Repenting Unrepentant Repentance (Part 1)

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Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Abendroth.

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Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

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Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the scriptures, verse by verse, with No Compromise.

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Well I don't know if you know this or not, but there's a new religion, there's a new religion in the world, it's the religion of tolerance.

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It's the new word, tolerance. It's maybe the most virtuous virtue these days.

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Tolerate other people. 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 all 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 word 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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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 Bible teaches, right?

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So when someone says, you know, Jesus never addressed homosexuality. If you don't know the Bible, you don't know how to respond.

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I could think of another reason and that is fear. We're afraid because if we do say, you know,

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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.

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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.

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And so what will our families say? What will society say? We don't want to talk about sin anymore and repentance because we're afraid.

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Or maybe it's just idolatry because we say we want, instead of truth -telling, we want acceptance.

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Instead of telling people the truth in love, we want freedom. But here's the thing.

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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.

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And the 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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All leading up to this. Have you repented? Have you repented?

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You know, there are people in churches that have not repented. And so we want to make sure, I mean, how awful would it be to hear the message week after week after week?

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How awful and horrible would it be to be a kid who grows up in a Bible teaching church to then say, you know, but I haven't repented.

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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? 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.

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And yet Jonah makes it clear that repentance is very important. 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. Fifty in a row, can you imagine?

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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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John the Baptist, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand, it's near. It's not just Jonah.

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Jesus said, repent for the kingdom of God is near, just like John the Baptist.

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Jesus said, repent and believe the gospel. Jesus said, I'm not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

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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 -4, and then

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I'm going to give you three repentances found in verses 5 -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 3, verses 5 -10.

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

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Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, that important city.

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Call out against it the message that I tell you. So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the

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Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey in breadth. Jonah began to go out into the city, going a day's journey, and he called out.

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Simple message, five Hebrew words, some grace built in with the 40 days, but it's a message of judgment.

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Yet 40 days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. That was the message.

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So let's take a look at the first repentance found in Jonah, chapter 3, verse 5.

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And it's repentance of the people. 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 on 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, Mohammed'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.

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And just start walking around for three days and see what happens. But that's almost what happened with Jeremiah.

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Think about it. Listen, Jeremiah 26. Jeremiah finished speaking.

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All that the Lord commanded him to say to the people, the priests 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.

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And all the people gathered about Jeremiah in the house of the Lord. Why? For a little meeting? No, they gathered around and they surrounded him.

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When the officials of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king's house to the house of the Lord and sat in the entrance of the new gate of the

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Lord's house. Then the priest and the prophet 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, 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, our hearts are mourning.

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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, 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 examine the word carefully, in verse 5, they believed

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

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And so, they'll pick and they'll say, you know what? There can't be such a big revival. We don't have any historical records of this revival.

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And so, they didn't really believe. It was just this external belief. Because it doesn't say Lord there, it says God there.

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And so, scholars like Walton would say, quote, this isn't saving faith. It's just moral transformation.

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Stuart 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 believed

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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

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Spirit, we want to see people speak in tongues. They just heard the message, and they believed, straight up. That's the first repentance.

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There's a second repentance found in verses 6 through 9. Jonah 3, three repentances.

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This is the second one. The Ninevites repent, and now the word trickles to the king, and he repents, too.

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Verses 6 through 9. The word reached the king of Nineveh.

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So, Jonah must not have gone to the king first. 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.

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And here the king arose 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, 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.

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Publicly. No longer worshipping Dagon, the fish god. No longer worshipping the

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Assyrian fish goddess Nosh, N -O -S -H. From the kings to the poorest people.

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Repentance. 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.

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Verse 7. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh. 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, verse 7, taste anything, let them not feed or drink water.

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We want to show that our repentance is from the heart. 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.

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Violence. 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 were 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 out 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

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His mind. Maybe the Lord will relent. Verse 10.

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So far in the text we've seen the people of Nineveh repent. The king of Nineveh repents.

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And now, God repents. Some of you just raised your head like,

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What's that all about? Who has King James or Revised Standard Version? It would say God repents.

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It could translate as God relents as well. Let's define what it means. But for the moment, let's talk about God's repenting.

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If you just can't stand it, okay, God's relenting. Verse 10. When God saw what they did.

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This is language again. Of course He saw what they did. 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.

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Of the disaster, of the evil that He said He would do to them. And He did not do it.

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No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

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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 8 .30 and 11 a .m. and Sunday evenings at 6 p .m.

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We're located on Route 110 in West Boylston, Massachusetts. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org

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or by phone at 508 -835 -3400. The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.