Summer of Jonah 2019 Part 1, Episode VI: Repenting Of Unrepentant Repentance - [Jonah 3:5-10]

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

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Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes, as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Well, I don't know if you know this or not, but there's a new religion.

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There's a new religion in the world. It's the religion of tolerance. It's the new word, tolerance.

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It's maybe the most virtuous virtue these days. Tolerate other people.

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Now, of course, we want to be tolerant folks, in the sense that if people disagree, we're still kind to them and nice to them, but that's not what the world wants in this new religion called tolerance.

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We have to celebrate what other people do. If they do something unrighteously, we have to clap, and we have to applaud, and we have to say, that's good, and that's right.

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Tolerance really is code. It's a strategy for selfishness and unrighteousness. Don't you tell me what

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I'm doing is wrong, and I won't tell you what you're doing is wrong. I want to do whatever I want, and I'll let you do whatever you want.

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Problem is, when you have a new religion, it does things to old religions, and so this new religion says now it's blasphemous to talk about sin.

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It would be accursed to talk about repentance, because if you're going to use the words sin and repentance, that means you don't like what

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I do. That means my adultery. That means my homosexuality. That means my gay marriage isn't right.

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I always think to myself, yeah, but if I'm just a chemical reaction formed with evolutionary processes, then why do you really care what

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I think? What should it matter to you? What another chemical reaction is thinking, or not thinking, or reacting?

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But deep down, people know that there's a God, and it's hard to sleep at night when you realize the actions that I do are going to condemn me, are going to damn me, and so I need to create a new religion where right is wrong, and wrong is right, and evil is good, and good is evil.

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And so today, you don't ever hear the word repent anymore, because that would be hate speech.

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You don't hear the word sin anymore, hardly, because that's hate speech. Spurgeon said, brethren, we shall not adjust our

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Bible to the age, but the age to the Bible. I mean, of course the world says unrighteousness is good, and they give applause to it.

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Remember Romans 1, though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but they give hearty approval to those who practice them.

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And here's the thing, if the world says sin is good and righteous,

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I'm not that shocked. Are you? Are we shocked at the world system, that unbelievers act like unbelievers, and the world system acts like the world system?

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We shouldn't be shocked. But what's shocking is the wholesale capitulation of people in churches, in evangelical churches, who are now calling good evil and evil good.

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Why do they do that? Why are people in churches saying, you know, here's this new movement, here's homosexual marriage, and homosexuality is righteous behavior, it needs no repentance, it's not a sin.

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What causes a person in a church to do that? Well, I could think of a few, maybe one is they don't know what the

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Bible teaches, right? So when someone says, you know, Jesus never addressed homosexuality, if you don't know the

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Bible, you don't know how to respond. I could think of another reason, and that is fear.

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We're afraid, because if we do say, you know, God made you, and He's going to be your judge, there's good news, there's a

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Savior for you for this kind of sin, and God forgives all kinds of sin, His Son's atonement is so great.

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Jesus' death on the cross was so sufficient, so magnificent, so majestic, that this death could save murderers like Saul, this death could save deniers like Peter, this death could save adulterers like David, this death could save abortionists, this death could save ladies who have committed abortion, along with their male counterparts,

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Christ's death is so great, but you've got to recognize first that this is sinful behavior, but we're afraid to say that because most of us don't like our taxes to go up, most of us don't like our churches to be closed down, and most of us like our freedom, and so what will our families say, what will society say?

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We don't want to talk about sin anymore and repentance because we're afraid, or maybe it's just idolatry because we say we want, instead of truth telling, we want acceptance, instead of telling people the truth in love, we want freedom, but here's the thing, you can't get to heaven without repentance, you can't get to heaven without recognizing sin is sin, and the only sin bearer is

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Jesus, and so the world is saying, don't you tell me, you quote, you know, this is hate speech and we're going to shut you down, and the

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Bible says you can't go to heaven without repentance. Thinking about this new word tolerance before we look at the text today, did

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Jesus even talk about tolerance? I think that would be a good study, if tolerance is the n -word, if tolerance is the new language, if tolerance is the new religion, what did

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Jesus say, and I can only find Jesus' reference to tolerance in one occasion, written in Luke and Matthew, Jesus said, whatever city you enter and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, even the dust of your city which clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you, yet be sure of this, the kingdom of God has come near, and Jesus said, it will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city.

