Response of God to Repentance of Ninevites

In this part of the sermon: The first verb, 'God saw,' is explained not as an intensification of omniscience but as God looking with peculiar favor and complacency upon the Ninevites' genuine, pervasive…

David's experience in Psalm 139, finding God's knowledge too wonderful, illustrates that God's 'seeing' in Jonah 3:10 is not an intensification of His infinite omniscience but a peculiar look of favor.

course and Brad Pitt is not told that God is only through faith, but through the things of the Word of God, or by Jesus Christ himself, and the glory of God or how his name is mentioned in the Gospel of John. Now, the Bible tells the Bible that God knows every place beholding the evil and the good. God knows all there is to know about all things in all places for all time, and he knows all It will bring you to the borders of feeling that you cannot contain such thoughts. And that's precisely where it brought David when he just tried to contemplate that thought in the 139th Psalm.

4:33 - 5:13 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second verb, 'God repented,' is expounded using Jeremiah 18:5-10 to explain that God's change of action is in response to a change in man's moral condition, not a change in…

The analogy of the potter and clay from Jeremiah 18 illustrates God's sovereign right to change His declared action based on the moral condition of a nation, explaining how He 'repents' without changing His nature.

Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter saith the Lord? Behold, as the clay in the potter's hand, so are ye in my hands, O house of Israel. At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning Israel? And concerning Israel?

15:50 - 16:11 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The third verb, 'God did it not,' signifies that the promised judgment did not fall immediately, demonstrating God's mercy and the genuineness of the Ninevites' repentance…

The historical example of mighty revivals in America followed by periods of rationalism illustrates that the genuineness of a revival is not negated by later generations' backsliding, emphasizing that God has no grandchildren.

And best we can put together, as best as we can put together the biblical chronology with secular history, there was a period of between on the minimum side 100 years and the maximum side approximately 200 years before the city of Nineveh was overthrown according to the prophecy of Nahum. Now I'm amazed that some commentators use that fact to say that the repentance must not have been genuine. Because 200 years later God overthrew them. Man, that's a lot of generations.

22:56 - 23:24 Read in full sermon

Driving home: If God had not repented of the evil, it would have appeared that something fundamental in His character had changed. He had been revealing from the Garden of Eden onward sin brings judgment, repentance brings in its way …

A lengthy quotation from Hugh Martin explains that God's change in procedure (repenting of evil) was necessary to avert the charge of a change in His character, demonstrating His consistency with His moral government.

To a proud, cruel, impenitent Nineveh, there is to be judgment and only judgment. To a humbled, penitent, prayerful Nineveh, there shall be mercy and only mercy. I am constrained to quote from Hugh Martin, who with an eloquence that is enviable and certainly would sound artificial were I simply to memorize it and quote it and even tell you I was doing so, comments upon this principle. And was there any changeableness in God indicated by His change in this procedure?

28:10 - 28:48 Read in full sermon

Driving home: We're to guard against assigning human imperfection to God. But, we are equally to guard against assigning to him such a character or nature as would render living, intelligible, friendly communication between him and hi…

The Incarnation of Jesus Christ, who appeared as an ordinary man, is used as an analogy to explain that God communicates His Word to us in the ordinary language and thought patterns of men, including anthropomorphic expressions.

The Word became flesh, and our Savior is not the Savior of 99% of Christian art.

36:11 - 36:20 Read in full sermon

Driving home: We're to guard against assigning human imperfection to God. But, we are equally to guard against assigning to him such a character or nature as would render living, intelligible, friendly communication between him and hi…

Another quotation from Hugh Martin defends God's use of human language and feelings to communicate His mind and heart, arguing against overly fastidious explanations that strip passages of their obvious meaning.

And what is true of the Word incarnate in Jesus Christ is true of the Word in Scripture. God speaks to us in the language patterns and thought patterns of men. Again, I quote from Hugh Martin because he has stated it so much better than I, and I do this not because I'm lazy. I study these men because I'm trying to do my work to make the Word as rich and open and clear to you.

36:50 - 37:15 Read in full sermon

The point: Don't be embarrassed about God communicating in human language; thank God for it as it allows for intelligible, friendly communication.

Examples from the Psalms (e.g., 'Lord, look upon me,' 'make haste to help me') illustrate how man addresses God in familiar human language, justifying God's reciprocal communication in human terms.

But, we are equally to guard against assigning to him such a character or nature as would render living, intelligible, friendly communication between him and his people impossible. But impossible utterly all such communication must be if I may not speak to God in the same forms and phrases and feelings in which I would speak to my fellow men. And he goes on to illustrate this. Knowing that God is omniscient, is it wrong for the psalmist to pray, Lord, look upon me?

