Amen. And you have an outline. And so if you would look there please. The value of the kingdom. Now this actually is now the third message in the book of Matthew. And I always intend to go farther than I do. That happens every single week. You'd think after 40 years I'd get that figured out, wouldn't you? And so I thought, I'm going to go all the way through the beheading of John the Baptist today. No, we're not even going to finish chapter 13. But may it be profitable. We're not trying to race through Matthew. We are going through Matthew faster than some have done. But we're not trying to race through it. What we're trying to do is profit from it by God's grace. And so our third message in Matthew 13 today, there are seven kingdom parables. And we've already looked at the sower, the wheat and the tares, the mustard seed, and the leaven. Today, we'll finish those final three kingdom parables by God's grace. And of course, in the first four parables, we saw the first two dealing with how the kingdom grows. And then the next two, the mustard seed and the leaven, really talking about the explosive growth of the kingdom. And it really is explosive growth. It's amazing growth that we see happening in the early church. I would argue that the next three parables we look at today talk about the value of the kingdom. The value of the kingdom. Now, we ask the question, very simple. I'm not going to spend the time on it. And if you want a more in-depth answer, please get the tape or get I'm Sermon Audio. But what is the kingdom of God? What is the kingdom of heaven? There really shouldn't be any controversy here, but there is. There shouldn't be any controversy. And I would argue that until about 200 years ago, there never was any controversy. And if you understand the Kingdom of God, if you understand the Kingdom of Heaven, and if you understand the symbolism, the New Covenant symbolism of Zion, you'll know that we're talking about the Church. And when we're talking about the church, we're not just talking about Sovereign Grace Baptist Church or local churches. We're talking about the New Covenant and the entire church age. And what's the New Covenant going to end in on this church age? We could argue that it never ends at all. It just expands to the eternal state. And heaven and earth are one. And so Christ Jesus, the Lord, no longer is talking about an isolated nation of Israel, but he's talking about a worldwide gospel, a worldwide church, a worldwide people of God that come from every nation, tribe, tongue, and kindred. And he's talking about the fact that he is the king. In fact, if you listen very closely to the hymns that we sing, You know, and you understand this. You'll see this being said all the time. It was said all the time today in our hymns. About Jesus Christ being the king. About his kingdom. These things were just known, and they really weren't controversial at all. It's only been in the last couple hundred years, like I said, that there's been controversy about this. I don't think there should be. We're talking about the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven. Well, these last three parables They are given, I do understand the context, they're given only to the disciples in private, not given to the multitudes. And Jesus taught parables, as we said before, in order to reveal and in order to conceal. And they did both. Parables conceal the truth. And parables reveal the truth. And these three are for revealing. They are given to the disciples. And of course some of the other parables we saw were explained to the disciples in private. So number one, and I numbered them this way. I wasn't sure how to make this outline, so I just did it this way. Parable five, parable six, parable seven, and then applications to them along the way. So parable five, the hidden treasure, Matthew 13, verse 44. Again, Jesus says, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. which a man found and hid, and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has, and buys the field." Now, these next two parables are kind of together. Just like the mustard seed and the leaven were about growth, these two parables are actually about the value of the kingdom. And they both focus on a man, but they're different men. And they're different men in their walk and their vocation. And that's actually important to this whole aspect of it. You can't take every aspect of a parable and try to make it fit something. If you do that, you can be out of bounds very quickly. But there are parables. There's always a purpose to the parable. And the details of the parable are important. And they help us. And so as we look at this, we see there's a man. He's digging in the field. Now, we don't know why he's digging, and so we'd only be speculating. And one thing we can know for sure, the digging's important. Spurgeon likes to think that he was a plowman and he was plowing in the field. And it wasn't his field, he was plowing for another. And of course, then you end in the ethical problems. He finds a treasure that's in somebody else's field. And then he goes and he buys the field and didn't tell him the treasure was there. That's not what this is