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Woe to you, Chorazin, woe to you, Bethsaida, for if the miracles had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes, but it would be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the judgment than for you.

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So why don't we take our Bibles and turn to Jonah chapter 3 today, a chapter of repentance,

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Jonah 3, a chapter of repentance, and so what we're going to do today in the book of Jonah is we'll work through verses 5 through 10, and you're going to see the greatest revival in the world through the worst evangelist in the world, and you're going to see the response of evangelism is repentance, and everywhere we look in this passage, there's going to be repentance, all leading up to this, have you repented?

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Have you repented? You know, there are people in churches that have not repented, and so we want to make sure.

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I mean, how awful would it be to hear the message week after week after week, how awful and horrible would it be to be a kid who grows up in a

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Bible teaching church to then say, you know, but I haven't repented, I haven't turned from sin, think differently about sin, and then the flip side of repentance is faith, and I haven't trusted in the

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Lord Jesus Christ. All this talk about repentance in Nineveh, in the king's heart, it would be wrong for me not to ask you if you have repented.

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I love the testimonies of Russians, and so when Russians become baptized, they give their testimony, and here's what they do.

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They stand in the waters of baptism, and they say, 1989 and October 2nd was the day

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I repented. It's just the language, it's the vernacular of a Christian. Have you repented?

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When did you repent? And I love Jonah because it draws it out, while the world says, tolerate, accept, don't discuss sin, and if you don't have sin, then there's nothing to repent from, and yet Jonah makes it clear that repentance is very important.

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Now I want you to know that I'm not like some Reformers in 1650 in France, in the southern

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France area, who would preach 50 sermons in a row on repentance, 50 in a row.

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Can you imagine? You know, after I get done with Jonah, I'm thinking about which book to preach from. So I have some ideas, and people have given me ideas, but what if I just said, you know, for the next 50 weeks, we're going to go through two words in the

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English text, like this French Reformer, repent ye, and one of the sermons,

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I kid you not, was four and a half hours long, and the thing is, it's not just in Jonah.

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Jonah, John the Baptist, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand, it's near.

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It's not just Jonah. Jesus said, repent for the kingdom of God is near, just like John the

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Baptist. Jesus said, repent and believe the gospel. Jesus said,

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I'm not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Jesus sent his 12 out, and they preached that the people should repent.

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Peter preached in Acts chapter 2, both times talking about repentance. Paul preached,

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Mars Hill, and commands every people to repent. Acts chapter 20, they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in the

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Lord Jesus Christ. So here's what we're going to do today, I'm going to read verses 1 through 4, and then

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I'm going to give you three repentances found in verses 5 through 10. But let's make it four today, because we're going to talk about the three repentances in Jonah, and then we'll talk about your repentance and mine.

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So four repentances we'll talk about today from Jonah 1, excuse me,

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Jonah 3 verses 5 through 10. But let me read the first four verses to kind of catch us up. You know, Jonah has fled from the presence of the

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Lord, from his prophetic duty, and God got him to Nineveh anyway, through the ship, through the fish, through the sea.

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And now it says in verse 3, I'm sorry, chapter 3 verse 1, then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying,

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Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, that important city. Call out against it the message that I tell you.

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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.

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Jonah began to go out into the city, going a day's journey, and he called out. Simple message, five

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Hebrew words, some grace built in with the 40 days, but it's a message of judgment, yet 40 days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

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That was the message. So let's take a look at the first repentance found in Jonah, chapter 3 verse 5, and it's repentance of the people.

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The response to any biblical proclamation is acceptance, repentance, belief, trust, agreement.

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There's lots of different words. And so the evangelist comes, he preaches a message of judgment, and the people respond.

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This is amazing. I mean, who could believe this would ever happen? And the people of Nineveh, chapter 3 verse 5, believed

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God. You could translate it, believed in God, if you'd like. They called out for a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least of them.

