Secondary Factors in Repentance of Ninevites

Introduction: Secondary Factors in Ninevite Repentance

0:03 As we continue our studies in the book of Jonah this evening, our attention will once more be fixed upon a segment of the third chapter, the book of Jonah, chapter 3. You will remember the setting.

0:21 The prophet has been recommissioned, and this time held in by the constraints of the memory of God's past dealings with him in the course of disobedience with whatever reluctance may have yet been present. The prophet obeys. He enters Nineveh. He preaches this message of coming doom.

0:42 And we read in verse 5, And the people of Nineveh believed God, and they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them even to the least of them. And the tidings reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne and laid his robe from himself, and covered him with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he made proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed nor drink water, but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and beast, and let them cry mightily unto God.

1:28 Yea, let them turn every one from his evil ways, and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knoweth whether God will not turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? Two Lord's Days ago we examined these verses, verses 5 through 9, under the general heading of the essential elements in the repentance of the Ninevites. On that occasion we noted that there were three essential elements, including, and, there was their believing reception of the message of God, verse 5, their thorough dealing with their sins against God, verses 6 through the 9th verse, and this hopeful pleading for mercy from God, particularly in verse 9. We then moved on last Lord's Day to examine God's response to that repentance, as he delighted to show mercy to that entire city. But in the course of expounding the elements of the repentance of the Ninevites, I promised that we would return to consider some of the secondary or incidental elements and manifestations of their repentance,

2:53 and it is precisely that which I propose to do this evening. Having examined the essential elements in the repentance of the Ninevites, I skipped over some of the materials, made little or no comment upon them, not because they have no vital lessons, but because it was my purpose to focus your attention not upon secondary matters, but upon the primary elements involved in true and evangelical repentance. But since we believe that all scripture is inspired of God, we must not gloss over, these secondary elements of truth. One of the most wonderful things about the Bible is that it is its own infallible interpreter and its own best illustrator. The best illustrations of biblical truth are to be found in the Bible itself. Do you want to know what true repentance is? Look for its illustrations in the Bible.

3:56 Do you want to have an accurate understanding of the nature of true repentance? The Bible is its own best illustrator. The Bible is its best commentary as well as its own interpreter. And it is in this very area of understanding more fully and in a more comprehensive way the biblical doctrine of repentance that we come tonight to consider the secondary lessons in the repentance of the Ninevites.

The Predominance of Fear in Repentance

4:23 And first of all, I would direct your attention to the predominance of the element of fear in the repentance of the Ninevites. The predominance of the element of fear in the repentance of the Ninevites. All of the activity recorded in verses 5 through 9 finds its apex in the prayer which the King of Nineveh trusts will go out from the hearts of the people of the city in crying to God. Notice now, the language of verse 9, specifically with reference to one frightening reality.

5:07 Who knoweth whether God will not turn and repent and turn away from His fierce anger that we perish not? In other words, it was the dread of perishing beneath the fierce anger of God that was the prayer the predominant element in the motions of the repentance of the Ninevites. Now we need to underscore that principle that it was nothing less than dread of the fierceness of divine anger which filled their minds which operated mightily in the whole inward psychology of their turning from sin to righteousness and finding mercy from the hand of God. Now we need to underscore, in addition to this, that the root of this fear was faith. Verse 5 says, The people of Nineveh believed God and it is what they believed that produced their dread. When this prophet came with a strange tale of God's strange dealings with Him

6:33 to bring Him at last to the precincts of Nineveh to announce this message, forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown, it was belief in the content and implications of that message that produced this sense of dread of the fierce anger of God. They believed that God was concerned with their activities. They believed that they had provoked God to anger by their great wickedness. Furthermore, they believed that God had the right and the power to break in upon His creatures with nothing less than fierce anger. And so the element of fear was predominant in their repentance. Now, by way of application, I want to draw out of that some very vital principles. What was true of the Ninevites is often true in God's work in the hearts of men and women and fellows and girls.

