Will there be a revival in Elkridge? I'm no prophet, I'm not the Holy Spirit. I have much control with that as I have with the wind. Our Lord Jesus said in John 3, 8, the wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. Now, that doesn't mean we just sit here and do nothing. Remember, we've been given the great commission to make disciples of all nations, and that's a lot of work left to do. Let's just focus on our city for the moment. What can we do as Faith Bible Church? The world's foremost authority on the subject of revivals and awakenings was Dr. James Edwin Orr in The early 1970s, when Dr. Orr was presenting a series of lectures on revival at Columbia Bible College, a student approached them. Dr. Orr said the student, besides praying for revival to occur, what can I do to bring it about? Without a moment's pause, Dr. Orr glanced at the student and replied, you can let it begin with you. Now, what did he mean by that? Well, if you want to dig deeper, you can read the lyrics of his famous hymn, Cleanse Me. That was written in 1936 when he was 24 years old. He did it in New Zealand, and he attended a convention there. And just before he departed, he heard this beautiful Polynesian melody for a Maori song of farewell. He took that tune and added his own lyrics. Now, I'm not gonna sing it for us. You should be thankful of that. But you can find the lyrics in hymn 438. And if you wanted to look at it, I'll read it for you if you just want to listen. Search me, O God, and know my heart today. Try me, O Savior, know my thoughts, I pray. See if there be some wicked way in me. Cleanse me from every sin and set me free. I praise thee, Lord, for cleansing me from sin. Fulfill thy word and make me pure with it. Fill me with fire where once I burned with shame. Grant my desire to magnify thy name. Lord, take my life and make it holy thine. Fill my poor heart with thy great love divine. Take all my will, my passion, self, and pride. I now surrender, Lord, in me abide. O Holy Ghost, revival comes from thee. Send a revival, start the work in me. Thy word declares, thou will supply our need. For blessings now, O Lord, I humbly plead. Let me repeat that last verse. O Holy Ghost, revival comes from thee. Send the revival, start the work in me. Thy word declares, thou will supply our need. For blessings now, O Lord, I humbly plead. You might say that whether he liked it or not, Jonah needed a little bit of revival in him. You'll see that it's going to be an ongoing need as you look at the next chapter. But as God's worked in him and through him, he provided all that was needed for revival to happen in Nineveh. In the same way, God has given us all that we need for a revival. So all that is left for us is to humbly plead. Let's look at Jonah chapter three and see how God has provided for us in this mission that we have. So we're at Jonah 3. I'm going to read the entire chapter. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you. So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh. according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three day journey in extent. And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day's walk. Then he cried out and said, yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed the fast and put on sackcloth. from the greatest to the least of them. Then word came to the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Do not let them eat or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily to God. Yes, let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent and turn away from his fierce anger so that we may not perish? Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, and God relented from the disaster that he had said he would bring upon them, and he did not do it. So from this passage, I believe there are three ways God provides for us to finish the mission he has given us. First, God provides the grace to go. God provides the grace to go. That's in verses 123 a first part of verse three. Second, God provides the message to preach. That's three B to four. So versus the second part of verse three to verse four and then from the for the rest of the chapter versus five through 10 God provides the results of ministry. I'll repeat those points as I go. First, God provides the grace to go. Look again from verses one to the first sentence of verse three. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you. So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. It's easy to detect the similarities between the first part of chapter one and these verses right here. If you want to quickly turn back to chapter one, verse one and two, it says there. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cried out against it, for their wickedness has come up before me. So we are told again in chapter three that Nineveh is a great city. Just to dwell on that for a little bit, both the biblical and extra biblical data support this description. It was indeed large if we account for what is called the greater Nineveh. That is both the city proper and its administrative districts. The former, the city proper, was protected by an inner wall that measured 100 feet high, 50 feet wide, broad enough for three chariots to ride side by side and eight miles in circumference. There's also an outer wall that encompass fields and smaller towns nearby, described in Genesis 10, 11 to 12, as Rehoboth-er, Kala, and Resin. There were recorded to be 1500 towers there. We gather from the next chapter, Jonah 4, that 120,000 children lived there. So a conservative estimate of the total population will be 600,000. That's a great city. No wonder God cared about it. So Jonah is again sent to the same location with the same mission. But we see how verse three of Chapter three is different from the first three of Chapter one. Instead of fleeing from the presence of the Lord, he went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. He rose to disobey last time. Now, this time he rose to obey. And remember, the only reason Jonah is given another chance is to go is because of God's grace. Now, if he was faithful from the beginning, this book would have started, like, with chapter three. He would have listened and went to Nineveh. But he sinned, so his story should have ended at chapter two. But God gives the grace. Praise him for his grace. One commentator writes, by paralleling here, the book's opening remarks, almost word for word, the author skillfully conveys the idea that Jonah is being offered a new beginning. New beginning. Our God is the God of new beginning. New beginnings, right? Plural. He has given you another hour, another day, another week to honor him. Even if you had a bad week. Now, if you have never asked Jesus for eternal life, you have another opportunity. Every moment goes by, you're given second chance after second chance. Don't delay because you won't always have it. Every day you're getting closer to judgment when doors will be shut forever. And if you've been running away from the Lord all this time, know this, that he has graciously given you another chance to return like a prodigal son. If you wish to have a new beginning, please listen carefully. No amount of moral effort, rehabilitation, training can save your soul. Trust in Jesus Christ who died and rose from the grave for your sins. Repent and ask the Lord to forgive you of your wrongs. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5.17, therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. All things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Two verses later, we are told this. We are reconciled to God through Jesus Christ so that our trespasses, that is violation of God's laws, are not imputed, that is counted against us. That means all the sins in your past, present, and future can be forgiven through Jesus Christ who died in our place. How about that for a second chance? And as Christians living in the present as God's new creation, we experience God's grace daily. If you think about the world, it's pretty cruel. We seldom get second chances out there, but we have a God who loves the world and gives second chances again and again. Like the book of Jonah, our spiritual biographies will have our lowly chapters one and two. We rebel against God, read the spirit and ourselves in the process. But that same spirit, who convicts us of our sins, points us to the promise of verse John 1, 9. I encourage you to look at it later. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This is sanctifying grace. God gives us another chapter, points us to the title page of our life, predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, and he works in us. In our stories, in our pages full of lamentations, we have from the Book of Lamentations, chapter 3, 22 to 23, these comforting words. Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. Thank God for his grace to go again and to live for him. So having received the grace to go, God secondly provides the message to preach. That's in the second part of verse three to verse four. We read, now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent, and Jonah began to enter the city on the first day's walk. Then he cried out and said, yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. Again, we're reminded in the rest of verse three, the great size of Nineveh and his environs. A three-day journey best corresponds to the estimated 60 miles in circumference around the city, the Great Deneba. But it could be that Jonah went straight through the city, as in going through a diameter. In memory of Pi Day this past week, we can calculate this. Diameter equals circumference divided by pi. That itinerary would probably be more reasonable 20 miles or so. I think it's close to 19 something. I know some of you guys are calculating right now, but the point here is that we don't know exactly what stops he made, what the route was, where he went exactly through that city, but we know exactly what he said, or at least an excerpt of his message. Yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. Perhaps Jonah used the lingua franca, a shared language between different peoples, In the original language, we just have five words handed down to