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He preaches the message, and by the way, the word of God is so powerful, Jonah doesn't even like him.

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He doesn't even care for him. Remember, it wasn't that long ago that Jonah's attitude was basically, let him go to hell, I'm not going.

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I know you're going to save these people, and I don't want to be any part of it. And now Jonah repents, and Jonah begins to proclaim, and now they begin to believe.

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The response is they believe the greatness of the word of God and the greatness of God in spite of the messenger.

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What's the text say? People of Nineveh believe God. I mean, it's a three -day journey. It's a three -day experience to have revival, and he doesn't even have enough time to put up the tent yet, because day one, they begin to repent.

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They repent of day one, day two, day three, not needed. Now you think, you know, if you don't know your

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Bibles that well, I get it, I understand, I've read the story before. Remember when Jeremiah preached?

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Think about this. It's so amazing in Jonah, because this isn't par for the course necessarily.

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You show up, and everybody repents. If I told you to go to Baghdad today and just walk around and say, Muhammad's a false prophet, and Jesus Christ is the only way, and if you don't believe it, you're going to die in your sins, and just start walking around for three days and see what happens.

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But that's almost what happened with Jeremiah. Think about it. Listen, Jeremiah 26, Jeremiah finished speaking, all that the

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Lord commanded him to say to the people. The priest and the prophets and all the people seized him, saying, you must die.

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They hear the message of repentance, and so the wicked heart says, we're going to kill you. That makes the

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Jonah story all that more spectacular. Why have you prophesied in the name of the Lord, they said to Jeremiah, and all the people gathered about Jeremiah in the house of the

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Lord. Why? For a little meeting? No, they gathered around, and they surrounded him. When the officials of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king's house to the house of the

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Lord and sat in the entrance of the new gate of the Lord's house. Then the priest and the prophets spoke to the officials and all the people, saying, a death sentence for this man.

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He preaches judgment. You've got to kill him. And here we have the

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Ninevites. Remember these wicked people? These are the people that said, hmm, how are we going to have an object lesson of our brutality?

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Let's skin people alive and use the skin for wallpaper down by the harbor. And now

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Jonah preaches, and they believe. The text says they believe God.

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This is hope. This is trust. If I was thinking with Reformation language, they have knowledge, they have assent, and they have trust.

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That's the Hebrew word. They really believed. And it shows on the outside as well. Look at the text.

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They call for a fast. Here's the fruit of repentance put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least.

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And so what's happening in our hearts? Our hearts are convicted. Our hearts are struck.

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Our hearts are mourning. And so while we can't put things on our heart, we can put things on our body to be symbolic of what's going on in our hearts.

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So let's put some coarse cloth on our bodies. Let's do what a

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Jew would do. And a Jew would say, let's put on sackcloth and fast. By the way, the

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Ninevites wouldn't do this. The Ninevites would give some libation. The Ninevites would be on their face, praying to their false

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God. Ninevitish repentance was not sackcloth and ashes, but Hebrew repentance was.

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And these people heard about the God of the Hebrews, the God who created the land and the sea. And now they repent like a

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Hebrew would. They believe mourning over their sins. One prophet, one sermon, one

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God, one fire and five Hebrew words. And they believe revival breaks out first day against all odds.

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Now some people think if you if you examine the word carefully in verse five, they believe

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God. Now some people would say this isn't real belief because it doesn't say they believe the

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Lord Yahweh. And so they'll pick and and they'll say, you know what, there can't be such a big revival.

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We don't have any historical records of this revival. And so they didn't really believe it was just this external belief because it doesn't say

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Lord there. It says God there. And so scholars like Walton would say, quote, this isn't saving faith.

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It's just moral transformation. Stewart said they remained, by all accounts, the same polytheistic, syncretistic pantheist they had been all along.

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So I ask you the question, do you think they really believed? And I just look at the text. And what does the text say? They believe

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God. I think I can prove that they were really believers. Number one,

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Jesus said in Luke 11, that when they heard it, quote, they repented at the preaching of Jonah.

