37, it says, the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delighteth, God delighteth in his way.

Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. Again, a good man, a righteous man, a man who has been declared righteous by God through faith in the Lord, he still falls. But when he falls, he gets back up and he tries again. And here, this is Jonah. Jonah is a frail human being.

Jonah gave in to fear. Jonah gave in to maybe prejudice against these people, but God went after him, brought him back, and now Jonah's gonna go this time as the Lord commanded him. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down. And so we see that in the life of Jonah. Hopefully, we see that in our life too.

It was still several days journey to the city of Nineveh. Judah had plenty of time to think along the way, but it doesn't appear he hesitated or he turned back, but he went right to the city and he began to preach the message to warn the city of God's impending judgment. What was the message? God gave Jonah to preach. Jonah began to enter the city a day's journey and he cried and said, yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

So this was God's command to Jonah. This was the message he had him preached, go into the city, just tell them in forty days I'm going to destroy the city. That was the message. It's interesting that it's forty days. Forty days in the scripture, the number forty often has to do with God's judgment or or trials.

You have, it rained for forty days and forty nights during the flood. The children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for how long? Forty years. Moses was on the Mount Sinai for forty days. Elijah, also fasted and was on Mount Sinai later, for forty days.

Jesus, fasted and was tempted by the devil for how long? Forty days. So this is a just a common number in scripture that God often uses in reference to judgment or testing. So, the message here, God's judgment is going to come on this city. This big city, this powerful city, Jonah's message is God is going to destroy you.

You've got forty days to get ready for God's judgment. The initial message did not say God might judge you or God will not judge you if. He just simply said God is going to judge you. You just need to get ready for the judgment because the judgment is coming. So that was the simple message that the people of Nineveh were given by God.

We too can learn from Jonah's example. God does God does not want us to wallow in self pity when we mess up. You ever done that? You mess up and you feel bad because you messed up, and, now you need to get up and start doing things, but it feels more comfortable just to wallow in self pity for me. I messed up.

I can't do anything. I never do anything right. You know, does that what God wants us to do? No. That's not what God wants us to do.

He doesn't want us to wallow in self pity. He doesn't want us to give up. He wants us to get back up in the saddle, so to speak, and try again, understanding that he is able and that he has forgiven us of our failure. The message that Jonah gave could have certainly resulted in his death. He's in a city that is hostile.

They're hostile toward Israel. He's an Israelite. They're hostile towards God. In the past, they have no no interest in the things of God. They are a thoroughly pagan, violent culture.

That is the city of Nineveh. They were had a famous terrible reputation for being some of the most cruel people. Jonah certainly could have met his end by preaching what he preached to them. But to Jonah's surprise, what did the people of Nineveh do? What did they do?

They repented. Rather than killing the messenger, they actually listened to the messenger and they accepted by faith the message. We sometimes think to ourselves, well, our nation is too far gone, our community is too far gone, our family member is too far gone, and we just write them off and say, well, they're just too far gone. I suspect the city of Nineveh was no better than the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. But in this case, they responded with a repentant heart.

So you never know. It is God that trieth the hearts. We do not know if somebody is quote unquote too far gone. Certainly, there were those who thought that of the apostle Paul. A matter of fact, when Paul came back to Jerusalem, well, first of all, when God told Ananias in Damascus to go to see Paul, Ananias said, Lord, wait a second.

Isn't he the man that's coming here to arrest us all and to take us back in shackles of Jerusalem? And then when Paul went to Jerusalem, the disciples didn't want to have anything to do with them because they didn't believe that what had happened to him was what? Was genuine because they thought, he's too far he's too far gone. Look what he did. But it is our job to do what?

To obediently give the what? The message. To give others the truth and to trust God that God is able and that God knows the hearts of men. And you may be surprised at what God can do. And here he did it with an entire city.

It may be that the story which Jonah told of the fish and even possibly his appearance, which may have been altered by the incident, garnered a more garnered a more earnest hearing. So I am told that the acid in the juices of the belly of the whale would have altered the complexion of Jonah to where he was likely white as a sheet. And so his appearance along with his story may have added to their willingness to accept that his message came from God. If so, we can see how God can take even our own foolishness and work it together to produce something good when we finally decide to obey. It may be that the three days that Jonah spent in the belly of that whale not only changed his attitude and character for the better, but it also may have helped with the acceptance of his message when he got to the city of Nineveh.

God isn't a God who's waiting for us to mess up because so he can go up, I got you. You messed up. It's over. Praise God. That's not him.

He is the God of the second chance. And he can work together for good even some of the dumbest things we do. And he can use it if we will trust him and not wallow in self pity or give up or give in. So again, what did the city of Nineveh do? They repented.

Verse five again, so the people of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them even to the least of them. The word came under the king of Nineveh and he arose from his throne and he laid his robe from him. He covered him with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles saying, let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock taste anything. Let them not feed nor drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily unto God.

Yea, let them turn everyone from his evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not? What did the people of Nineveh do? They poured out their their soul to the Lord. They put humbly laid themselves at his feet and cried for what?

Cried for mercy. Believing and hoping that the God of Jonah was what kind of God? A merciful God. Is he? Yeah.

He is. Praise God he is. Because else we would be going the wrong direction. We would be lost forever. It is of his mercies that we are not consumed.

They are new every morning. What can we do before a holy, almighty, and praise the Lord, a loving God? We have nothing to offer. We can't say, okay, Lord, I'll do this for you if you'll do this for me. All we can do is cry out for his mercy.

And praise the Lord, he heard. He heard even before we were born. He sent his son to die on the cross for our sins. In answer to the cry of mercy that yet had not come from our lips. He showed his mercy toward us as he showed it here to the people of Nineveh.