about. It's not an ethical situation at all. It's an illustration. So don't read that kind of thing into it. Instead, he is plowing in a field or he is digging in a field. He comes across the treasure. He wasn't looking for it. He wasn't expecting it. But he finds it. And now he realizes that this treasure is so great. And this treasure is so wonderful. And this treasure is exactly what I need. I'm going to give up everything in order to get it. Now isn't the application quite simple now? Can't we see exactly what the Lord is talking about? Some look a little quizzical. So let me explain it. A little bit more detail then. The kingdom of heaven. is so great and so wonderful and so tremendous and being a Christian and knowing the Lord Jesus Christ in saving love and perfection and in justification that our brother Daniel did an excellent job at the 10 o'clock service explaining and bringing about. These are all such wonderful things that we ought to be willing to give our entire life and everything we have for the kingdom. We must, even if it costs us our life. Now, that's where I thought I would end today, because John the Baptist lost his life. And he wasn't even in the full realized kingdom yet. He's the last of the great Old Testament prophets. Lost his life, but he was the one saying the King is coming, the Lamb of God is coming, and he had the privilege of being the greatest of the prophets, because he said, here he is. We've made that point before. But the treasure in the field. How many of you as kids, I used to do this, you know, dig around hoping to find pirates treasure. You know, okay. Okay, yeah. And if you want to bring it up to date, people dig around on their computer looking for bitcoins. Well, this man finds buried treasure. He covers up the treasure, goes and buys the field, and now the treasure is his. So it was worth everything. The treasure of salvation, new life in Christ, where Christ is the king. Second parable is like it, but there'll be a slight difference here. Notice in verse 45, parable six, the pearl of great price, which has nothing to do with the Mormon writing, by the way. The pearl of great price, verse 45, again, The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it. So here we go again. He saw this pearl as more valuable than everything else he owned. One pearl, greater than all of his jewels, greater than all of his treasures. Now, if you think in the Bible, the rich young ruler that confronted the Lord Jesus Christ erred greatly. He came to Christ, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Keep the commandments. All these I've kept from my youth up, what do I yet lack? Go, sell everything that you have, give to the poor, and come and follow me. And what does the Bible say? He puts his head down, walks away discouraged because he had great riches. There was something more important to him than the kingdom of heaven. But we've just seen two men in stories, in parables, that was willing to sell everything and give up everything in order to get the treasure. The rich young ruler, some say that later he repented and came to faith in Christ, and I hope that to be true. We'll find out in heaven, but the Bible never tells us that that's the case, so we don't know for sure. But we do know at that point in his life, there was something the rich young ruler treasured more than following the Lord Jesus Christ and looking to him. Well, in this parable, verse 45 and 46, the man was searching for a valuable pearl. He's a merchant on a mission. It's his business. It's his job. When he finds one pearl, a pearl exceeding all others, he gives up everything for it. Now, in the previous parable, the man digging in the field, we don't know why he's digging there, but he's digging in the field. He comes across the treasure. It's almost like the treasurer finds him. He's not looking for it. He's just doing his business, whatever he's doing, and there it is. But this one, this man's diligently searching. He's looking. He wants to find something. And really, there are two, we could talk about many different classes of people, but there basically are two classes of people. There are people that just go about their life, stumbling through this life, doing the very best that they can, making a living, trying to be decent or not decent, whatever they want to do, just being a family man, or a good mother, or maybe neither one of those. Whatever they're trying to do, they are not on any kind of a spiritual quest. They really don't seem to care. But there are them. that are looking for God. Now no man seeks after God without God opening his heart. But men are very, very religious. And so there are those that seek to find through philosophy, through science, through some other means. Sometimes it's the arts. Sometimes it's through religion. Sometimes it's through good works. Whatever it happens to be, they're on a quest. And they're looking for something. And sometimes they settle in and think they found it. And other times they just remain unsettled. Well, in either case, those are the two broad categories of men, of people. Some just wanting to live their life and not even wanting to think about eternity. Others