7:44 Though some are drawn primarily with the cords of love, and others are, as it were, gently nudged into the kingdom by the promises and entreaties of mercy and forgiveness, most often, sinners first plant their feet in the way that leads to life, when they are driven by the lash of God's anger against sin and against sinners. Was not this the dominant note in the ministry of John the Baptist when facing the Pharisees? We read in Matthew 3, 7 that he said to them, Who hath warned you to flee from the coming wrath, the wrath that is already on its way, its coming, Who hath warned you to flee? Was it not a dominant note in the preaching of the Apostle? We read in Acts 24 and verse 25, It was as he reasoned of righteousness, of temperance, and of the judgment to come that that heathen potentate trembled in his seat. And above all, was it not true in the ministry of our Lord Jesus?

9:09 He who spake as never man spake, the one concerning whom the record says they wondered at the words of grace that proceeded from his lips. It is the Lord Jesus who says, Do not be afraid of them that kill the body, and after this have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear. Fear him who has power to cast soul and body into Gehenna.

9:41 Into the lake of fire. Ah, but someone objects, Pastor Martin, can't the fear element in the gospel be overdone? My friend, there is no truth that cannot become a heresy if it is presented out of balance and disjointed from other truths. Surely there have been periods in the history of the church when the note of fear has been an almost exclusive note.

10:10 And people have had a concept of God that has been entirely distorted. And they could not bring themselves by any dint of imagination to throw themselves upon the lap of divine mercy because they had been so conditioned to think of the fierce anger of God as being almost an exclusive manifestation of God's heart toward his sinful creatures. Yes, this principle can be overdone. It can be drawn out of proportion.

10:40 It can become an imbalance in the way that we think and how we think about God. But, my friend, I ask you the question, are we liable to such an extreme in this lovey-dovey age? I think not. Are we liable to such an abuse in a day that flaunts the law of God with open impunity?

11:08 Are we in any practical danger of having people gripped with too much fear so that they become paralyzed by the hope that is offered in the Gospel? No. There is an almost total absence of any fear born of faith in those truths which are calculated to produce holy dread. The truths clustered around the fact that God is the moral governor of His universe to whom all of His creatures are morally accountable.

11:39 That God has revealed His mind in terms of moral absolutes and in the Decalogue there is a transcription of His mind and will for His creatures. The truth that the law which is the expression of His will demands obedience or holds over the disobedient one the threat of death and that the ultimate expression of that death is hell in all the terror and horror of that which the Bible describes as the lake of fire, outer darkness where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. I say, my friend, we do not live in a day when those truths calculated if believed to produce fear in the heart of sinners. We do not live in a day when those truths have been overemphasized. We live in a day when the church has been the very open sluice gate inundating society with total misconceptions of God so that you have people who dare to stand as mouthpieces of God while living in open disobedience to some of the most fundamental precepts of God. We have ordained

12:58 that there is no fear in the fabric of the thinking and mentality of society at large. And I seriously doubt that there will be any widespread movement of the Spirit of God until the ingredients of this fear manage to manifest at Nineveh, become part of the consciousness of men in our own generation. Let me bring it home very close to your own heart tonight. Why are some of you sitting in this place tonight totally devoid of any of that fear that these Ninevites had? Why are you not trembling at the thought of the fierce anger of the Almighty that can cause you to perish?

14:05 There is one reason. You don't believe what they believed. For if you believed what they believed, you would be filled with dread and terror as they were filled with dread and terror. When the prophet came saying, Forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown, the text says the people of Nineveh believed God.

14:30 That means they apprehended something or comprehended something of His character as holy, of His righteous demands as lawgiver, and of their frightful state as impenitent sinners. And my friend, the Bible pronouncement is no less specific with regard to every unbelieving, impenitent man, woman, boy or girl in this auditorium tonight. The Word of God says, and I quote John 3.36, The wrath of God abides on him that believes not.

