If you have your Bibles, we're going to turn to Jonah chapter 3, the book of Jonah chapter 3. I've enjoyed opening up to chapters 1 and chapters 2 in the past couple of months here, and I'm hoping that Lord will bless our time here in chapter 3 of Jonah. We have noticed already that this book is less about Jonah and more about God. It's more about revealing to us glory and the person of God. And we're going to see this again as we have seen this already in chapter 1 as we notice God overruling and delivering Jonah. We've noticed this in chapter 2 as we were taken inside the belly of the great fish and noticed many glorious attributes of God there. And now we will look at this as we are taken inside of the city of Nineveh along with Jonah here in Jonah chapter 3. Verse one says, the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah arose and went unto Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days journey. And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey. And he cried and said, yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For word came into the king of Nineveh and he arose from his throne and he laid his robe from him and covered him with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he calls it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his noble saying, let neither man nor beast heard nor flock taste anything. Let them not feed nor drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily unto God. Yay. Let them turn everyone from his evil way and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not. And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them, and he did it not." This is a chapter that I hope you'll be praying that we can into a short amount of time this afternoon a message that would be appropriate for such a chapter. This is truly an astounding event here in history as God is moving here within the city of Nineveh at the direction of His prophet taking this message. In verse 1 we are going to see that the Word of the Lord comes to Jonah the second time saying, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee." This is very similar to the first chapter. We remember that in chapter one, verse two, or verse one, the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, against it. There's a little bit more details here in chapter 1. Why is he crying against it? For the wickedness has come up before me. Remember we've already read that in the first chapter. Now a second time what we're seeing here is though Jonah rebelled against God he ran from God. Remember he was delivered of God from his journey unto Tarshish and he was preserved in this great belly of this great fish and he He, we remember, repented and cried out unto God in the depths of the sea, and we see that he went to God with a contrite spirit, and he, we remember in the verse nine, I believe it is, of chapter two, he says, I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that that I have vowed. He desires here to be back into the service of God. He desires to be reinstated as a minister of God. We looked at that last time and this first two verses in chapter three, we're seeing that Jonah is restored and confirmed as a prophet. We are not left to speculate and to wonder if Jonah was still, um, As he was going at the Nineveh and preaching at the Nineveh, we're not left wondering if he was still qualified for the ministry. Just as you remember Peter denying the Lord three times, and it was made very clear in the gospel account of Christ, three times asking Peter, do you love me? And making great points there as he's commissioning Peter to feed the flock. Peter was still qualified as an apostle. He was reinstated. He was given this second chance. And we see that here with Jonah, that God is saying, arise, go into Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it. Is it just that he's gonna be preaching what comes to mind as he sees the people there? No, it says preach the message that I have for you. Preach what I, unto it the preaching that I bid thee, or the message that I tell thee. So Jonah is sent to warn the people of Nineveh. And again, we remember from chapter one, it's because of this wickedness that the Lord says, this wickedness has come up before me. I'm going to give a message to you to give unto Nineveh. You don't have to turn here, but in Ezekiel 3, 17, we would look at and see, again, I'm just going to tell you what it says here, but God is telling the prophet there, Ezekiel, hear the word at my mouth and give them warning from me. This is very similar. Jonah, hear the word from my mouth and give them warning from me." That's in Ezekiel 3.17. I do want to go to Ezekiel 18. You want to turn there in chapter 18 of Ezekiel. And my purpose in this is to see just the heart of God toward sinners. We'll look here as he is sending a messenger to warn the people. We'll see a little bit more here in Ezekiel 18, starting in verse 21. It says, will turn from all his sins that he has committed and keep all my statutes and do that which is lawful and right. He shall surely live. He shall not die. All his transgressions that he has committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him in his righteousness that he has done. He shall live. Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die, sayeth the Lord God, and not that he should return from his ways and live. Again, we're starting to, we see here in Ezekiel that it is more pleasing to God. This is what, um, as I was looking at this and trying to try to, um, just get the message here of Ezekiel 18 verse 23, have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die. Well we would know from passages in Romans and other, Romans chapter 9 and other places that the vessels of wrath are fitted to destruction. It's not against God's will but it's more pleasing to God that a man should repent of his sins, this is what John Gill says, and forsake his vicious course of life and enjoy good things than to go on in his sins and bring ruin on himself here and hereafter. It's more pleasing to God. You think of that in light of the parables of Christ. There's great rejoicing in heaven when a sinner repents. The angels are rejoicing when a sinner repents. This is more pleasing to God that a sinner would turn from his ways and turn from his ruin. And again, we have time upon time upon time throughout the scriptures of God sending a messenger to warn the people. And that's what we're seeing here in Jonah chapter three. Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city. Preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee." We're back now in Jonah chapter 3 and verse 3. So Jonah arose and went unto Nineveh. Before, in chapter 1, he arose and fled. Now he arose and he went. And it says that he went according to the word of the Lord. And it starts now to describe this great city. It says Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days journey. It's not that Jonah all of a sudden was spit upon dry land and it took him three days to get to Nineveh. That's not what it's saying here. It's likely that it took Jonah a good month or more to get to Nineveh. Very, very likely. I know Brother Dave had asked, where did the fish spit Jonah up? And we really don't know. It really comes to speculating. But if he started out where he originally began this journey, it would have taken him a good 30 to 40 days is what some men would, how they would calculate this. But what this is saying in our text here that Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days journey. This is talking about the size of Nineveh. Nineveh was about 60 miles in circumference. And in that day calculating distance, it was said that 20 miles a day was a common calculation for a foot traveler. And so it's a three days journey. And in verse four, Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey. In other words, he began to enter in 20 miles within the city. And he cried, he preached, he cried out saying, yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. Yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. That's all we get here of the message of Jonah. I do believe it's safe to say that there was more to his message. And I don't believe I'm going outside the bounds of scripture to say that. In chapter one, we remember that Jonah, it listed what he said to the mariners there in the ship. It says that he answered and said that he is a Hebrew, he fears the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land. And then it says in verse 10 of chapter one, the men were exceedingly afraid and said unto him, why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord because he had told them. But it doesn't tell us before that, that he had actually told them that he fled from the presence of the Lord. So we have Jonah's message here. He cried and said, get 40 days and none of us shall be overthrown. But I want us to go to Luke chapter 11 and see that there really was more to the message. This was the main thrust of the message. The main point of the message that Nineveh 40 days, you're going to be overthrown. You're going to be destroyed. And it's going to say a little bit more, um, down there about, about, uh, using the words destruction. But anyway, Luke chapter 11 verse 29, When the people were gathered thick together, Christ began to say, this is an evil generation. They seek a sign and there shall be no sign given it but the sign of Jonah the prophet. For as Jonah was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the son of man be to this generation. Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites. Remember the sign that he was in the belly of the fish for three days. One man said it this way, he says, as he was assigned by lying three days and three nights in the whale's belly and then cast out on shore alive, which sign or miracle was wrought to confirm his mission and message and to engage the Ninevites to give him credit and repent, or they might, I'm sorry, let me read that again, to engage in innovites to give credit to him and repent, or they might assure themselves they would be utterly destroyed. So there was this about Jonah's message that included this sign, this miracle of God, this confirmation that my message is from the God of heaven, is from the God that rules heaven and earth. Just a side note, Nineveh was, their main religion was, they worshiped a fish god. I found that very interesting as I looked up more about this city of Nineveh. But there's a god that's over all these great fish of the seas, over all of heaven and earth, and this god preserved Jonah, and he was in the belly of a great fish for three days and three nights, and this was a great sign unto Nineveh, confirming the message, that in 40 days, you shall be overthrown. No doubt there was also news of Jonah that maybe even reached Nineveh before he got there of what had occurred. The witnesses there in the ship that saw Jonah thrown overboard, now he's alive, he's on land, he's walking to Nineveh, he's got this message. Repent, I believe, also was a part of the message. Repent or perish. And we're gonna see this because the response of the people verse five, the people of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them, even to the least of them. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, And he arose from his throne and he laid his robe from him and covered him with sackcloth and sat in ashes. I want to stop and just go back to verse 5. The people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, put on sackcloth. We've got to step back and pause for a moment at what an incredible event this is. This is a citywide repentance. You just think to yourself for a moment of, I was talking with a customer yesterday about how, and I know I'm going to step on some of your toes here because you love Memphis, and I love the Memphis Grizzlies, but the city is a wicked city. I mean, it's such a violent place that this customer of mine said, I would love to go to this place and that place in Memphis, but he's just not going to risk it with his family, and this is not just some soft, He's actually a pretty hardcore guy if you knew him. But he was talking about how just rough and violent this city is. I had customers that came from out of the country and they wanted to go up to Graceland. And they got back and their eyes were just wide open. They couldn't believe just what kind of city Memphis was. And we hear about crime just rampant. And I've even heard on the Bass Pro Shop there that just opened up that they're losing so much money from theft, killings every day. This is nothing new to you. You live close to Memphis, and some of you are from Memphis. Think about it. Think if Brother Isaac went to Memphis and began to preach, and the whole city turned, believed God, repented, and proclaimed a fast, and took away all the things that made them cunt, put on sackcloth, from the least of them even to the greatest. That's astounding. Think of Washington, D.C., the capital of our nation. This is, by the way, Nineveh is the capital of the Assyrian empire, the world empire, that is just, again, an exceedingly great city. And you have from the greatest, even to the least of them, repenting. This is really, truly an astounding historical event that we must pause and realize. This is just incredible. We even would remember in the days of Christ, well, we remember that he went into cities, he preached, he gave warnings, but let's go to Matthew 11, see what the response was. It would probably be more, probably be more that what we would expect would be more common. But in verse 20 of Matthew 11, it says, this is Christ, he began to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done because they repented not. Woe unto thee, Chorazin, woe unto thee, Bethsaida, for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shall be brought down to hell, for if the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee." We have cities here rejecting Christ, even though he did mighty, mighty works in the midst of them, they rejected him. They just turned away from the message, turned away from the warning. And this is Christ, one that was greater than Jonah. But we see the city of Nineveh from the greatest to the least, all of them believing God, repenting. Matthew 12, verse 41. The men of Nineveh, this is Christ speaking again. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it. Why? Because they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And behold, a greater than Jonah is here. It's been kind of speculated, well is this repentance of Nineveh, is it really a true repentance? I would say yes, it was a true repentance. One reason why I can say that is because Christ said it. Christ said, the men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation and condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah. They repented. You might say, well, yes, but later, just a couple of books later, Nahum is prophesying against Nineveh and they're destroyed. Do you realize that's 150 years later? That's like comparing the generation of the revolutionaries, George Washington and them to the generation of FDR in World War II. That's not the same time period. We see that this is a true repentance because, again, the words of Christ say so. They repented at the preaching of Jonah. And let's look at this a little further. It's not just repentance in word only. Let's look at how they took action. The word came to the king of Nineveh and he arose from his throne and he laid his robe from him and covered him with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout, I'm sorry, throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles saying, let neither man nor beast, and it's going to go on from there. I just want to stop just real quick and say, this is the king of Nineveh. These are the nobles of this great city. If anybody in Nineveh would have been too puffed up in pride to repent, it would have been these men. We think of when the prophets even went to the king of Israel. And the kings, we would remember even in Christ's day, the rulers, those who are in leadership positions, just how much more even that they would just reject the message and the warnings. The kings of Israel rejected and persecuted, even killed the prophets of God. Again, the rulers in the day of Christ rejected the message and they sought to destroy him. The king of Nineveh and the nobles were not seeking to destroy Jonah. Their hearts were pricked so much so that they laid aside this comfortable clothing that they were able to have and they put on sackcloth. That is a very coarse material. They set in ashes. They fasted from food and drink and even made a decree from the king and also his nobles saying, let neither man nor beast Even the beasts, the animals of Nineveh, were crying out hunger and thirst. Everything that they were able to keep from eating or drinking. They could even put sackcloth on the animals, it says here. Made them uncomfortable. Are they just overreacting here? Let's keep reading. This is the decree. Let neither man nor beast heard nor flock taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily unto God. Yay. Let them turn everyone from his evil way and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not. So again, this is not a repentance in word only. They took action, they displayed their