that seem to care. But in both cases, when they find their true treasure, Everything changes. They're willing to give up everything that they've had. And they're willing to embrace the one thing they really need, the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, we know that's the work of God in their heart to do that. But that's not the point of the parables here. The point of the parables is just what happened to the men themselves in two different categories. So to apply it, let's turn. I'm going to do this quickly because our brother Daniel touched on it really well. But Philippians chapter 3. I would just like to look at Paul's application of these parables to himself. I don't know if he's thinking about these parables, but it fits very well. This is the change in the heart and life of a man who's now a believer. the great value of losing everything to gain the kingdom. The apostle Paul lived that out before us, tells us this in the book of Philippians, Philippians chapter 3. The first six verses tell us all the advantages that Paul had being a Pharisee, being born into the class that he was born into, all of the things that he tried so hard to accomplish He's living a life that actually he wasn't on a quest for God. He thought he'd found God. He thought he knew God. He went on to the Damascus Road desiring to capture Christians and throw them into prison or even to death. That was his desire. And then he was arrested by the Lord. Philippians chapter three, verse seven. But what things were gained to me, these I've counted loss for Christ. Indeed, I count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ. And by the way, he's writing it from a prison. So he's really telling you exactly what's going on here. And be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. And then he tells us his heart, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Paul's gains were really losses. Everything that he had gained in life, he realized was now rubbish. And that Greek word rubbish is sometimes translated dung. And that's okay. That is a proper translation. But it might be better, I think rubbish might be better. Because rubbish has the idea of anything repulsive. It can be a stinking, rotting corpse. can fit the thing. Or I like to think of it this way, because it really brings it home to me. You go to a wonderful feast, and you had a wonderful meal, and all the leftovers have been now gathered away and decided to throw them away. And it's 103 degrees outside like it is now. And you put them in the trash can, and you just put the lid on, you let them sit there, and you forget to take your trash out for a week. And you say, well, I better take my trash out now. And I wonder if there's anything in this can, and you open it up. Yep, that's kind of what we're talking about, our righteousness. Well, that's our righteousness, but that's not Christ's righteousness. So we exchange our dirty, filthy rubbish. We're exchanged for the righteousness of the precious Son of God. And if something happened to Paul, he'd never be the same again. Paul was never the same again after meeting Christ on the Damascus Road. Everything he cherished crashed around him. His entire way of thinking had to change. He couldn't simply go on with his life, and he wasn't going to simply add Christ to the pantheon of the idol gods of his heart. Instead, Christ was all in all, and was the perfect treasure. You know, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things. He wasn't upset about that. He was glad that they were gone. Some accuse him of being crazy. We don't know anything about his family life, but we do believe that his family were Jewish in origin, as far as being those that were probably higher up in society. And we do know that many Christian converts suffered horribly with their own families not believing them. We know Paul suffered horribly with his own kinsmen saying that he was insane and crazy and calling him names, all sorts of things. Of course, being hated by many. Paul was even followed around from every place he went by those of the Jewish religion who tried to oppose him at every turn. But instead of being angry, instead of hating them, instead of lashing out, he turns his eyes to the Lord Jesus Christ and talks about the all-encompassing and all-surpassing excellence of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord. There's a relational aspect that he knew. Paul, at last, had attained to the knowledge of God by the grace of God. And Paul hadn't really known God at all in his pharisaical days. Paul thought that the law would show him God. The law really won't show you God. The law can show you your sin, and the law can show you your need, and the law can show you your failure. But Paul found that only the Son reveals him. And then he says that I may gain Christ In that prison cell, Paul knew Christ, and Paul's talking about his present union with Christ. And of course, he knew he would be, and he will be fully vindicated at the final judgment. Just talking about this righteousness. This righteousness is Christ's righteousness. This righteousness does not come from law-keeping. And we heard that well again this