us. Now, just because it's light on word count, that doesn't mean that it's not weighty. The words do count. Nineveh would face annihilation in 40 days unless they turn from sin and God turns from His wrath. The word for overthrown there is the same one used to describe the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19. There's a universal truth in the contents for all humanity under sin. Our time is limited. Nonetheless, God gave us time to repent. We'll talk more about this a little bit later. From Jonah's preaching and all that conspired in the previous verses, we know that God wants to use humans to reach other humans. Of course, the Bible records angelic revelations and dream visions, but I believe those are more exceptional throughout history. After Jonah's initial failure, God could have sent an angel, a powerful angel, to preach to the Ninevites. I bet they would have done a better job. Imagine two of those guys showing up at your door, right? In a suit or something, but anyway. He moved the winds and the waves to move his messenger to Nineveh. And for the majority of history, God has purposed that his people carry his message. That's an awesome burden, but also a wonderful privilege that we have. And in our church era, we have been given the gospel of Jesus Christ. And when I say we, I mean all of us, not just me in the pulpit, elders in the council or the teachers in the classroom. We do have, you know, helpful tracks and I remember taking evangelism explosions. There's plenty of programs out there, but those never replace us. God gave the world his Bible, but he also gave the world his Bible teachers. Remember that the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts had a copy of Isaiah, but the Lord still sent him, who? Philip, to explain it to him. The result was that the official believed, was saved, and was baptized right there. Everyone who confesses Christ in here must profess Christ out there. Thankfully, Paul tells us that you don't need persuasive words of human wisdom. That's not how he preached it. The evangelism is less about what we can do with swab and charisma. It's much, much more about what God has already done for us. Just tell others about our Lord and Savior Jesus. Remember the lyrics of the hymn we sang just before the sermon. rescue the perishing. How do we do that? In the verse one says, tell them of Jesus, the mighty to say. Verse two says, plead with them earnestly, plead with them gently. First, four skip over. First, three to tell the poor wanderer savior has died. In our individual testimony, each of us should be able to articulate God's plan of salvation. It might go something like this. God created the universe, and we human beings were created in his image. We were designed to enjoy his presence forever. But we willfully sinned and turned away from him, and now deserve God's punishment in hell. Instead of leaving us to our pitiful state, God sent his son Jesus Christ to die on as a substitute for our sins. the penalty and consequences on our behalf. He rose from the dead and ascended to heaven and now offers you salvation. We can be reconciled to God to enjoy his presence forever. It shouldn't take more than a paragraph to say that we must turn away from our sins and trust in the finished work of Jesus, not in our efforts or works to save us. There's no other way to heaven. Can we take this message? Whether you're a baby Christian or a believer for many years, you can preach the good news this hour, today, this week. Just ask the Lord to give you an opportunity. The beauty of the gospel is that it's simple enough for a child to accept, yet profound enough for the scholar. You know, see how Paul prays in Ephesians 3. paradoxically, we can know the love of Christ. But you know what he says right after that it passes knowledge. Nope, don't know love of Christ, but it passes knowledge. We can be filled, but fill we are with the fullness of God. There's a paradox. The gospel, the good news that we carry is for everybody, and it will take an eternity for us to unpack how wonderful and beautiful it is. we're thankful for the message that we are given to preach. Third, God provides the results of ministry. We witness the consequences of Jonah's preaching in the rest of chapter three. Let's reread verses five to 10. So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed the fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. Then word came to the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. "'Do not let them eat or drink water, "'but let man and beast be covered in sackcloth "'and cry mightily to God. "'Yes, let everyone turn from his evil way "'and from the violence that is in his hands. "'Who can tell if God will turn and relent "'and turn away from his fierce anger "'so that we may not perish?' "'Then God saw their works, "'that they turned from their evil way, "'and God relented from the disaster "'that he had said he would bring upon them, "'and he did not do it.'" Now consider what just took place from between verses four and five. Have we ever seen one message from one of God's servants