They believed in Jonah's message. Again, the word believe is vitally important. Verse five, so the people of the Nineveh believed in God. Yes. What followed were some actions that demonstrated the sincerity of their belief, but how does what does God respond to?

He responds to those who put their faith and trust in him and those who believe. Thus, trust in the Lord with all thine heart in Proverbs three and in John three, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. They believed in God. They believed in his messenger. They believed in his message and they responded with repentance.

The action of fasting, the actions of fasting in the kings of exchanging his royal robes for what is similar to burlap, here it's called sackcloth, and sitting on ashes expressed a full measure of three things. Number one, humility. Humility. Even the king took off his royal robes, put on burlap, and sat in ashes. Now, we don't put on burlap and sit in ashes today to express our humility, but in that day, that's that was the the the most public dramatic way to show their humility, even the king.

So it it expressed humility and and indeed, if we are desire for God to show us mercy, we must humble ourselves before him. Bow the knee. Number two, it showed remorse. Showed remorse for their what? For their sins.

They expressed, they stopped everything they were doing, they even stopped eating, they stopped everything to express their remorse and their sorrow over having ignored the God who made them. So it demonstrated humility, it demonstrated remorse, and it demonstrated repentance. Repentance, a contrite heart before the Lord. From the youngest and the poorest to the oldest and the richest and the most powerful among them. They believed, they humbly repented before the Lord.

Certainly, there were those who followed the king's commands who were not sincere, but the actions of the leadership and many of the city sent a message to the ears of God. We will humble ourselves before you. We will trust in you. We will follow you as our God. We make that choice, whether he relented or whether he did not.

In Genesis chapter 18, God comes to Abraham and God says to Abraham, I'm going to destroy the cities, the city of Sodom. And what did Abraham do? Anybody remember? What did Abraham do? Abraham began to barter with God.

He said, God, if there are 50 righteous souls in the city of Sodom, will you not destroy it? And God said, if there are 50 righteous souls in Sodom, I won't destroy it. And Abraham kept bartering with God and got him all the way down to what? If there are 10 righteous souls in Sodom, will you not destroy it? And God said, for 10 righteous souls I will not destroy the city.

Now, Abraham didn't barter any further and I think the reason was Abraham knew who was in Sodom. Lot. Lot and his wife and at least two daughters and maybe others. And Lot probably fig I mean, Abraham probably figured Lot had won a few people over to the Lord and there would be at least 10. But did God find 10?

The answer is no. He didn't. And so he destroyed the city. Now, it probably wasn't everybody in the city of Nineveh that repented, but there were enough that God said, I won't I won't destroy it. Does God respond to those who repent in faith?

Will God respond today? Yes, He will. Second Chronicles seven fourteen, If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Although this verse was meant particularly for who? The nation of Israel.

The same is generally true of those who receive God's message and repent in faith. Whether it be Israel or the Ninevites or people today. If you will repent and turn to the Lord and trust in his mercy and forgiveness, he will respond. And indeed he did. God hears, God forgives, and God will bless those who follow that command.

Humble yourselves, pray, seek my face, turn from your wicked ways, and God says, I will hear from heaven. Forgive your sin and we'll hear your land. In this case, that meant simply not destroying the land of Nineveh as he had Jonah announced. There was at least for a time a full cell revival in one of the most ungodly cities on earth. And the result was is as fitting the result is fitting with God's nature.

God did not bring judgment because God is a God who loves humanity, wants to save humanity, and is a God of mercy and patience. For he is long suffering to us, we're not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Did that include the people of Nineveh? Yes. Did the people of Israel probably think that?

No. But praise God, he isn't boxed in to our prejudices regardless of what they may be. Interestingly, Jesus would refer to the city of Nineveh and his condemnation of those who refused to hear him and kept demanding more signs be given over and over and over again. In Matthew chapter 12, Jesus said this to them, But he answered and said unto them, an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign and there shall no sign be given it but the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

So that's speaking of his resurrection. But he goes on, the men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah and behold a greater than Jonah is here. Jesus said, the people of Nineveh are going to rise up in judgment against you because they repented and you didn't. How do you think that sat with the self righteous Jews of Jesus' day? He didn't sit very well.

Jesus just exalted the repentant Gentile Ninevites above the unrepentant Jews. He said, they will judge you because they repented. And because they repented, they found what? Mercy. But you won't and therefore, you won't receive mercy.

It is those who repent and humble themselves to receive the mercy of God, who throw themselves at His feet, who will receive deliverance and salvation and the mercy of God. And so we see in verse 10 it says, and God saw their works. They turned from their evil way and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them and he did it not. In this case, was entire city. In my case, it was when I was nine years old and I trusted Christ as my Lord and Savior.

Praise God for his abundant mercy. Praise God for someone who, like Jonah, was willing to carry the message regardless of how I might have responded to let me know that I needed a savior. And don't miss the opportunities that he has given you to do the same. For there may be someone across your path or in your life that needs to hear it. Let's close in prayer.

Lord, thank you for your mercy that you've shown toward us. Thank you for your love, that you love the world, and Lord that you will save all who come to you in faith. We pray for those we know, particularly those who are resistant to your message and to your word. Lord, work on their hearts. Use us, Lord, we pray.

Help us not to miss the opportunities that are laid before us to be that messenger to them. Help us, Lord, not to hesitate in fear. Help us, Lord, not to say within our heart, well, it's too late. It's not worth it. We do not know.

And Lord, every soul is worth it. Thank you for this lesson today. Thank you for the mercy that you have granted us. May we take the life, the opportunity we have been given to bring glory to the God who gave us a second chance. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.