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Jesus said they repented. And also, we're going to see God not punish the

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Ninevites. And if anybody can see through a fake heart, a hypocritical heart, a moralistic external heart only,

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I think the Lord can. And so God sees them and he sees real repentance and real belief and he's not going to judge them.

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And so this is a real revival. They really become believers in Yahweh. And it was perfect providence, too, because the

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Ninevites were people who were superstitious. They had just seen an eclipse, history tells us.

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And so some other omen might come, some other prophet might come, national crisis.

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And they hear the words and they believe. They didn't say, we want signs, we want wonders, we want to see people slain in the spirit, we want to see people speak in tongues.

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They just heard the message and they believe straight up. That's the first repentance. There's a second repentance found in verses six through nine.

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Jonah three, three repentances. This is the second one. The Ninevites repent and now the word trickles to the king and he repents too, verses six through nine.

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The word reached the king of Nineveh. So Jonah must not have gone to the king first.

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He goes to the town, he begins to preach and now word gets to Ninevite king and he arose from his throne.

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You can feel the language. The Hebrew language is just fast. I mean, he hears it and he responds quickly. The people responded quickly with sackcloth, great to the least, and here the king rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes.

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Well, I'll get around to repentance later. You know, I'll live my life a little bit and kind of be wild now in college and then

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I'll settle down later and repent. It wasn't that at all. When kings had robes, they were beautiful.

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They were expensive. They were elaborate and he just throws it down and goes out, puts sackcloth on and sits in ashes.

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I can tell you this. He wasn't sitting in ashes in his palace. You don't have ashes on the floor in the palace.

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You've got to go outside to the street and he's sitting the king in front of the people in front of his kingdom on the ground without his robe, sackcloth and ashes.

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That's quick repentance. It's fast repentance, sitting in ashes publicly, no longer worshipping

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Dagon, the fish god, no longer worshipping the Assyrian fish goddess,

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Nosh, N -O -S -H, from the kings to the poorest people, repentance.

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Sounds like Ezekiel 26 to me. Then the princes of the sea will step down from their thrones and remove their robes and strip off their embroidered garments.

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Oh, the king's repenting. We better make a royal rule and decree for repentance. Verse 7, and he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh.

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You can imagine his people around him, the counselors around him quickly trying to do this.

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Here's the proclamation published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles. Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock.

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Verse 7, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water. We want to show that our repentance is from the heart.

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This is not just lip service. We're going to repent by our own actions and by our animals actions too.

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Make it look like the horses are sorry too. So that's kind of weird. That's what they did back in those days.

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A historical account with the historian Herodotus said in a time of mourning, quote, they shaved their heads, cut the manes of their horses and mules and abandoned themselves to such cries of grief that the whole city was loud with the noise of them.

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I mean, I'm so repentant that in this culture, I'm going to take off my good clothes, put on bad clothes, sit in ashes, and then make sure

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I shave my dog. You look at my dog, you'll even recognize something's going on.

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Self -denial, helplessness, repentance. Lord, we mean it. This shows sincerity is what we're after.

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Verse 8, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth. Let them call out mightily to God.

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Let everyone turn from his evil way. That's general. Just if you've got a wicked, evil way, turn from it.

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And the Jews also like to give something specific. So generally turn from your evil way and something specifically and from the violence that is in his hands.

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And remember how violent the Ninevites were. So if there's any evil way in you, generally just let's turn from it.

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And if there's any kind of specific violence that we're doing, let's stop that too. By the way, the word violence in Hebrew is hamas, violence.

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Let's call out with strength. Let's call out with conviction. Let's call out with responsibility individually.

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Responsibility, I'll own it. Verse 9.

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Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish.

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There's a possibility. And we know it's more than a possibility because Jonah knows what we know.

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Verse 2 of chapter 4. I knew you're a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster.

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The Assyrians who feared no one. They were at the top of the food chain in the military world.

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And they say, you know what? We might perish, but we might not. Who knows?

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I still think this is fascinating that the word of the Lord comes through a prophet who didn't even care about the people. And then the whole city is turned right side up.

