Jonah 3:5-10

Jonah’s Repentance and God’s Sovereign Purpose

Go ahead and open your Bibles to Jonah chapter 3. Last week we were able to see the first five verses of chapter 3, where we saw this prophet Jonah who has previously been so disobedient to God's command, has now been given that same command again, but now because of God's chastening in his life and God bringing him to that point, he finally obeys what God has told him to do.

And so now he goes and he heads to Nineveh. He walks into this great city, this place that he hates so dearly, and he preaches this sermon. Remember last week we mentioned that this was a very seeker-sensitive sermon, where he says, hey, 40 days and you people are toast, and then he walks out.

And so what do the people of Nineveh do? What did they do in that moment? Well, let's look, let's pick up back in verse 5 as we read on through the end of this chapter. Verse 5 of chapter 3 of Jonah, it says,.

And the people of Nineveh believed God. I love that it says that. It doesn't say they believed the word of Jonah. It doesn't say they believed the prophet. It says they believed God. They heard directly from God that this message that God had sent his prophet to tell them.

It says,. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. The word 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 through 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 turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish. 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. This is the reading of God's word. Let's once again stop before we move on and pray that God would illuminate our hearts and minds of this truth. God, thank you.

Thank you for your word.

In our frailty, we oftentimes have trouble understanding your truths. But God, if we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within us, we now have the power to understand every single truth and every word that you have proclaimed to us.

So God, I pray that you open our minds, our hearts, and our ears up to hear that truth this morning, that you would guard me from error. Lord, I pray that I would only speak truth from your word. In Christ's name, amen.

Why Jonah 3 Does Not Teach Open Theism

So the vast majority of people are going to read these verses that we just read. And they're going to walk away basically saying that God spared the city of Nineveh, this wicked city. He spared them because of their response to him, because of their response to his word.

Because they did.

They responded to God's word. And you're going to think at first glance that that's why. In other words, the people of Nineveh's repentance is what spared them. That's the way most people are going to read this passage.

Somehow God is just simply waiting in that moment to see how the people of Nineveh are going to respond. Are they going to repent? Are they not going to repent? And then Him respond in like fashion. But that could not be any further from the truth of what this passage is telling us.

That is absolutely not the way we should be reading this. And some of you may be asking, well, Nathan, how in the world can you come to that conclusion after literally just reading that in verse 10? I mean, look at verse 10.

Look there. When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster. Let's be honest. This passage truly seems to imply that God has changed his mind in some fashion.

That their response to Him is what He's responding to, doesn't it? It seems to be the way it's reading. Well, if that's the case, then what are we to make of passages like Malachi 3 .6? When God says, I, the Lord, do not change.

Because if we understand that verse within its context, we know that God is saying, I do not change my mind. I do not change my will. I do not change my plans. God does not change. And the reason God doesn't change is because He has no need to change.

If God is perfect in everything, if God's plans are perfect, if God's will is perfect, if God's very essence is perfection, then for Him to change would be sin. So God can't change. So this makes it difficult for us when we come to passages like this one here in Jonah.

And I would say that's why it's so important for us when we go to Scripture to be able to interpret Scripture according to our cultural context and worldview. I'm just checking to see if any of you are listening.

Some of you gave me the look.

Of course not.

That's what gets us into the problem of misunderstanding the passage in the first place. No, we have to compare Scripture with Scripture. Scripture is self-attesting, self-affirming. That's what Scripture is.

If there is anything that you're going to to confirm Scripture, then that other thing is Scripture's authority. If you go to science, if you go to nature, if you go to your worldview, if you go to any perspective, what are you doing?

You're saying that that thing that you're looking to to affirm Scripture is an authority above Scripture, which is impossible because Scripture is God's Word, the ultimate authority. So the only thing that you can judge Scripture by, the only thing that you can interpret Scripture by, is through Scripture.

That seems self-defeating, doesn't it? But it isn't when you understand what Scripture truly is, the inspired Word of God. But we have to make sure that passages like this one in Jonah line up with the rest of Scripture before we come to our hard conclusions about that passage.

And that's what I seek to do today. Because, you see, to come to the conclusion of this passage in Jonah, the verses that we just read, to come to that conclusion that God has changed His mind, has changed His plan, has changed His will, has changed in any way with the destruction of Nineveh, then that falls into a damnable heresy called open theism.