37:51 - 38:24 Read in full sermon

The point: Don't be embarrassed about God communicating in human language; thank God for it as it allows for intelligible, friendly communication.

Jesus' tears over Jerusalem, despite His eternal decree of its destruction, illustrate that God's expressions of emotion are genuine and not a misrepresentation of His character, even when judgment is certain.

This man, Christ Jesus, is the brightness of the Father's glory. His tears over Jerusalem while as God he had eternally decreed and foreseen its destruction were no misrepresentation of the love wherewith the Godhead is affected, even handing over the impenitent to everlasting hell.

38:57 - 39:19 Read in full sermon

The point: Don't be embarrassed about God communicating in human language; thank God for it as it allows for intelligible, friendly communication.

The command 'Grieve not the Holy Spirit' is used to illustrate that God communicates in a way that allows us to understand His feelings, akin to human grief, without needing to explain away His divine nature.

Grieve not the Holy Spirit. What a tragedy for a man to feel in preaching on that text that he's got to give first of all a 45-minute dissertation to the Bible. And then he's got to on the fact that God does not have passions like men. Well, when you've done that then you've bled the text of all of its significance.

40:35 - 40:51 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: God's greatest delight is not in judgment (His 'strange work') but in showing mercy to repenting sinners, as evidenced by His immediate response to Nineveh's repentance and…

The analogy of God's patience being 'taxed to its limits' (like in the days of the flood) is used to emphasize the long accumulation of Nineveh's sin before judgment was pronounced.

The sin of Nineveh had been accumulating for years. The forbearance of God is as it were being taxed to its limits until finally as in the days of the flood when God says 120 more years and that's it. I will block them all out. God lays his hand upon Jonah and says send go to Nineveh.

41:46 - 42:06 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: God's greatest delight is not in judgment (His 'strange work') but in showing mercy to repenting sinners, as evidenced by His immediate response to Nineveh's repentance and…

The idea that God does not demand a period of penance (e.g., 'one day of penitence for every year of impenitence') illustrates His immediate and full mercy upon the first sign of genuine repentance.

Let's take one day of penitence for every year of impenitence. So let's see now. If you'll hang in there for 33 days maybe I might begin to promise a little mercy. And then furthermore no, no, God does nothing.

42:44 - 42:59 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Say unto them as I live saith the Lord Jehovah I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but here is the thing that brings me pleasure but that the wicked turn from his way and live.

The analogy of a person performing dutiful tasks without pleasure is used to explain that while God justly judges, He finds no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but delights in their turning and living.

Say unto them as I live saith the Lord Jehovah I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but here is the thing that brings me pleasure but that the wicked turn from his way and live. First of all God makes a pronouncement of that which brings him delight. He says I find no delight when the wicked is cut off in his sin even though that first pillar of my moral government demands his judgment and his damnation. I find no delight or pleasure.

44:49 - 45:25 Read in full sermon

The point: Understand that if you perish, it will not bring God the delight that your repentance would, as His heart is made glad by making you an eternal monument of His mercy.

The parable of the prodigal son is used to illustrate God's eager, immediate, and full reception of repenting sinners, emphasizing that He runs to them with open arms and a full table, not a halfway house.

I say that on the basis of this text God's heart will be made glad if he can make you an eternal monument of pillar number two in his moral government. Pillar number two which says sinners who repent and believe sinners who come to God in the way appointed God does not hold them at a distance give them so much penance give them as it were a little a leave to come a few feet toward him and if they're good boys and girls after a year come a few more no, no he is like the father in the parable of the prodigal the moment the prodigal is ready to leave the hog pens he'll find the father's open arms

47:16 - 48:00 Read in full sermon

The point: Come to Christ as a conscious, needy sinner with a sense of need and the wonderful hope of His promise.

The Lord's Table, with its common elements of bread and wine, is used as an analogy to show how God communicates His mercy in tangible, understandable ways, even for those with dull minds or weak faith.

and be with me you'll find rest thank God that his moral government is certain sin and judgment are sure but mercy to penitent believing sinners is sure how we should thank God for his method of communicating isn't the Lord's table a reminder of that he says take some bread and some fruit of the vine eat it and drink it if you find it difficult in your present state to fix your mind and heart upon my mercy you can look upon a piece of bread can't you and you say what am I doing holding bread because back two thousand years ago the Lord Jesus said take and eat

52:51 - 53:36 Read in full sermon