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Salvation is from the Lord. By the way, this language here in verse 9 sounds like chapter 1, verse 6.

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It sounds like the captain. The captain came to him and said, what do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call to your God. Perhaps the

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God will give us a thought that we may not perish. Same thing. Maybe God will relent.

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Maybe God will have kind of this emotional feeling and he'll see our repentance. He'll see the sackcloth. He'll see the ashes.

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He'll see the animals. And then he won't wipe us out. Maybe he'll change his mind.

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Maybe the Lord will relent. Verse 10. So far in the text, we've seen the people of Nineveh repent.

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The king of Nineveh repents. And now God repents.

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Some of you just raise your head like, what's that all about? Who has King James or Revised Standard Version? It would say

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God repents. It could translate it God relents as well. Let's define what it means.

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But for the moment, let's talk about God's repenting. If you just can't stand it.

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Okay, God's relenting. Verse 10. When God saw what they did. All right, this is language again.

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Of course, he saw what he did. They did. It's he's omniscient. How they turn from their evil way.

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We're going to get God's response to this. God relented. KJV, God repented of the disaster of the evil that he said he would do to them.

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And he did not do it. Most translators say

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God relented. Because then we don't get in the sticky wicket of repentance that God changes his mind.

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But God is immutable. God doesn't change his mind. God's sovereign. He has one decree.

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He doesn't do flow chart kind of thinking. And so the language of relenting is a little easier for us to stomach.

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Either way, though, this is an anthropomorphic description. Using terms for men and women that we would understand and use them for God.

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God's sovereign. God's omniscient. God's never learned anything. God wasn't up there saying, woohoo, now they finally changed.

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I don't have to do what I said I do. I need to undo what I have decreed. This is from our perspective.

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It seems like God has changed. God doesn't change. Men change. But as one man said, as a result of the changes that occur in men, often

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God appears to change. You see, God wasn't surprised. 40 days judgment's going to come.

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If you don't repent, you're going to get judged. Repentance came. God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should change his what?

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Mind. Numbers 23 and 1 Samuel 15. How do

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I describe God with human terms? He said he was going to judge and he's not judging. Let's call that relenting or repenting if you'd like.

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No fire and brimstone on this city. The Sodom of a city was spared by the mercy of God.

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God doesn't change his plan, but the response to sinful. People seems like God has.

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The message goes out. Repent and the people repented and the king repented and God relented.

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To the message. Of Jonah, so I think

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I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you the question. The people repent, the king repents.

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Can you say, can you look back in your life and say? There's a time frame. It's it's it's fuzzy.

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I don't know the exact day. Maybe you can pick the exact day that I change my thinking about who

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God is and who. I am. I used to think I was good. I used to think I was holy.

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I used to think I I did the right thing and and I don't think that anymore. This is especially important.

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Now hear me. This is very important. We live in a society. 80 % of the people in this culture where we live in right now are

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Roman Catholics. Well, they don't all practice, but they would say they would be. Strangely, serendipitously this week,

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I found a file, an old folder with real paper inside. I don't mean a folder, you know, software folder in my finder file, but a real folder and I open it up and to my pleasure and to my happiness, it was about 40 or 50 pages of some of my homework from 1973, 13 years old stacks and stacks and stacks.

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Some of the homework had 100. Some of it had 75. I did find kind of a fluke and aberration.

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It said 35 % in this particular test. And it was my confirmation study material from the

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Lutheran church. You get baptized when you're a baby and I need to confirm that I still believe these.

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So I took a class. I couldn't believe all the stuff that I knew. What about the evil kings?

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What about Jehoshaphat? What about Jeroboam? All these things. I thought I know all that stuff. Here's why repentance is so important.

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I growing up and many of you growing up and the society, this church is providentially placed into that is a

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Roman Catholic system. World neighborhood. Friends, I believed as a

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Lutheran that Jesus was the eternal son of God. I believed the father, son, and the

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Holy Spirit. I believed in a triune God. I believe that God was a creator. He spoke things and they just came into existence.

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I believe that he was a judge. I believe there was a hell, a literal hell. I believe Jesus lived a perfect life. I believe that he was a perfect preacher.