Open theism is a dangerous perspective, a very dangerous perspective, and that's what it is. Open theism, what it is, is it claims that God does not know the future. There are progressive theologians that actually believe this.

There are Christians who wouldn't know the term open theism, but practically think in those terms that God does not know the future. And for God to have changed His mind with Nineveh according to their repentance, this would have been true about God.

And if that is true about God, then He is not worthy of our worship. He's not God. Because we know from other Scripture that God is omniscient. Okay, I know that I'm throwing out some big terms here. Don't get lost in that.

We're not putting a test out for you to remember omniscient, open theism. I just want you to understand the concepts behind this, right? Just so we can get our brain wrapped around what this means. But Scripture tells us very clearly that God is omniscient.

And what does that mean? To put it simply, it just means that God knows the end from the beginning. God knows absolutely every detail that has ever taken place and ever will take place. God is not constrained by time and space.

God knows everything that's ever happened and ever will happen. That's why we know that God is omniscient and God cannot change. Not only does He know it, but Scripture teaches that He is sovereignly ordained.

Every minor molecule and detail that has ever happened or ever will happen. He has ordained all of it. I'm going to throw a few verses at you. We're going to have them up on the screen. You probably won't be able to flip fast enough, but you can jot these verses down.

That's why I have them up here. But I want you to see who God is before we move on here. So I'm going to be jumping a little bit. But Isaiah 42, 9. Isaiah 42, 9 says, Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare before they spring forth.

I tell you of them. Before anything happens, God is saying, I can tell you of them because I know they're going to happen because I ordained them. God has ordained those purposes. Same book. Isaiah 46, 10 says, Declaring the end from the beginning.

And from ancient times, saying, Things not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purposes.

Did you catch that part?

Things not yet done. God has planned them, right? This can't be any clearer. These are clear passages from Scripture for us to see who God is. Chapter 139, verse 4. The psalmist says, Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.

What's the psalmist saying? Before I speak. Before I say the next phrase that I don't even know maybe that I'm going to say.

You know it.

You know what's coming from my lips because you ordained it. In that same chapter, 139, the psalmist says in verse 16, Your eyes saw my unformed substance. In your book were written every one of them, the days that were formed for me.

When as yet there was none of them. The psalmist is saying, Even before I was being formed in my mother's womb, you saw every single day of my life. And you had formed them. You set them in pace or going, moving.

I can't think of the word, sorry. But you, God, is the one that is moving forward. In the New Testament, Ephesians 1 .11, In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined. Predestined. Predetermined.

According to the purpose of him.

Of who?

God.

Who works all things according to the counsel of his will. This is God. This is God. We see it all through Scripture. And I can tell you right now, I just picked a handful of verses. I could literally stand up here and do this all day from Scripture.

There's so much in Scripture that we could just stand here and the whole sermon could be us referring to Scripture of God's sovereignty and God's ordaining purposes. Because that's who God is. And Scripture is affirming that God is omniscient.

That God is all-knowing. That he knows absolutely everything from the beginning to the end. And that he has ordained it. And since this is true. If this is true from Scripture, how are we to see this passage back in Jonah?

This passage that seems to say that God is responding to what humans are doing. Well, for starters, I think we have to be aware of something that the Old Testament writers did. Old Testament writers, when talking about God, especially within the context of a narrative form like Jonah.

When they're telling a story and then God enters that story. These Old Testament writers used something that is called anthropomorphic language. I know, again, the bigger words. Bear with me. I'm not asking you to remember that word.

But what this is, is this is a technique that the Old Testament writers would use when they are describing or when you're thinking of having human form or human attributes. I'm going to say that again.

Anthropomorphic language is describing or thought of as having human form.

Think of it.

Key in those words. Thought of as having human form or human substance or attributes. So why would these Old Testament writers use this anthropomorphic language? Because of us finite beings.

Think about it.

What if the writers were to actually write about God in a way that represents God outside of our physical realm? There would be nothing to write. Because we wouldn't even be able to comprehend it. We can't comprehend God.

We cannot comprehend anything outside of the physical realm. Not really. We have faith of the spiritual realm. But we can't yet comprehend anything in the spiritual realm. Because God is altogether different from us.

So in order for us to get a glimpse of God. To be able to even begin to comprehend the workings and the movement and the plans of God. We often time need this type of language within the physical realm.

