Well, we hope to begin to consider, like the sign on the side of the road says, the message of Jonah. But before we turn to the actual contents of that message properly, it's helpful to note the context in which that message comes. And that message comes as the Word comes to Jonah a second time. We hope to give special attention this morning to Jonah 3, the first three verses. And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go into Nineveh, and preach unto it the preaching that I did unto thee. So Jonah rose and went unto Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. The word came the second time, and Jonah obeyed. But we could say, and pardon me if this seems like a very simple observation, If the word has to come a second time, that means the word came a first time. The word comes the second time after having come the first time. And we see that in Jonah chapter one, verse one. And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness is come up before me. And what happens then? Well, what happens, like we noted together when we sang from Psalm 119b, or Psalter 322, he did not delight in the law of the Lord. Oh, blessed Lord, teach me thy law, thy righteous judgments I declare, thy testimonies make me glad, for they are wealth beyond compare. Boys and girls, you know a bit of the history of Jonah. Did the woman go to Jonah to go to... No, it didn't make him glad at all, it made him angry. In fact, after the Word of God even comes a second time, what is Jonah's response? In fact, the Lord blessed the preaching of His Word to the hearts of the people of Nineveh. Chapter 4, verse 1, But it displeased Jonah exceedingly. He was really not happy. And he was very angry. It's not the right frame of heart, is it? Certainly not. Upon thy precepts and thy ways my heart will meditate, that they will meditate with awe. Thy word shall be my chief delight, and I will not forget thy law. The Lord does a bit of spiritual surgery, as we saw before, in the fish. We'll talk more about that again when God came. He didn't listen. He didn't delight. He didn't love it. Indeed, he hated it and made him angry. What happens when we ignore the word of the Lord? What happens? And it's very important to remember, for children of God and for unbelievers, the same thing might say doesn't happen. For a child of God and for an unbeliever, The same thing doesn't happen when we will not listen to the word of God. Well, for the unbeliever, what happens? The word of God comes and they will not repent, they will not believe, they will not obey, and they continue to do so. What happens to them? What happened to Pharaoh? The Word of God came to Pharaoh not once, not twice, but many times. And what did Pharaoh do when the Word of God came to him? He hardened his heart. He would not listen. And then it says, in just judgment, the Lord hardened his heart so he wouldn't listen. Ultimately, if you do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will continually to not trust in Him, if you continue to harden your heart, you will face just judgment. But just judgment begins in this life. Our Lord Jesus, in the Gospel of John chapter three, said very clear verse 18. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone doeth evil, hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deed should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought of God. They already stand condemned because they will not believe. And then Romans chapter one, in the context of the knowledge of God that comes through creation, but so much more the knowledge of God that comes through the scriptures and the proclamation of his word. In Romans chapter one, we're told very clearly what happens to those who will reject the truth of God. And what is it? It's the worst thing that can happen. Cancer, poverty, death, maybe being swallowed by a fish and bouncing around in fish guts for three days and three nights. That's not the worst thing. Romans chapter one tells us the worst thing. And sadly, some people don't even realize it's a bad thing, but it's the worst thing you can get. What is it the Lord does that's such a horrible judgment? Well, in Romans 1, verse 24, wherefore also God gave them up. God gave them up. And then again, in Romans 1, verse 26, for this cause God just lets them have their way. You don't want to listen to me. You don't want to obey me. You want to continue in sin. What does he let happen? Go ahead. Go ahead. That's the worst form of judgment. God lets you have your sin and lets you continue on the way to hell. He lets your cup of iniquity become full, to use the Old Testament language, and to make you ripe for judgment. That's what happens when you ignore the word of God. As an unbeliever, it hardens you. And you are simply being handed over more for judgment. But what about the child of God? What about a believer? What about someone who, when the word has come, repents of their sin and realize what they've done is wrong? What happens to them? And maybe you think, well, this is actually worse. This is actually like really bad. In Jonah chapter one, what happens to Jonah, who is a believer and who does love the Lord? What happens to him as he rejects the word of God? Well, first thing is, God sends the storm, verse 4. But the Lord, the covenant faithful God, sent out a great wind in the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea. He sent a storm. And further, in verse 17, the Lord prepared a fish. And the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. Now maybe you think, oh boy, I feel like the storms in my life and the troubles in my life, the times when things are happening and chaotic, and I feel like so that the ship was like to be broken, I think I'm gonna lose everything. I thought those storms were a sign of God's anger with me and a sign of his judgment because of what I have done or what I haven't done. It's not true. Or maybe the fish. Maybe you feel like your life is ending, like you're