morning. This righteousness is appropriated by faith. And if Paul knew anything, if Paul taught anything, if one thing stuck in his heart and mind fully and firmly, it was that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone. And this faith does not come from himself. It comes as a gift of God. Ephesians 2, 8, 9, and 10. B.B. Warfield wisely said, the gospel to Paul consists precisely in this, that we can do nothing to earn our salvation or secure it for ourselves. God in Christ does all. And we do know that faith is the means God uses to justify. Now, is there a responsibility for every man and woman and even child to repent and believe? Absolutely. Absolutely. Every person is responsible to God. You are all responsible to God to repent and believe. Every single one of us in this room absolutely responsible with our eternal souls hanging in the balance. But can any man choose to repent and believe his own accord? No, it takes the powerful work of the Spirit. And it is by faith alone that we are justified. And so, well, Paul came to realize that. And Paul, of course, becomes the great doctor of the church to teach us that. But John knows it too. And so does Peter. And you'll find it in all of the writings. Well, we go on to parable seven, the dragnet. parable seven, the dragnet. It's a little bit different than the others, but it still shows the value of the kingdom. So back to Matthew 13. By the way, these three parables that I'm preaching on today are only in the book of Matthew. Luke has a number of parables, doesn't have these that I recall, I don't believe it does. And so these three kingdom parables are in Matthew's gospel. Verse 47, Matthew 13. Again, it starts the same way. The kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind. Which when it was full, they drew it ashore, and they sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but threw the bad away. So I'll be at the end of the age. The angels will come forth, separate the wicked from among the just, and cast them into a furnace of fire. They'll be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Now, there's a lot to say there, but let's just go through it bit by bit here. How valuable is the kingdom? Well, it's valuable enough that you need to realize that you're either in the kingdom or you're part of the dragnet, those that have been dragged and brought to shore that will be cast into the fire at the last day. And that's an awesome reality. But this is a companion parable to the wheat and the tares, actually. Remember? The wheat and the tares. The tares are gathered up, thrown into the furnace. But the wheat is gathered together and stored into the barns. Eternal life and great grace. This doesn't talk about eternal life this time, but we know it's true. That's the other side, because there are those that are the good, as it says here, and those that are the bad. Verse 47, the dragnet cast into the sea. This is just what it was meant to do, was to scoop up everything it could. While it's in the sea, you don't try to sort it out and figure out what's good and what's bad. No, the whole purpose of the dragnet is to go clear across everything that you can, the whole length of the net, gather everything, take it to shore, and then the garbage and the things that are no good, or the things that are inedible, the things you really wouldn't want, you just throw it away. And the good, the things you can sell, the things you can eat, you of course store that away. So here's the very common thing, especially with many of the disciples being fishermen, they would have understood exactly what he's talking about. And, you know, there is an application here that we really should very easily be able to make. There have been some in times past that are hyper-Calvinists. And a hyper-Calvinist does not enjoy preaching the gospel except to the elect. Now that's kind of a strange view, isn't it? Because how would you know who the elect are? How could you possibly know that? But that is really a true hyper-Calvinistic view that men have held to at times, that the gospel is only for the elect. And there have been all kinds of stories told about that. But that's not what we're about. We're supposed to preach the gospel to every creature. And we can actually think of it as the dragnet going across to all of mankind. And of course, those that receive, those that believe, those that trust, those that by the grace of God are the elect, they will be gathered together. But the lost, well, that's a whole different story. They heard refused to believe and actually made their condemnation worse. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 15, please. Got a moment here. So been able to move fairly quickly. So I can camp here for just a few minutes. 2 Corinthians chapter 2. Sorry. 