repentance, they displayed that they were taking a 180 degree turn from the violent and wicked and evil way that they had been headed in. They were showing here how serious they were. that they were crying mightily out unto God. This is not something they just did privately in a corner. This was a public repentance. Everyone was called upon. to display their repentance in these ways. The people of Nineveh cried mildly unto God. They were broken over their sins, contrite in spirit. This is what we saw in chapter two with Jonah, right? He was contrite in spirit, broken over his sins and of his fleeing from God. He was convicted. He pleaded with God to turn. This is what we see here in Nineveh. They're pleading with God that he might turn from his fierce anger, that they perish not. I wanna go to Isaiah 66. Just take a small portion of this verse in Isaiah 66. This is gonna be the last half, for time's sake, the last, and just because it's very appropriate for this message, that we take this in, mull it over in our minds that this is true about God, Verse two, in the middle of the verse it says, but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word. and trembleth at my word." The people of Nineveh were trembling at the message of Jonah. They were trembling at his words, so much so they took these radical measures. They wouldn't even taste anything or even get close to food or drink. They wouldn't even get close to their, again, the comfortable clothes that they were accustomed to. They put on sackcloth set in ashes. cried mightily out unto God, because they trembled at this word, that in forty days they would perish. But we know this of God, that he looks to him that is poor, of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at his word. Psalm 51, Psalm 51, verse 17, very similar language here, And there's a lot more that we could look at. These two verses should suffice. It says, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, oh God, that will not despise. You see, none of it didn't start taking up doing all the sacrifices and sacrificing animals and trying to find out ways that they could offer up this or that. See, their sacrifices were a broken heart, a broken spirit, a contrite heart. And it says God does not despise those that are of a broken and a contrite heart. And so when we turn back to Jonah 3, we're not surprised. When we get to verse 10, and it says that God saw their works, that they had turned from their evil way. And again, God was not fooled here. They didn't just do this outward display that really wasn't true repentance here. God actually saw that they turned from their evil way. He witnessed how they trembled at the word of the prophet Jonah. And through this, it says that God repented of the evil that he had said he would do unto them, and he did it not. We should read this with more, and I should, I should read this with much more amazement that God spared what he had threatened he would do. That he repented, it says, of the evil that he had said he would do unto them. And I'll just bring this back to mind. We had looked at an entire message on does God repent? And if you want to dig into that, you can dig into that in your own studies or even listen to the message on sermon audio that I preached about a year and a half ago. But I'll say this, Matthew Henry describes this repenting as a change of the outward discovery of his purpose. In other words, up until this point, what we knew about God's purpose, was that Nineveh would be destroyed in 40 days. And now there's a change, and we discover something different here in God's displaying of His purpose, that He repented of the evil that He had said He would do unto them. And there's so much more that could take me aside, diving into various examples of how God, through the scriptures with Moses and the children of Israel, with Hezekiah, with others, how He said, this is what I'm gonna do, but then, due to, again, various circumstances, God changes his outward, again, there's a change in the outward discovery. It's not that God has any change or variation within himself, but that God is accommodating his language for us to be able to understand a little more of his character and as what's going on here as he responds to Nineveh repenting. I'll say it this way, Christ said it this way, and it's just as apropos today to our generation, this applies, and I wanna look at this for the rest of the message, but Christ said it this way, except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. In other words, you are perishing, except you repent. You will perish, except you repent. The will of God is that you are gonna perish. except you repent. See the difference there? Nineveh, the will of God there was that they would perish except what happened? They repented. They repented. So this is This is, in Jonah chapter three, a remarkable story of a city-wide repentance, of how God used the prophet Jonah, warning the city. And I want the title of this message to be this, God Warns Sinners. God Warns Sinners. We see it throughout each book of the Bible. God Warns Sinners. And I wanna see how it applies to us today, as we have just witnessed some remarkable repenting there in the city of Nineveh. I want to see how that applies to us today. And my first way of applying that is to believers, to this church. In Revelation 2 through 3, you don't have to turn there, but we would remember that Christ sends out warnings to the seven churches of Asia. There are warnings. John, write this unto this church. Write this unto that church. This is just a few things, just to try to, again, move quickly through this message. In Revelation 2 through 3, this is what we would get. Love and adore your Savior. Now, again, this is not everything that you would get. These are a few things