swallowed, like you're trapped and you can't get out and you don't know what's gonna happen. God is to figure out what it is you did wrong. That's not true at all. God is bringing you back to himself, bringing you back to his word. And in so doing, he is saving your life. He is saving your life. That's what the storm did after all, didn't it? The storm wouldn't let Jonah continue on his way to Tarshish. He stopped him. And Jonah, of God he is, by the power of the Spirit, offers himself a sacrifice and is selflessly thrown into the sea to save these Gentiles. Like we saw, the Lord Jesus Christ is truly the greater than Jonah from Matthew chapter 12. but then the fish comes and swallows him. And what was Jonah's experience of being swallowed by the fish? I cried by reason of my affliction unto the Lord and he heard me. Out of the belly of hell or the belly of the grave cried I and thou heardest my voice. And everything that unfolds, that that verse is a summary of, is his experience of death and dying and we saw how that paralleled the Lord Jesus. But as we noted, that was the work of the Lord Jesus in bearing our sin, becoming a curse for us, facing the wrath of God. And that was our salvation. That was Jonah's salvation, even though it was the Lord Jesus' condemnation. So in your life, if you are in the midst of a storm, and you are covered in fish, throw up. Child of God, it is for your salvation and for your good. The dangerous thing is when God just lets you go. Well, I mentioned to you, you have to be careful, and I'll put it to you this way, not to think like Job's three friends. Something bad happens in life and we think, oh no, what did I do? You gotta remember, you're a big sinner, that apart from the grace of God, doesn't even want to do anything good, can't do anything right. And even by the grace of God, when you've been transformed by the power of the Spirit, you've come to Him in repentance and faith, He's put the law in your heart, even still, your best righteousness is ours. The question is not you to make God do this to me. The question is, why aren't you in hell yet? We have to keep that perspective right. Jonah's three friends said, oh Jonah, you only look like a faithful godly man, but you're lying. Deep down you've got some big sin going on that you're hiding. Got some big sin going on you're hiding, and all this bad stuff is God pointing it out to you and to the rest of us. That's not the way the Lord works. Some of us have seen even recently, When people continue in sin, reject the Word of God, what does He do? He just lets them go. We don't even see that culminate in church. God just lets them go as they get harder and harder and harder. The Lord willing, the Spirit will bring them back. But if not, they will be lost. and face the judgment of God. But rather the storms in life, rather the fishes in life are used for our salvation. That's exactly the way Jonah put it. I cried by reason of mine affliction, in chapter two, verse one, unto the Lord. It's because he was afflicted, he cried unto the Lord, and he heard me. It was because he was afflicted, the Lord heard him, because it led him to cry, even out of the belly of the fish, even out of the belly of hell, and God heard his voice. Now, this is something very amazing, and something I hope, by the grace of God, we are all familiar with. Turn with me in the book of Psalms to Psalm 119. Psalm 119, because this is a very important theme in the Bible, and child of God, a very important theme in your life. In Psalm 119, verse 67, before I was afflicted, I went astray. Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now have I kept thy word. What did Jonah do? The storm came and got swallowed by the fish. And the Lord made it clear, follow me, trust me, obey my word. And what does Jonah say at the end of chapter 2? I will pay my vows. I will do what God called me to do as a prophet. Same thing in Psalm 119 verse 67. Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now have I kept thy word. But verse 71. It is good for me that I have been afflicted. It's good for me the storm came. It's good for me I got swallowed by that fish. It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes, that I would listen to the word when it comes. By extension, we could say the first time. And verse 75. I know, O Lord, thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me. That in faithfulness God has afflicted me. And before we move forward, considering this theme, and the importance of the fact the word of God comes a second time. Remember in Psalm 119, these aren't the words of David. These aren't the words of Jonah. Not ultimately. These are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, Hebrews chapter five makes it very clear that our Lord Jesus had to learn obedience even by suffering. In Hebrews chapter five, verses eight and nine, though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. Psalm 119 is Him being afflicted by His Father because of our curse. And He knows that by that affliction, He will redeem His people. It is good for Him to walk in the ways of the obedience His Father has called Him to. And He embraced so He could save us. And beautifully, because these words apply to the Lord Jesus, they apply to you too as a child of God. Turn with me to Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12, verses 6-11. God is not punishing you and pounding you so you recognize the one particular sin you're so righteous you just can't fight. Rather, for whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth. In Romans 1, He just lets go to do their own thing. Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. Those are the ones that get the storms. Those are the ones that get swallowed by the fish. The Lord loveth. Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If he endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. That's how he dealt with his own son. For what son is he of whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. When the afflictions come, remember the heavenly Father has a plan for the sake of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on that basis of which you were adopted into his family. He wants you to follow his word. He wants you to follow his word. And that's why when the afflictions come for a child of God, because you know you have not followed that word, or you need to be driven to hold on to the word more tightly, more thoroughly, what is it God does? He sends the word the second time. Through a miraculous deliverance, but don't presuppose. Don't tell yourself and somehow or another think that you're owed the Word of God to come to sit. That's the way you would think of someone and like someone that's being handed over. The Word of the Lord comes and you say, that's okay, I don't need to obey God. That's okay, I don't need to follow Him. I can just live my own way. It'll be okay. Sin is never okay. And it is only by the grace of God He sends the storms, sends the fishes, sends the afflictions. But don't presume upon the Lord. Don't take Him for granted. Throw your arms around Him and love and delight in that Word. Like we sang, like the Lord Jesus thing that for the sake of the Lord Jesus, when we do go astray, he doesn't let us go. He provides a miraculous deliverance, a miraculous deliverance in providence and a miraculous deliverance in the change of our spirits. Because That's miraculous, isn't it? That the Lord had organized a storm already according to the existing weather patterns. He knew Jonah would go astray. All the Lord's works are known to him from the beginning. And not only that, the fish. The fish was, as we saw, prepared. This was all going according to plan. God's providence was already ordained and following out. In fact, it's even the Lord Himself who takes action when it comes to the fish. In verse 10, Jonah chapter 2, and the Lord spake unto the fish and had vomited out Jonah. Like we saw last time, boys and girls, we don't know how the Lord spoke to the fish, even if He came down and kind of whispered in the fish's ear, so to speak. It was through his fatherly care that these things happened. As the providence of God has organized every detail, miraculously, of all of what he was experiencing, so the word of God comes a second time. But notice also, secondly, there is a miraculous spiritual change, a miraculous deliverance, not only as God has organized everything providentially, but there is a miraculous change in Jonah. where Jonah goes from backsliding and resisting God to realizing he has to follow God, the God of his salvation. Like we saw in verse two, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me. Out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. And verses seven through 10, after the rest of the agony of death, in that fish's belly, waiting to die, but finding deliverance. Verse 7, when my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord. When you stop trusting yourself, when you realize there's no help in yourself, it drives you to Him. He who is the Lord, He who is the faithful covenant-keeping God. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord. My prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple. They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. Lord, God, thou art my Savior, thou art my Deliverer, thou art my Father for Jesus' sake. And the fish vomits them up. doesn't change. It comes and it comes a second time. It comes and it comes a second time. And God, if you pardon the fishing analogy, reels you back in. Still the same thing. Still the same thing. Love your wives as Christ loved the church. Submit to your husband because this is what the Lord Jesus would have you do. Obey your parents because this is the right thing to do. keep the Sabbath day to honor the Lord and rejoice in the rest he provides. And a thousand different practical examples. Things that are hard, things that are clearly in the word of God that we may wish to run from. But the Lord will afflict us and bring us back and set us aright in how we think and how we are to live. It's amazing how the Lord does that. The word doesn't change. It keeps coming. That's why you shouldn't run from it. That's why you should take hold of it the first time. Why face the storm? Why be half digested in a fish? We may have to learn from those afflictions, but so much better to obey the first time. Boys and girls, have you ever felt that yourself in your home life? Your mom and dad say, here's the rule, keep the rule. And instead of keeping the rule, what do you do? You think, well, I'm going to break the rule. And you may have all kinds of good reasons to think to break the rule. And what happens? Whether they take something away, whether they smack your bottom, whether you are grounded, whether you're verbally reprimanded, what did you find out? Change. I need to. That rule shouldn't change. What happens? The word comes the second time exactly as it did before. Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before me. Chapter one, verse one. Chapter three, verse two. Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. Same word. The miraculous deliverance through God's order, spiritual change, works as the Spirit applies the word, brings us back to that word again. That's why it comes a second time. And this coming of the word a second time, this blessed obedience, the Spirit has worked in the heart of Jonah through affliction, It's just a picture of he who is greater than Jonah. And thus for us, leads to a blessed obedience as the word comes. The word comes. Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey and he cried and said, yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be... Remember, this is the message God would have him speak. Preach unto it the preaching I bid thee. Jonah learned his lesson. Jonah learned his lesson. The storm and the fish taught him a lot by the work of the Spirit. But this preaching by the Spirit works a blessed response in the people. They repent. They repent. And God shows them mercy. And he repented of the evil that he had said he would do unto them. God always had a plan to save the people of Nineveh. His plan wasn't to destroy them. His plan was to save them. But they would never turn to him unless they had first seen their sin. And that's why, you see, this is why we know the message Jonah had to bring was just an announcement of judgment. Not only because it says, the preaching I bid thee, and he clearly learned this lesson from the Lord, but further, repented of the evil that had said that he would do unto them. That's what God wanted Jonah to say, Jonah said it. But as the Spirit works, the blessed result, that word comes, and the people are saved. Isn't that an amazing result? the word of God comes, and this wicked evil city finds deliverance, even if it's just for a generation or two. Child of God, isn't it amazing when the word of God comes, and you find deliverance and help in the spirit in whatever trouble you're ever facing, as you were thrown back to the Lord Jesus Christ, thrown back to his word, and you saw how God was going to work together for good, not in the history before you, but by faith, That's where you find your strength, that's where you find your courage, that's where you find your hope. It's amazing. That's what comes by the grace of God when we do what the Lord commands. Even though it's contrary to our indwelling sin. Because sadly, the Word came. The Word came the second time Jonah obeyed, and the Word came to the people of Nineveh. By the grace of God, they obeyed. And Jonah still, still has that same sin. It displeased Jonah exceedingly and he was very angry. And then notice he says all this to God. He doesn't harden his heart and turn away from God. See, that's what happens. The heart gets hardened and you run from God. That's all unbelievers do. Children of God, as they are drawn to him again in afflictions, cry out to him. He prayed unto the Lord and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying when I was yet in my country? This is why I went to Tarshish in the first place. This is why I wanted to get as far away from Nineveh as I could. When I was yet in my country, therefore I fled before unto Tarshish, for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentant thee of the evil, or the bad things you ought to do. And he says, kill me. Take I beseech thee my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live. How on earth can he still think to know better than God? He still is clinging to his Jewish zeal and patriotism rather than embracing by faith the mystery of God and the inclusion of the Gentiles and the glorious salvation, the expanding of Israel into the church that includes Jew and Gentile he resists and he hates. which is exactly what Jesus came to do in Matthew chapter 12 verse 40 as the greater than Jonah. And as he talks about the Gentiles who came to faith. It's beautiful the parallels in the history and the teaching and the imagery that our Lord Jesus gives. The blessed obedience that's worked, and the blessed results we see, doesn't automatically mean your sin is taken away. It doesn't mean you're not gonna have to... Seek to put your flesh to death. You'll have to take up your cross and follow Him daily. But that doesn't mean it's not blessed. That's the lesson that he learns. The Lord said, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for which thou hast neither made a stick, which came up in the night and perished in the night. Jonah, you're upset about this vegetable that gave you some relief, and you didn't do anything for it. Jonah, I sent you And then I sent you again, and my word came, and I chose to have mercy. Should not I spare Nineveh, that great city wherein are all more than six-score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle? It's interesting, there's no more to the book. Why not? And then in chapter five, And what happens next? It doesn't need to be. Because Jonah is silenced. God demonstrates the truth. He's vindicated. And there's nothing more to say. The blessed result is right, regardless of our perception of it. We know it will be the best result. The word comes a second time, after having come before, after a miraculous deliverance, providentially and spiritually, and leading to a blessed obedience that brings about the expansion of the kingdom of God. Believe the word of God. Like we sang in Psalm 119, delight in the word of God. Let it be your joy. Let it guide you in every way you think, every way that you act. Young people, like we saw Friday night, that was the point of the youth group. Not just to get together and have fun, you can do that on the side. Not to supplement your homeschooling. Those are the areas your parents, especially your fathers, are responsible for. And when it comes to the church, Our job is to tell you the word of God, to preach you the gospel, to have you grow in the things of his word. Those other things can be done under the other places they're supposed to be done. Let us, by the grace of God, listen to the word of God the first time. And what a blessing. for God's people that we do backslide. Let us go, but he afflicts us, chastises us, and the word of God comes a second time. Amen, let us pray. Our Lord and our God, our great heavenly Father, we thank Thee for always keeping us close to Thee, for always keeping us in a way of obedience. For Lord, we go astray. We thank Thee, Lord, for afflicting us, and help us, as the psalmist says, to kiss the rod. Remember that when we are chastised by Thee, it is of love by a heavenly Father. And Lord, let not one of us go, but rather by the power of Thy Spirit through the preaching of the gospel, call Thy people to true faith and repentance. Mark obedience even as affliction, but bring that help and obedience. Lord, we ask all this and the forgiveness of our sins in Jesus name.