have such a great impact? Without qualification, it says that the people of Nineveh believed God. That's how Abraham responded to God's promises in the famous Genesis 15, six verse. Likewise, the Ninevites responded in faith. From the second part of verse five to the end of verse eight, we are given a vivid account of how the Ninevites proved their faith to be genuine. From top to bottom, from the lowest tiers of the society to the upper crust, we see the visible fruits of repentance, including ceremonial fasting, sackcloth, ashes, penitential mourning. The king and the nobles decree that all the inhabitants cry out to God, turning away from evil and violence. The repentance here is so far reaching that even animals put on sackcloth, I think that's a bit of an overreach, including the decree to not drink any water, but we know that animals are drawn into suffering through human sin. We know that from Romans 8, we know that from Joel 1, 18 and 20. They, like us, groan and long for liberation from corruption. But let's focus on humans. There's a lesson for us. in this kaleidoscopic picture of widespread repentance. Both the noble and the ignoble, the aristocrats and the plebeians, we all need salvation. Is it somehow easier for God to save someone from a nice Christian family and more difficult for him to save the hardened criminal? The same gospel of grace is preached to both. The one on the list of most likely to succeed and the other one on the list of most wanted. Jesus had to suffer for both. You know, what if the world is just full of people, full of model citizens that never reveal the wickedness of their hearts externally? Jesus was still need to come and die in public shame on the cross for our hidden sins of pride, lust, coveting, greed, hate and violent thoughts. He died for the Pharisee and the tax collector. When we are converted, the spirit regenerates us because we are all of us dead in trespasses and sins. We have to be born again. All of us. You see, in Nineveh, the desperate cry for mercy was not only in the slums, but in the palaces, too. We all need the miracle of salvation, and that's something only God can do. Verse nine reveals a deep understanding of God's mercy. Charles Feinberg, which I rely on heavily, supposes the following. Quote, they must have reasoned, why should God send a prophet to warn us? If he had wanted to destroy us outright, he would have left us to pursue our sinful ways. Why, too, does he allow us 40 days between the pronouncement of the doom and the punishment itself? Surely it is because of God's intended mercy, and his desire is that we avail ourselves of his willingness to forgive us. They reasoned correctly. and God relented from his raffle sentence. Verse 10 does not promote works righteousness. Just to be clear. Remember I said that we are saved by faith alone, but faith that saves is never alone. When true faith appears, true repentance will not be far behind. That was true with the sailor. One that was true with Jonah in chapter two. And now we see the true with the Ninevites. Now you may be like, why do I keep talking about the word repentance? Jesus taught in Matthew 1241 concerning the Ninevites that indeed they repented at the preaching of Jonah. He repented at the preaching of Jonah. Repentance isn't just an internal thing. You hear it in the stomach groanings and cries. You see it in the tears and the sackcloth. You smell it in the ashes. Now, what about the language used to describe God in verse 10? Some people have trouble with it. From the beginning, and I mean from the Garden of Eden onward, God has accompanied the message of doom with the message of hope. That's how he has always presented judgment, with grace very much nearby. There's always been a condition, a contingency, an exception clause, unless you repent statement, and mercy to be obtained by faith. That's what we see here with the Ninevites, and that's what they found, the mercy of God. And that's true of individuals. And then what we find in Jeremiah 18, seven through 10 is that he speaks about the similar thing with nations as well. So if you wanna turn there, Jeremiah 18, seven through 10. This is an important passage especially when we consider not only the Book of Jonah, but also the Book of Nahum. 18, seven through 10. Jeremiah 18, seven through 10 says, the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. That's exactly what just happened. Verse 9 and 10 goes, and the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to build and to plant it, if it does evil in my sight so that it does not obey my voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit. That's what happens in Nahum. These verses are readily applicable to the Ninevites. So if you do read this and then go on to now whom you'll see that less than a century later, the city is once again in danger of divine judgment and it would fall eventually 150 years after Jonah's ministry in the year 612 B.C. Another lesson here as we look at how God deals with Nineveh in the Bible, faith and repentance are prerogatives of each individual in his or her lifetime. You