2 Corinthians chapter 2. The Apostle Paul is telling the Corinthians and us something here. And you know, 2 Corinthians is one of my favorite books. And there's so much true meat. And really, from this point on, 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 12, all the way through to actually, well, on into chapter 7 are some of the richest and fullest aspects that we see given to the Corinthian church and to us. Well, 2 Corinthians chapter 2, let's start reading verse 12. Paul says, Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel, and a door was opened to me by the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit, because I did not find Titus my brother. But taking my leave of them, I departed for Macedonia. Now, thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of his knowledge in every place. In other words, everywhere Paul went, he preached Christ. That was what he was going to do. And then, for we are the grace of God, or for we are to God, the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. He's basically talking about the censors The censors that they had, and of course, you'd put the incense in it, and the smoke would come out there. And it was like perfume, and it was a fragrant odor. He said, that's what we are. We are that as we're preaching the gospel. But it doesn't go the same way to every person. The message is always the same, but it has two different effects. I would actually like to say it has three different effects, because it does. Because there are acceptance, there's rejection, and there is not yet. Because I think probably almost every one of us in this room were Christ rejecters the first time, maybe in the first few times we heard the gospel. Very few people come to Christ the very first time they hear the gospel. It happens, but that's rare. There's always those that come to Christ, those that reject Christ, and then there are those that come later to Christ. And so we don't give up hope. I've said it many times before, and I actually saw it on Facebook from some unnamed person here in the church. It says, as long as there's life, there's hope. We really do need to think that way. As long as there's life, there's hope. You should pray for your unsaved relatives. Maybe you said, I witnessed to them and they didn't accept. They didn't believe. They didn't trust. Well, not yet, but maybe they will. So don't give up hope. Anyway, notice what Paul says. There's two kinds of people he's talking about. To the one, we are the aroma of death to death. And to the other, the aroma of life to life. And who is sufficient for these things? He realized the weight of his message. And he realized he had a message of eternal life and eternal death that he was delivering. And it's true that if the message is rejected, the condemnation is worse. It's greater condemnation Condemnation either way, but it's greater condemnation to be told about the Lord Jesus Christ and His suffering and His work and all the things that He did. And God sent His Son. And you say, that's not good enough for me. I need something better. The works of my hands. I'll follow the way of Cain. I'll follow the way of Cain. Because look at all the things I can do. And I'll bring this tremendous offering to God, I'll do all these wonderful works, and certainly God has to accept me. I don't need his son. I don't need his provision. I don't need what he has done. I don't need the life gate that's been opened. We're the aroma of death to death. And to the other, the aroma of life to life. It's through the preaching of the gospel that men, women, boys, and girls come to faith in Christ. And who's sufficient for these things? Paul didn't think he was sufficient in himself. I don't think I'm sufficient in myself. And any true gospel preacher would not think himself sufficient, but would pray over his message and then accept the results as belonging to God. That was something I really had to learn. I wasn't raised in a reformed environment. And one of the things that just terrified me was that I would not be adequate as a preacher I would not be able to be persuasive enough. I would not be able to be charismatic enough in the sense of being outgoing and likable and able to make people laugh and make people cry and persuade them emotionally. Some people have that innate talent to do that. They really do. And there's a real disadvantage to having that innate talent. It can be a great advantage. But it can be a great disadvantage. Because you can persuade people mentally, and they think that they're Christians. And they're not. They've imbibed a philosophy. They've gone into it. And some of our cults, some of the cults that exist, have some of the most persuasive speakers of all. And they tell people what they want to hear, or they manipulate people and their emotions. Okay, that's not what we're about. What we're supposed to do is preach the word of God and leave the results to God. We need to do the very best job we can. We need to study hard. We need to try to be winsome and persuasive. But I understand something as a preacher. If all I did was persuade you, Then you become my convert, but you aren't necessarily Christ's convert. So we need to take these things very, very seriously. And to finish up the dragnet, going back there, if you would. That's something we really need to notice is what it says. Sorry. Back to Matthew 13. Sorry. I need to go there, too. Back to Matthew 13. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come forth and separate the wicked from among the just. Didn't we see that already in the parable that we looked at with the wheat and the tares? We certainly did. And they'll cast them into the furnace of fire, wailing and gnashing of teeth. There is a coming judgment. It's certain and it's coming. And we'd be lying to you if we said anything other than that. So we have to ask you, are you prepared for the end? Because the end is coming. The end is absolutely coming. And you may not live to see the return of the Lord. Maybe you will. Maybe I will. We don't know. That will be the end of things as we know it now. And the beginning from what we have to all eternity. But you're going to come to an end. Even if it's not the return of the Lord. You're going to die. You are going to die. And you don't know when that's going to be. And so the lost, you need to flee to Christ. You need to flee to Christ immediately. And look to Him alone. One more note from the passage. And it's an eschatological note. Remember the wheat and tares that grew together till the end? It's kind of the same thing, isn't it? is going to be saved and lost throughout the entire age, all the way to the return of Christ, when finally there will be the final consummation of all things, and the wicked will be destroyed, and there will be nothing but heaven and earth as one. and the people of God with their God. Some people argue that Christ is not king. But how many times have we said Christ is king today just because he has opponents and just because there's a battle going on doesn't mean he's not a king. And Psalm 2 and Psalm 110 tell us very clearly that he continues to rule, he continues to reign until he finally has defeated all of his enemies and he will have defeated them all at his return. There'll be none remaining. Final application, and where we'll end today, verses 51 and 52. Jesus said to them, his disciples, have you understood all these things? They said to him, yes, Lord. There's a little comment there. They thought they did. They didn't. They didn't. And that's not insulting them. But the Lord himself very graciously knew that when the Holy Spirit came upon them, they would understand things so much more than they understood at that particular time. Not only that, but they would have to continue in their understanding, we saw that when we went through the Book of Acts, that they didn't even fully understand that this was a worldwide gospel, even though they'd been told that plainly. They didn't fully understand that, that this was going to the Gentiles and Jew and Gentile together. The Apostle Paul would be the one that would really show that to be true, but Peter would be the one that would open that door, preaching the gospel to the Gentiles. And of course, others would preach to the Samaritans. Well, anyway, yes, Lord. Then he said to them, therefore, every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old. First real brief observation I'd make is that there is a need for spiritual discipline. There's a need for training. There's a need for preparation. And that may depend on your particular calling, but there's a need for training and preparation for the ministry. And there's a need of training and preparation for Christian service, whatever role that would happen to be. And all of us should be in constant training and preparation. Just a quick note here, I don't want to say much about it yet, but we are going to revamp the men's breakfast a little bit this coming fall to be more of a discipleship time where there will be readings ahead of time and then discussion of those things. And of course you can come to the men's breakfast and you can just listen to the discussion if that's what you'd care to do. We're going to encourage people to have a book, and there's a book that's been picked out, to read the book and discuss the book together, not read it to you, but you read it on your own. And it'll be part of a discipleship training program that should take about a couple years to go through. It'll be very profitable, I believe. And that's what we'll be doing in the fall with our once a month men's breakfast. But anyway, there is a need for spiritual discipline. There is a need for training. The new and the old. And this was very relevant for them as they stood on the cusp of the full coming of the new covenant which is promised in the old. They would understand these things better as they came to pass. But the ability to distinguish the between the old and the new. It's vital. And understanding that the new does not contradict but builds upon the old. There's a foundation that's been laid. And then Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone and thou that the whole building grows from there. I'd just like to end I already gave a gospel call a few moments ago, but I'd like to end with a biblical example of hermeneutics or biblical interpretation that I think is very, very profitable and will help you even as you go through your Bible reading. And it's real simple because hermeneutics is a big category But let me just give you a small sub-sample that will help you, I believe, very much as you go through the Bible. There are didactic passages in the Bible. What a didactic passage is, is a teaching passage. It's a passage