Now let me give you an example of that. Isaiah 48, 13. Isaiah 48, 13 says.

My hand.

This is talking about God. My hand laid the foundation of the earth. And my right hand spread out the heavens. This is God talking about creating the earth.

With a hand.

Yet we know that God doesn't have a body. God doesn't have a physical hand. God is spirit. Jesus himself said so in John 4. God the Father is spirit. He doesn't have a hand. But we need that anthropomorphic language to be able to comprehend what God is saying in creation.

How else are we to be able to get our brains wrapped around that? That's why they have to use this. So we must be careful. When we're reading these types of passages like in Jonah. Not to imprint our sinful, finite humanity to them.

That being said. When we come to these passages, what are we to take literal? And what are we to see as anthropomorphic language? That makes it difficult, doesn't it? Sometimes it's difficult to read scripture like this because it's hard for us to identify.

So in order for us to be able to identify. I want us to see three things that maybe will help us better understand. And I'm going to list those three things right now. So we can be thinking in those terms.

And then we're going to break each one down through the verse. I want us to see that God saw what he had already ordained. God saw when seeing the Ninevites. He saw what he had already ordained. The second thing I want us to see is that God granted them repentance.

And the third is God relented from what he said he was going to do. So let's look at that first one. God saw what he had already ordained. Look at verse 10 again there in Jonah. When God saw what they did.

You see, when you or I see something happen. We're seeing it for the first time. When we see an accident happen on the road. Even if there's habits and patterns in our lives that we're accustomed to. Maybe through work.

And we kind of know what's coming. In reality, even though it's repetitive. That next thing is literally the first time we've seen that happen. Because we're finite. That's the first time. And so we must respond to that accordingly.

But our response is informed. And led by our limited vantage point and skewed perspective. Our limited vantage point and skewed perspective affects how we as humans respond to things. I mean, think about a car accident, like I said.

You ever heard the accounts when the police officers go and they're writing the account of a car accident that's happened on a street corner? You know, you've got a witness over here on the corner standing there.

He's a pedestrian walking. You've got the person that's involved in the accident. You've got the person that's up on the third floor of his office building that saw it from there from a different angle.

Every single one of these people are going to have a slightly different vantage point and perspective of this action of this car accident. Right? Because we're human. We have a limited perspective. But when God sees something, he's not only already seen it happen, he's the one that orchestrated all the minor details to bring it about.

So God's vantage point is perfect. God is not responding to things in the way that man responds to things. So when God sees something, when we use anthropomorphic language talking about God, just this human perspective, God is seeing things.

He's merely referring to him being present and active. The writer is telling us that God is present and active in our time. God sees everything that's ever happened before. God sees everything that's going to happen after.

But he's also present right here and now. We have to have that language to be able to comprehend who God is. In other words, Jonah is telling us that God is present and active in our lives. And he's doing this through language that we can comprehend.

So you see, God is not reacting as man would be reacting. Because God's vantage point is perfect. Because God's perspective and ordaining purposes are precise and intentional. So what is God responding to here with the Ninevites?

What did God see?

Because it seems like it's their repentance that he's responding to, doesn't it? That's what it seems like, that the Ninevites' repentance is what God is responding to. Well, this leads us to our second point.

God Granted Them Repentance

God granted them repentance. God granted them repentance. Look back at the verse, verse 10. You see, back in verse 5, Jonah gives us a synopsis of what's happened. Verse 5 is really just a brief synopsis.

And then he does this weird thing where he then, in verses 6 through 9, goes back and gives us the details of how it happened. You see, verse 5 says,. And so, then in verses 6 through 9, Jonah lays out how the greatest of them, the king, the word got to him, and so through him the message was dispersed throughout the land, right?

That's what happens in verses 6 through 9. This message is declared throughout the land that they are to fall before God. Perhaps he will relent. And obviously God was using this as a means to reach the entire city, right?

This was God's purpose. He got it to the king, and the king dispersed. But it wasn't their repentance that saved them. God's not responding to repentance here. Look at verse 5 with me. Verse 5 says,. Notice that?

Believed God. God didn't respond to their repentance. God is simply responding to belief. God is responding to their belief. This is because no one, and hear me out, there's not a soul on this earth that has ever been saved by repentance.

That's important.

Not a soul on this earth has ever been saved by repentance. And no one has ever truly repented without being saved. Think about that for a second. No one has ever truly repented without belief, without faith.