don't get transfer credits from your grandparents who were missionaries, your dad who was a pastor, or your mother who taught Sunday school. Each generation must decide whether to continue in sin or turn away from it. Now, you might ask concerning this generation of Ninevites right here, were there any factors that led to their quick and swift response? I believe God uses both normal and abnormal, natural and supernatural means to accomplish his purposes. For example, it's common knowledge that the Ninevites worship the fish god of Dagon. If they heard about Jonah's miraculous deliverance from the sea through the fish, they would have been more inclined to listen to him and his message from Yahweh. Also, if Jonah went there during the reign of Ashurdan III, around 759 BC, he would have found the inhabitants eager for a prophetic oracle. There were two famines, one earlier in that same year, one six years prior in 765, and there was a total solar eclipse on 763. that would have frightened them dearly, and they would have been eager to hear a message from a messenger because they would have saw those as foreboding omens. Now we could go on and on. Let's return to our point. God provides the results of ministry. Whether it's an individual, a family, a neighborhood, a tribe, a village or a nation, conversion is wholly the work of God. We could try all we want to explain it psychologically or sociologically. We call it an opium of the masses, right? Whatever you want to call it. I'm not denying that God can use our fears and norms, but the fact is these people were sinners, mired in evil, violence, arrogance, lies, and robbery, harlotry, sorcery, idolatry. It takes a miracle from God to save a wicked people. And for that, he gets the glory. The spirit, not Jonah, takes the credit for the work in their hearts. As faithful preachers and evangelists, we preach to the ears, but God reaches their heart. Faith comes by hearing, but I can't make them come to faith. All I can do is to be faithful to the message and let the Lord take care of the rest. And that should be liberating. My hands are clean, my conscience is clear, as long as I clearly present the gospel to you. It's way above my pay grade to transform people, and I'm okay with that. One theologian wrote, ministry is hard business, but it's also divine business. And for that, I'm grateful. But let me be honest with you. I know my limitations well, but it's hard for me to accept them at times. That's why I have my wife. But anyway, but here's what I mean. It's very tempting for pastors like myself to buy into some new gimmick, innovation or church growth model to revitalize a church or increase attendance. If we just have this type of worship band, if I attend this type of workshop or if I speak with this inflection or use this illustration, there's all kinds of opinions out there. But my primary focus should be to preach and speak from the scriptures. Please pray that I continue to follow 2 Timothy 4 too. Preach the word, be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching. God will take care of the results of ministry. So like Jonah, you and I are given the grace to fulfill Christ's great commission. Even if we failed in the past due to apathy, laziness, selfishness, hatred, whatever, we have the God of second chances. Lord willing, we will leave this building to begin another week. We have the message, the good news of Jesus Christ. We don't need anything else. We only need to be witnesses. God takes care of the rest, the conversion, the faith, the repentance. All the results of ministry are brought by him. Again, can there be a revival in our church? A holy ghost revival comes from thee. Send a revival. Start the work in me. Let's pray. No, we pray for our city. We pray for our neighborhoods, pay for the street that we live on, the zip code that we have our address in. No, we pray that there will be a revival, but we know that that's not something we can accomplish. No, we pray that you'll give us the grace to go at this moment, that even if we have failed you in the past, even if we have feared men more than feared you, Lord, we pray that you would give us the grace to go. If we have somehow been too busy, too wrapped up in our own lives, or we just didn't care that much, we pray that you would open doors this week so that we can talk with people. We can be friendly to them. We know that not everything happens in one day or one hour. We know that We may not be able to preach the gospel this week right at the doors or right in the driveway, but we pray that you'll give us opportunities to build relationships. And we pray that you will help us to preach boldly if you give us that opportunity to give that message of good news of Jesus Christ to them. We pray that you will take care of the results, that we will not think that it's in our power to save our unbelieving family members or friends or neighbors. No, we truly rely on you because you are the sovereign God and salvation belongs to you. We ask that we would, in full reliance, go this way. We pray all these things in Jesus Christ's name. Amen.