that you learn doctrine from. It instructs you in doctrine. And there are other passages that really aren't meant to be didactic as such, but they can be informative. There can be narrative passages. There's a lot of things that can be said. Now, if we don't understand that, if we don't see a difference there, we're going to run into the kind of problems that a lot of people do run into in their Bible interpretation. Because what they'll do is they'll take things out of context. They'll take things that, let me just give a really crass example. that a skeptic might say, the Bible talks about the sun going up. Oh, we know the sun doesn't go up. How foolish, how ridiculous. The Bible's full of error and full of contradictions. Here's one of them right there. The Bible's not teaching us anything about the sun. It's just talking about what we observe. And I wonder who in this room has never talked about the sunrise. I mean, come on. This is just ridiculous, but that's because it's not a didactic passage. That's not what it's trying to teach. It's telling us something that we can understand. Our doctrine needs to come from the didactic passages. And that will give us a solid foundation to understand other passages. And if we go at biblical interpretation any other way, even in our private devotional reading, it's not wise. For example, here's a didactic passage. Malachi 3.6, I am the Lord, I change not. Okay. It's a statement, it's true. You can find it in other places too, the immutability of God, all these sorts of things. It's a teaching passage. But there are many passages, are there not, where God apparently does change his mind? And some people use those passages as their teaching passages. In other words, God says, I will destroy Sodom. Abraham goes to prayer and says, God, if there's 50 righteous, will you destroy them? God said, no. How about 45? No, how about 40? No. 30? Nope. 20? No, no, I'll spare it for 20. One more time, I'm going to come before you. But in God's providence, he didn't say one. Because Lot was there. He could have said, will you spare it for one? That's not what he said. Will you spare it for 10? Yep, I'll spare it for 10. See, you can change God's mind. You can change it. That's what Abraham did. He changed God's mind. No, he didn't change God's mind at all. God destroyed Sodom. But what about Nineveh? Turn to the Book of Jonah real fast here. I'm going to be preaching this fall through the minor prophets, not totally expository. And by the way, if you have a little bit trouble finding Jonah, you can just write in the middle of the Old Testament prophets. There's Amos, and then the little book of Obadiah, the book of Jonah there. So this one is used all the time. You know, what about Nineveh? Joel, Amos, Obadiah, what about Nineveh? Okay. Well, the message was 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown. Let's just read a little bit of the book of Jonah here. Jonah chapter 3 verse 10. 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, Jonah does go to Nineveh with the word of God, doesn't preach a gospel message, but says in forty days Nineveh will be overthrown, and of course the people repented, we're told, and then some translations of your Bible tell you that God repented. of what he was going to do. Look at Jonah 4, verse 1. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. So he prayed to the Lord and said, ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore, I previously went to Tarshish, for I knew that you're a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, one who relents from doing harm. Therefore, now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it's better for me to die than to live. And the Lord said, is it right for you to be angry? Searching question there. Verse nine. Then God said to Jonah, is it right for you to be angry about the plant? And he, Jonah, said, it is right for me to be angry even to death. But the Lord said, you have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up with a night and perished in a night. And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left, and also much livestock? Now let's just look at a few things here. First question, did God change his mind? Some will use this scripture to try to prove that God's mind can be changed by the actions of men. But really what we see from this passage isn't that. What we see is the sovereignty of God and the compassion and the mercy of God. That's what we see. Because Jonah had compassion on a plant. I didn't read it all, but it grew up and it gave him shade. And he was happy about that as he was muttering and angry and wishing for the people to die. And he said they would die and then they didn't. And he even goes so far as to say, I knew you were going to save them. I knew you were going to spare them. That's why I didn't want to go. That's why I went to Tarshish. That's why I went exactly the other way so I wouldn't have to go to Nineveh, because I hate the people of Nineveh. They're the enemies of my people, and they were a cruel and vicious people. They were cruel and vicious. The people are image bearers. Now it's kind of interesting, he talks about the animals, also