As a matter of fact, turn in your Bibles with me. If you've got your Bible there, turn to the New Testament book of Romans. I want us to see this. This is important for us to identify. Romans chapter 10.

Romans chapter 10, starting in verse 9. This is the Apostle Paul writing. And if you know anything about Romans, the book of Romans is kind of the pinnacle of talking about the process of salvation. This is where we get the bulk of our theology on salvation.

It's from this great book. Romans chapter 10, verse 9. Paul says, Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart, believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

For with the heart one believes and is justified. Made right before God. Made righteous before their Creator. Given an alien righteousness. They've been justified. They've been saved through belief, right?

And with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame. Not repents. That's not the source of salvation. It's simply a fruit. Simply an outcome.

From belief. Look down at verse 17 of chapter 10 there.

Paul says,.

So faith. What is faith?

It's belief.

So faith comes from repentance. Trying to catch you guys again. Nobody's catching on. No, it doesn't say faith comes from repentance. It says it comes from hearing. Faith comes from hearing. And hearing through the word of Christ.

This is belief. You don't have to turn here. But John 3, 18 says, Whoever believes in him.

Who?

In Christ. Whoever believes in him is not condemned. But whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the Son of God. It's belief, not repentance. Don't think for a moment that you're going to be able to fall on your face and get close enough to the dirt and be sorry enough for God to forgive you.

That's not what it looks like. That's not the source of salvation. The source of salvation is belief.

It's faith.

And that's from God. Ephesians 2, 8 says, For by grace you have been saved through faith. Through faith.

Belief.

And this is not your own doing.

It is a gift of God.

This isn't something you can conjure up. The Ninevites did not just conjure up belief in God. They had some crazy, bleached skin, crazy hair, exhausted prophet who hates them walk in and say, 40 days and you're toast.

Drops the mic and runs out. What's to believe? You couldn't believe Jonah. You couldn't believe this crazy prophet. It was God. God granted them belief. And what came from that? It came repentance. So God's not responding to their repentance.

God is not responding and reacting to these people the way that our minds think of responding and reacting. So I have to ask on a personal level, do you want to know if you have true belief, true faith?

Do you want to know if your faith in Christ is real? Is your life marked by repentance? Well, for anyone who is in Christ, your life will be marked by repentance, just like the Ninevite people who believed God and repented.

God Relented from the Disaster He Had Planned

Third and lastly, I want us to see that God relented from what he said he was going to do. Look at the verse with me back there in Jonah, verse 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.

We could spend an awful long time sitting here evaluating this word, relent, evaluating the language being used here, but I don't think that's going to be of benefit for us this morning because we have to come to this passage with the understanding that God's ways are higher than our ways and God is altogether different from us.

He does not relent. God never relents from what he has committed to do. He never relents from it. He never goes back on his word. God never goes back on what he has committed and planned and purposed and ordained to do.

God knew that he was going to forgive and to save the people of Nineveh before he ever went to Jonah that first time. Before he ever created the whole world, he knew. God knew he was going to grant belief to these Ninevites and that they would respond with repentance.

God knew it. God knew that, and how do we know that God knew that? Because of Ephesians 1 .4. It says, even as he chose us. That's anyone, any believer, anyone that's in the elect, anyone that has been predestined by God and God's affection and love has been set on them and the blood of Christ has been spilt on their behalf.

Anyone.

It says, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world. God has set his love on his people before he ever even spoke a word of the universe into existence. He knew them. He knew them personally.

He knew them intimately. He had set his love and affection upon them. And if the people of Nineveh had been saved, every single individual in that city that was saved had been known by him long before he ever created the earth, much less long before he ever sent Jonah to preach to them.

This is scripture affirming scripture.

Amen.

This is how we know who God is. This is how we can see God for who he is. God had to know this. God knew this because Jonah knew it. Jonah knew that this was going to happen. I mean, look at the next chapter.

Chapter 4 in Jonah.

Look at it.

Verse 2. It says, Oh, Lord. This is Jonah responding to God relenting from this disaster. Jonah says, Oh, Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish.

He ran from God. For I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster. Jonah knew God was relenting from this disaster. Jonah knew God was going to save these people.

Otherwise, why would he send him in there? He knew good and well. And if Jonah knew, then God knew. Otherwise, Jonah knew something God didn't. And that's impossible. God knew the future. But again, this anthropomorphic language is simply allowing us a glimpse of God.