I'm taking from these chapters. But church, I want to warn you to love and adore your Savior. Do not leave or forsake your first love. Stay close to Christ. Persevere through tribulation and persecution. Turn away from corrupt doctrine. Do not give place to Or don't even give in to false teachers. Be watchful, hold fast, do not defile your garments. Repent of lukewarmness and be zealous. Those are just a few things there that you would get in those two chapters that Christ is warning the church against. Do not forsake your first love. Do not have, as Laodiceans did, this idea that they are rich and just in need of nothing. And this is what's gonna happen. if the church, and this church is included, if you do not heed these warnings of Christ, this is what's gonna happen. These are some of the responses. If you don't hear this warning, this is what's gonna happen. Christ says, I'll remove the candlestick from the church. I will cast you out or spew you out of my mouth. I will rebuke and chasten you. I will come against you in judgment. Have we seen that in any churches? Around us. Have we seen that any of this is applicable to even to our church? I was talking about the Robert between services about the church building. He had dismantled and use and is able to use these materials. He used a phrase I wasn't as familiar with it. Um, it's all raised. He said, I didn't know. I was thinking of raised as in raising something up and asked him to explain. He said, no, no, it's all raised. It's been scraped or, or razor to clean all the materials of that church building. But at one time, the story was that you could not fit everybody in that building that wanted to hear the gospel preached. They'd have to hear from the windows. And you would read and talk to those of other generations that were members of this church and that church that the candlestick had been removed so much that sometimes, yes, the buildings were completely left desolate. The other times, they continue on and they're still continuing today, not knowing that God is no longer abiding within, that the glory has departed. And they're just continuing on as Samson continued on to fight the Philistines, not knowing that the Lord was no longer with him. This is not something that our church does not need to hear. Our church needs to be a church that takes the warnings of God seriously. How easy is it for us to grow just lukewarm and cold and indifferent? How easy is it for us to just let other things get in the way between us and the love that we are to have for Christ? How easy is it for us to just look around and realize that, hey, myself, And others, from what I've understood, are just not, we're not as zealous as we need to be. We're so zealous about these other things, about sports or about politicians, but how zealous are we really of Christ? How zealous, how does that, again, apply to us as we read these warnings from Christ? And again, I'm not trying to say, church, that you have nothing going right here. We have a lot of things I'm so thankful for here, but what I'm saying is just the nature of being human, we need to take heed to these warnings that we're so susceptible to, again, to leave or forsake this love of Christ, to fall away during times of persecution or tribulation, not to be watchful, not holding fast, because it only takes a little bit of time, Christ says shortly, If you don't repent, if you don't take these warnings, I will come and we'll remove the candlestick. So again, the message repent or perish applies to you, believer, and to you, the church. I want this church to continue to contend for the faith. I want this church to be a true family of believers that takes interest in one another. I have been among churches that aren't that way, to where you greet one another, but you don't really know one another. And there's not much interest or love toward one another. And again, how can we say we love Christ and have this great affection for Christ if we don't have a great affection and love for one another? But it doesn't take long for us to get so self-focused that we begin to forget these things. But Christ says, hear these words, and you can read Revelation 2 through 3 and get the details there, but there are warnings for our church. There was a warning for Nineveh, and the Ninevites trembled at these words, and I hope and pray that we can tremble at the Word of God. I heard a little child, I believe it was, crying this morning during service, a little cry or a yelp. And there for a brief moment, I thought it was a person, children or people too, but what I mean by that, I thought it was a grownup person crying or weeping over just a brokenness, maybe during the message of something that really caught them from the morning's message. And I thought to myself, really, in my lifetime, I don't know what it's like to hear weeping over one's sins during the church service. I really don't know what that's like. I've not experienced that. I've read about it. I've read about times of revival to where not only is there weeping throughout the church building during these meetings, but even on the churchyard, people are weeping and broken over their sins. And you see that again here with Nineveh. They're crying mightily unto God, Because they're saying, who can tell if God will turn and repent? Who can tell that we would perish not? Repent or perish. It applies to us as a church body. And believer, it applies to you as well. Paul told the church at Corinth that many of them were sick. Many of them were even asleep, in other words, dead, because they mishandled the Lord's Supper, or mishandling the Lord's Supper. There was warnings that Paul gave there. Repent, he was saying. Hear the warnings of God today and repent. Child of God, humble yourself. Pray. Seek his