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I believe that nobody talked like he did with parables. And I have the test quizzes to affirm all these things that I believed.

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He died on the cross. There's no other way of salvation except Jesus's perfect life and death on the

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Calvary. Calvary's cross for sinners. I believe he was literally raised from the dead. I believe that he's coming back.

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I believed all these things. And most of your neighbors believe them too.

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You're not going to meet many of your neighbors who say Jesus was a fraud. So what's the rub and why is repentance important?

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The value of Christ's death. How is it appropriated to a person?

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How is it given to a person? How is it received by a person? And the

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Lutheran Church would teach me and the Roman Catholic Church would teach her followers that it is received through faith plus the sacraments.

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Faith plus baptism, faith through the Lord's Supper, faith through other sacraments, the other five.

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I never was told when I was a kid in the Lutheran Church, you must repent. You must be born again.

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Why? Because I already was right with God. Because I received my rightness with God through my baptism.

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And it doesn't take you very long to go to a Roman Catholic funeral today. And the first thing they say is so and so is in heaven for what reason?

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Repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because they've been what? Baptized.

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Repentance and faith. Remember, if you have a coin on the tail side is like repentance. I agree with God about what he says about me.

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Sin, salvation, exclusivity of Jesus and the rest. I agree with him and I turn from and I turn to with faith.

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And I believe what God says. When my kids were really little and I was trying to teach them ideas about the

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Bible and abstract thoughts and I'd make them march in the kitchen. Sometimes we'd march around the kitchen table seven times.

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What story must have that have been? Sometimes I would put salt on their hands and make them lick the salt.

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I wonder what story that might have been. Remember Lot's wife.

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Sometimes when I would go to the stories where David acted like a crazy man and he was like scratching on the doors and had a bunch of saliva coming out of his mouth.

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Well, I did it, of course, because I was trying to teach the kids. Glad there weren't iPhones back in those days.

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And I would have the kids walk to the wall and I said, you can't stop walking until I say the word repent.

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And then once you get about your nose to the wall, I'll say repent and you turn around and go the other way. Because that's what repentance is.

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I understand. And now I turn the other way. I turn from my sins. First Thessalonians chapter one. I forsake my old gods and I've turned to the living

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God. That's repentance. What's the difference between a Protestant and a

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Roman Catholic? What's the difference between my Lutheranism and evangelical Bible belief?

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It's not that we say they deny the Trinity. They deny the deity of Christ. They deny the virgin birth.

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They deny atonement. They deny resurrection. They deny second coming. They deny the teaching of Jesus.

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They don't deny any of those things. They only deny that it comes through the benefits of Christ come through faith alone.

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Repentance and faith alone. And so if you're here today and you say, well,

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I'm trusting in my baptism. I'm trusting in being good. Some of my biggest fears are, by the way, that there are children growing up in this church.

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And you think you're going to get to heaven because your mommy and daddy go. You get to heaven by faith in the

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Lord Jesus Christ and repentance. Listen to Luke 11.

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The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment and condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah.

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And behold, something greater than Jonah is here. That's what Jesus said. You've heard my message week in and week out.

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Jesus says, I preached for three years and you won't believe me. And Jonah, I mean,

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I love you, Jesus says. And I've been preaching every day. You won't believe me. But Jonah doesn't even like the people he preaches to.

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And he preaches judgment. One message from a disobedient prophet and everybody believes. And can you imagine just hearing the message of sovereign grace, distinguishing grace?

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How would you like to be forgiven? You can be forgiven in Christ Jesus alone and then say, no,

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I'm just not going to do it. The Ninevites then would be better repenters than you.

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They didn't say, well, I've got to kind of, you know, go crazy in college a little bit. Then I'll settle down.

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I've got to get this money earned first, and then I'll settle down. Jesus said in the

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Great Commission, repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations.

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You can't get to heaven without repentance. So I ask you again, have you repented?

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You born again? Certainly there has to be someone here in such a large group that has not repented.