It's allowing us to understand God in a way that words could never express and explain God's ways and purposes. That's why these writers wrote this this way. That's why it's important for us to understand it according to other scripture that we know is true and sometimes maybe a little clearer.

So today, if you are in Christ. If you are a saved, regenerated, justified believer. Someone who has truly been granted belief and your life is marked by repentance. And I want you to leave today with an overwhelming sense of gratitude and joy.

Just thank God that he granted you that belief. That led to repentance. Praise God for that. Don't lose sight of that. Don't go out through your week and just quit focusing and looking to Christ. And get bombarded by the world and start looking to self and looking to things and circumstances.

No, be reminded that God has spared you. Be reminded that God has relented from the disaster that you and I deserved. And he's done it through his sovereign ordaining purposes. He set his love and affection upon you.

Live in light of that. Live in light of this because there is now no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus.

Amen.

There's no condemnation. When we repent, it is not us trying to appease God because he's angry with us this week. When we repent, it's simply an outpouring because we love God so much that we hate sin the way he hates it.

And we want to be like him. And we want to love him and we want to serve him because of what he's done for us. It's not out of a response of trying to make him love us more. Because if you're trying to repent to make God love you more, you're doing it wrong.

And you're going to be left hopeless. But leave with hope if you're in Christ this morning. But I'd be foolish to think that everyone in this room is in Christ. Some may think they are. Some may know they're not.

But if you are not, if you are not in Christ today, I plead with you to call out to him. Believe in the one and only son of God. And you will be saved. God is quick to grant belief. He's quick to grant repentance.

Pray that God will relent from the judgment that you so greatly deserve. Because you know you deserve it. We all know we deserve it. But God is quick to relent. He wants to relent with those that are his children and those that he loves.

Because he's a kind and gracious God who is willing to forgive. Look to the son.

Look to Christ.

Believe.

And that belief will lead to repentance. Just like the people of Nineveh. And then thank God that he sovereignly ordained the purposes. Because God's brought you here this morning. You think you brought yourself here.

That's not what happened. God brought you here. God knew good and well billions and billions and billions of years ago and an eternity passed that you'd be here in this moment and he ordained it. And there was nothing you could do about it.

Thank him for that. Thank him for bringing you under the word of God. So now just as we do every week, in light of that, let's prepare to go to the Lord's table. I have to say it. If you are a baptized believer in Jesus Christ, you are welcome to this table.

This table is for you. Now, if you have unrepentant sin in your heart, sin that you just don't want to let go, or you have something against a brother or sister, I encourage you to get that right before you come to this table.

But if your faith and trust is in Christ and Christ alone, then you are welcome to partake in this, just a taste. Remember how we said over the past few weeks, this is but a small taste of the feast that we will partake in one day.

We can look at what Christ has done on the cross, his broken body and spilt blood. So I want to read Matthew 26, 26 through 28 before we do it this week. This is Jesus at the Passover supper with his disciples as he's implementing this new ordinance of the Lord's supper.

He says,.

Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it, broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, Take, this is my body. And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

You hear that? For many. Jesus didn't say poured out for all. Jesus said poured out for many. Thank God if you're a part of that many. Praise the Lord. Remind yourself of that as we partake. So just as we do every week, there's some new people in here.

There's a table over here and a table over here. Pastor Jeremiah will be at this table. I will be over here. And each side is marked. There's wine and juice for conscience sake. But you can take the elements.

You can go back to your seat, either individually as a family, and pray together however you want to do it and take the elements there at your seat. And then we'll come back together to sing and to close with a benediction.

So let me pray for our time now. Lord, thank you. Thank you for what you've done. Thank you for granting repentance, granting belief that led to that repentance in the people of Nineveh, that entire city of wicked people, that if anyone didn't deserve your love and compassion and faithfulness, it would be the people of Nineveh.

And that gives me such great hope because I am a chief of sinners. And you died for me. You died for them. You died on our behalf. And your blood was poured out on our behalf, Lord. Thank you. Help us to never forget this.

Help us to keep it at the forefront of our minds, Lord. And that's why you have prescribed this table every week for us as we gather so that we can be forced to remember the great work that our God and Creator and Savior has done on our behalf.

God, be honored and glorified in our time as we worship by taking these elements this morning in Christ's name.

Amen.