much livestock, much cattle, livestock, animals. Animals aren't image bearers. But, you know, people are image bearers. But even animals are part of God's plan. And God caused a plant to spring up and then smites the plant and it dies. Animals are above plants, you see, in the hierarchy of things. Well, Nineveh would be overthrown. It would. Jonah's message was 40 days and Nineveh would be overthrown. Well, that wasn't what happened, but it would be overthrown in 150 years. It'd be totally demolished, totally destroyed. As we think about God's absolute sovereignty, did God change his mind? That's the question. Jonah decided that he would not go to Nineveh. So, he gets on a boat to Tarshish. Of course, you can't run from God, but that's what he's trying to do. God sends a storm. The men on the boat do everything they can to save that boat. Finally, they realize that it's Jonah. Jonah even admits, to me, I'm running from God. These men are heathens. He says, the only way to save yourself is to throw me overboard and kill me in the sea. I said, well, no, we don't want to do that. We're going to do everything we can to save this boat, and we don't want to kill you. They try, and they try, and they try. Even the heathen had respect for life. Finally, they realized it is no use. There's nothing that we can do. And so they do throw him overboard to his death. That's what they expected, right? To his death. But God had prepared a great fish that swallowed Jonah. And I can only wonder what Jonah thought in the belly of that fish. Well, I don't have to wonder. I can read it in Jonah chapter two. Talks about what he thought in the belly of the fish. But he didn't think a lot of good things. I think he would have probably at the very beginning would have drowned, would rather have drowned than died in the belly of a fish. But Jonah becomes an example in the sovereignty of God. Three days, three nights in the belly of the fish. Three days, three nights for the son of man in the earth. Nineveh becomes an example to the people of Israel. They repented at the preaching of Jonah. But you don't even repent at the preaching of the Son of God that's amongst you. The men of Nineveh will rise up in judgment against you for that. Well, these things are not accidents, my friend. It was planned by God. It was all orchestrated absolutely by God. So he does willingly go to Nineveh and preach. Well, I don't know how willingly he did it, but he did it. After he gets spewed out of the fish, that wouldn't have been very pleasant either, onto dry land. And guess what? He had a one-way ticket to Nineveh. There he was. He ended up in Nineveh. I've signed up for Tarshish. I'm in Nineveh. I better go preach. Well, that's exactly what happened. God didn't change his mind. But it looks like he did. It looks like he did. But this was all orchestrated by God, his absolute sovereignty, and his mercy and his compassion. We learned that from this passage, too. And we also learned something very, very interesting for a heathen king to say. Look at chapter 3, verse 3. Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city, a three-day journey in extent. Jonah began to enter the city on the first day's walk. Then he cried out and said, yet forty days Nineveh should be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God. proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. Then the word came to the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and ashes, and caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, let neither man nor beast nor 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 and 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 well he didn't get that from Jonah. That wasn't Jonah's message. Jonah's message that I think he might have rather enjoyed is 40 days and Nineveh will be destroyed. But God is merciful. And God has compassion. And God has a plan. And God has a purpose. And you will not defeat God. And he can take the heart of man and change it whithersoever way that he will. And he does. And he still does to this day. And he can even use lost men and have their hearts fulfill his will and not even be the saving of their soul. because God's in total control of everything. Well, we'll be looking through the minor prophets, but a lot of what we'll be doing is understanding the difference between teaching passages and then passages that appear to say something else, but if we have good solid doctrine behind us, we'll be able to interpret them properly and really see even greater the things that God is doing. Let's look to the Lord in prayer. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your truth. We thank you for your love and we thank you for your son. Would you apply your word today to every heart that is here? There are those that need Christ. We pray that they would look to Christ alone. There are those that need encouragement. We pray that you would help us to be encouraged. There are those of us that need to be strengthened and realize once again that the kingdom of God is worth everything. Help us to believe that. Help us to live that. And we give you thanks. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.