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There are other words in the Bible that talk about repentance without using the word. Have you inclined your heart under the

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Lord, your God, Joshua 24? Have you circumcised yourself spiritually to the

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Lord, Jeremiah 4? Have you washed your heart from wickedness? Break up, follow ground.

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Turn from your wicked way. Westminster Confession says this about repentance.

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A sinner out of the sight and sense not only of the danger, that is, if you don't repent, you go to hell, but also the filthiness and odiousness of his sins as contrary to the holy nature and righteous law of God and upon the apprehension of his mercy in Christ to such as are penitent.

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The repenter grieves for and hates his sins as to turn from them all unto

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God, purposing and endeavoring to walk with God in all his ways and commandment.

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I mean, wouldn't it be a shame if the king of Nineveh repented, the wicked Ninevites repent, and then you go out of here today without having repented?

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John Murray said four things in your mind will change if you've repented.

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You think differently about God. You think differently about yourself. You think differently about sin.

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And you think differently about righteousness. You know the backdrop to all this.

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So many people would say, you know what? I want Jesus as my savior, but I won't take him as my

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Lord. That just means I'd like Jesus to forgive my sins, but I don't want to repent.

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You can't have Jesus for savior, not Lord, because he's both. Charles Spurgeon said to his pastor students, if the professed convert distinctly and deliberately declares that he knows the

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Lord's will to repent, but does not mean to attend to it, you young pastors are not to pamper to his presumption, but it is your duty to assure him that he is not saved.

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And so I will follow Professor Spurgeon. If you have not repented from your sins and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, I don't care what your baptism did.

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I don't care what your Lord's Supper did. I don't care what the last rites do. You aren't going to heaven. But the good news is this.

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I said to myself, when I looked at those confirmation papers, Lord, you were so good to me to give me teaching in the

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Bible. I could have grown up as a Hindu. I could have grown up as an animist. I could have been running around being a

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Druid at nighttime or something. My parents actually took me to a place where I learned some of the Bible and I could understand

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God's holiness and God's righteousness and God's judgment on sin and who Jesus was.

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God, thank you for that background. I praise you that you can even take that and turn it into something good.

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So some of you know the Bible, but you haven't repented.

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Fuller said, you cannot repent too soon because you do not know how soon it may be too late.

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I mean, can you imagine the Lord Jesus? I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

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How would you like to be forgiven? And the message isn't from Jonah to people he hated.

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The message is from the Lord Jesus Christ. Lay down your weapons of rebellion and believe on the

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Lord Jesus Christ. And the Bible says you shall be what? Saved.

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Wouldn't you like to be saved from your sins? And all that kind of language is tossed out when we have to tolerate and accept and buy into it.

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It couldn't be a more devilish satanic system. And it couldn't be worse for people because then they'll never have the long finger of Nathan on the sternum spiritually.

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You are the man. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for this time.

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I'm thankful that the Ninevites repented. It's amazing. And Father, you are going to judge the

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Ninevites, yet you relented. But I think of hundreds of years later, all the

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Ninevites' sins were punished, but they were punished on your innocent son,

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Christ Jesus. What kind of love is that? Behold what manner of love the

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Father has given to us. Father, that we should die for our lack of repentance.

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We should be cast into hell for our sins. And yet your son paid them all, paid in full.

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At Calvary he said, Tetelestai, it's finished, paid in full, every single sin of every single

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Christian and everyone who would ever believe, paid for by Jesus Christ. Jonah was right.

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You are gracious. You are merciful and slow to anger. Father, I pray that no one would rebuff such a great offer of forgiveness of sins through repentance and faith.

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Maybe there's somebody old here. Maybe there's some young people. I pray that you'd give them repentance.

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I pray that you would grant them eternal life. It's amazing to me to think that through a sinful man like me, the truth of the gospel could be given forth and you could take someone out of darkness and put them into your marvelous light.

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Father, thank you that your word is powerful and it does its work. And if Ninevites can repent, so can moralistic, civil, good, in their own eyes, people today.

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I pray that not one person would leave this building today unreconciled to you. I pray that you would reconcile them and grant them redemption found in Christ Jesus through the proclaimed word, believe on the

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Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston.

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You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.