face. Turn from your wicked ways. And who can tell if God would turn and bring healing to your family, bring healing to your church, healing to your nation. Who can tell if God would bring this healing in response to us being sincere and trembling at the word of God and humbling ourselves and seeking his face. Next, I want to apply this to unbelievers, to the unbelievers that are listening to this message. Now, I don't mean that there's a lot of people here that would not even nod their heads to what we're saying, to what Brother Isaac said this morning, to what I'm saying today. I believe there's several people here that would nod their heads and say, OK, yes, I believe God. I believe the Scriptures. I believe that Jesus was the Son of God. But you do remember what we hear more than just once in the Scriptures, that the demons also believe that there is a God. They believe in the true God of heaven. They believe that when Christ approached them, they cried out, what have we to do with you, Jesus, our son of God? These were the fallen angels. So I'm not saying this is for those who have completely rejected everything that we're saying, but I'm saying this is for those who are not following Christ. This application, this next turn that we're gonna take, and I want us to go to John chapter three. is gonna be for those who have sat under these warnings day after day during the family devotions, Sunday after Sunday, Wednesday after Wednesday, have heard the messengers of God, who have heard the warnings of God to continue their own way. And I hope to be brief here. I realize I'm a bit over on my time. John chapter three, verse 14. It says, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting, I'm sorry, but should have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. For time's sake, we'll go to the last verse, verse 36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. Are you catching the warning here? Are you catching that there's a warning here? He that believeth, this is a true statement, but it's also a warning. He that believeth, he who is currently believing on the Son hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. That should bring a great trembling. to you if you have not, or if you are not, believing on the Son of God. Spurgeon, in one of his sermons that I ran across, said this. I thought it was very, very good. I hope each of you will open your ears to this. Notice the word, it abideth. Remember from verse 36, the wrath of God abideth on him. It abideth, this is to say it is upon you now, the wrath of God. He is angry with you at this moment and always. You go to sleep with an angry God gazing into your face. You wake in the morning and if your eye were not dim, you would perceive his frowning countenance. He is angry with you even when you are singing his praises, for you mock him with solemn sounds upon a thoughtless tongue. angry with you on your knees, for you only pretend to pray. You utter words without heart. As long as you are not a believer, he must be angry with you every moment. God is angry with the wicked every day. That the text sayeth, it abideth, and the present tense takes a long sweep, for it always will abide on you. But may you not perhaps escape from it by ceasing to exist? The test precludes such an idea. Although it says that you shall not see life, it teaches that God's wrath is upon you, so that the absence of life is not annihilation. Spiritual life belongs only to believers. You are now without that life, yet you exist, and wrath abides on you, so it ever must be. While you shall not see life, you shall exist in eternal death, for the wrath of God cannot abide on a non-existent creature. You shall not see life, but you shall feel wrath to the uttermost. It is a horror enough that wrath should be upon you now. It is horror upon horrors and hell upon hell that it shall be upon you forever." You see, the Ninevites, when they were told that their city would be destroyed in 40 days, they cried out unto God. They had this great fear that fell upon them. They believed God. And do you believe God this afternoon? Do you believe God this afternoon? It's horror enough, he says, that the wrath should be upon you now, but horror upon horror is in hell upon hell that it should be upon you forever. It says in verse 36, he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. Unbeliever. Repent or perish. Repent or perish. It is your responsibility to repent or perish. You say, what about the grace, the sovereign grace that we all love here at Ripley Church? We believe 100% in sovereign grace. But we also believe, just as the Apostle Paul said, that we should not continue in sin, that grace would abound. Man has 100% responsibility when coming upon these warnings of God to take action or to perish. Nineveh was told 40 days. They had 40 days. This afternoon, I'm not saying that if you don't believe in the Son of God, you have 40 days and then the wrath of God's gonna come upon you. No, the wrath of God is upon you now. And as we would read in the letter of James, our lives are a vapor. There's no 40 days promise to anyone in this building. Our life is very unpredictable as to what's going to happen tomorrow, as to whether or not we're going to have even life or breath tomorrow or later today. So the message is, repent or perish. Repent, Christ says. John the Baptist says. Jonah, I believe, also was saying. But even in more of this light here to the unbeliever, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Is at hand. Repent or perish. Believe on the name of Jesus, the son of God. this great Redeemer that we have heard of this morning as we looked at the testimony of the Apostle Paul, this one who laid aside the glory that he had with the Father to come here to dwell among those who would reject him, living a life of sorrows, acquainted with grief. taking upon him the beatings and the scourgings that we heard about again this morning that was threatened to the Apostle Paul. He took these scourgings and beatings upon himself and knelt upon the cross. He endured the wrath of God wearing a crown of painful thorns. Why would he leave glory to suffer like this? Matthew 1 21 says he shall save his people from their sins. He was in process taking, it says in Isaiah, by his stripes, we are healed. He did all of this to save his people from their sins. After three days in the tomb, as Jonah was three days in the belly of this great fish, Jesus arose after three days, conquering death, hell, and the grave. And for 40 days, he showed himself to over 500 witnesses before he ascended back into heaven. So what do you do with this? When it says, he that believeth on the sun hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the sun shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. Verse 19 of John 3 says, this is the condemnation that light has come into the world, but men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil, hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. So again, we see that there's a great struggle that is presented here in this passage. This love of darkness, this depraved nature, you might say to yourself, look, I have, I would, I don't have, and I know just from sound preaching that I don't have in and of myself the ability to change my nature and to put my faith in Christ. I must have God to help me. Well, that's the point. In our song that we sang this afternoon, in verse three of number 286, it says this, it says, I found that I had always, this is a testimony of a believer here, I found that I had always been dwelling in blindness, contrary to God had my steps ever been. I found I was left in a deep, I'm sorry, in a helpless condition. You see yourself in a helpless condition? This man says, my sins all arose like a vast, gloomy cloud. My heart sank within me in humble contrition. To God for assistance, I shouted aloud. I cried in despair. If thou canst, Lord, have mercy. And that's the call here. As the people of Nineveh cried out, who can tell if God would spare us, if God would turn from what he has said, again, repent or perish. Repent or perish. Cry out unto God that he would assist you, that he would bless you in your pursuit of this Savior, Jesus Christ, who is the only way, as we heard again. He is the way, the life, the truth. Second Thessalonians, and again I know I need to move quickly here, I'll say this, in Second Thessalonians we hear that Christ is coming back a second time, that he's coming with flaming fire taking vengeance on them that believe not, that do not believe God and that obey not the gospel. So again, there is responsibility wrapped up here. And to those of you who are hearing this message, are you believing God? Are you repenting and obeying the gospel? Because there's a day when Christ is coming back, and all of these who obey not the gospel and who believe not God, it says that he shall, in flaming fire, take vengeance upon them, and they shall perish. And you can look at this for yourself later. This is in 2 Thessalonians 1, they shall perish, an everlasting destruction. Again, this is not just a temporary destruction, an everlasting destruction, and an eternal lake of fire. bearing the full weight of God's wrath forever, without escape and without relief. without relief. We would remember that Christ told us of the rich man and Lazarus and how the rich man was in torment in Hades and he looked over and he saw there was a great gulf between him and Abraham and he just desired some sort of relief, maybe a drop of water on his tongue, but that could not happen. He says, well, at least let Lazarus rise up from the dead and warn my brothers that I don't want them to come to this place of torment. And these were Abraham's last words that we have recorded in scripture. He was speaking to this rich man and he said, look, if they have Moses, they have the scriptures, they have the warnings from the word of God. If they're not going to hear the scriptures, if they won't hear the prophets, they will not hear even if one rise from the dead. There's a greater messenger, a greater warning that you have today than if someone was to rise from the dead outside and to give you that warning from a dead body. And that is the prophets, that is the scriptures, the word of God. So in closing, Jonah was sent unto Nineveh with a great warning. And one greater than Jonah, Jesus Christ has warned us, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand and repent for except you repent, you shall likewise perish. Nineveh believed God, they cried mightily unto him, and they repented of their evil way. God saw their response and he spared them from destruction. But it took one messenger and one warning to prick their hearts. And I ask you today, how many messengers and how many warnings have you heard? And again, this is not just unbelievers, this is to us as believers and us as a church as well. How many messengers and how many warnings have you heard? May God open my eyes, may God open our eyes together and our ears. And might his goodness and also might his warnings lead us to repentance. Thank you for listening to this message. Our prayer is that you've been blessed by the messages and the daily devotional blog on sermon audio from Ripley Primitive Baptist Church. We would love the opportunity to be of greater service to you in your walk with Christ. In other words, we would like to get to know you better. Do you have need of counsel, of a home church, or can we just pray for you? please feel free to contact us by phone at 662-837-8590 or visit our website at www.ripleypbc.com.