15:06 My friend, listen. The only reason you sit there tonight with no holy dread is you don't believe that statement of the Scriptures. You do not believe that the wrath of God abides upon you. You don't believe it.

15:24 You may give lip service to it, but you cannot believe it and be devoid of dread. The Word of God says, He that believeth not shall be damned. You don't believe that. The Word of God says He will come in flaming fire to take vengeance on them that obey not the Gospel.

15:46 You don't believe that. The Word of God says, Whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life shall be cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. You don't believe that.

15:58 And the absence of any holy dread or terror is the mute but inescapable evidence that you do not believe. Let me illustrate. Many of you have been over to the Willowbrook Mall. And there you have seen some of the little amusement centers where you can go in and play air hockey and pinball machines and all other kinds of things.

16:25 I'm not saying you ought to go there or nor am I saying that I go there. I'm simply stating the fact there is such a place. Now imagine if we were to go there on some evening when the place was full of people, someone playing at his pinball machine, someone playing air hockey, and maybe someone in a corner pulled out a chess board and was playing chess and all kinds of pastimes and amusements are being engaged in. And through the door there suddenly comes a man with the look of the most intense sobriety upon his face.

16:55 And he speaks with a voice that arrests everyone no matter what he's doing. And he says, everyone in this amusement place hear me. And everyone turns and wonders what kind of a nut has been let loose. But as they watch his countenance there's something about his countenance that makes them believe this guy's no nut.

17:16 He's here on a serious mission. And he says, we've just received word from the security officers that somewhere in this very amusement hall there's a bomb planted and in 15 minutes it's due to go off. It could be triggered by any unusual or abnormal activity so please follow my directions. And he begins to give directions.

17:41 He tells everyone to quietly, easily stand with him wherever he is to make a certain route to a certain exit and to clear out of there within 15 minutes. And most of the people by now blanched white because they're convinced the man is telling the truth. The look upon his countenance, the way he conveyed his message, they're convinced. And so filled with a sense of fear and with a cold sweat breaking out upon their temples they follow their directions and they go out all except two guys who sit over in the corner with their chess board laughing away at the fact that there's something laughing away between moves, chatting.

18:17 And the man comes over and says, fellas, did you hear me? He said, sure, we heard you. Do you know that, oh yeah, we heard that. Well, man, aren't you going to get out of here?

18:34 And they look up at him with a look of incredulity and say, come off it. We don't believe in this bomb business. Now why do they have no fear? You kids can see the answer.

18:46 There's no profound belief that they are 15 minutes from being blown to pieces. But now let me ask a further question. If the report the man has brought is true, will all their cavalier, light-handed treatment of that report defuse the bomb and protect them? Yes or no?

19:10 And my unconverted friend, that's exactly where you are. You're sitting in God's universe and Almighty God in the person of His Son Jesus Christ is hanging above your head and yet you sit like a fool playing checkers and chess telling yourself there's no bomb, there's no bomb, there's no bomb my friend. All the telling of yourself there's no bomb will not defuse it. The men of Nineveh believed God and what they believed produced a predominant element of fear which blessed be God ultimately issued in that pleading for mercy with the little glimmer of light that they had and Jesus says the men of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonas and behold a greater than Jonah is here. Then there is in the second place

The Predominance of Human Authority and Instrumentality

20:30 another element in their repentance that I want to underscore this evening and it is this notice the predominance of human authority and instrumentality in the repentance of the Ninevites not only the predominance of the attitude of fear but the predominance of human authority and instrumentality in their repentance. Notice the facts in verses six through eight the tidings reached the king of Nineveh and he arose from his throne and laid his robe from him and covered him with sackcloth and sat in ashes and he made proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles saying let neither man nor beast herd nor flock taste anything who knoweth whether the Lord will turn and repent. Can you somehow visualize in your minds eye this transaction by a courier by one of his emissaries we don't know how but the message comes to the king the message the tidings of coming judgment reaches the king and the king lays it to heart and he has first hand personal dealings with God as an individual

21:58 who stands before God not as one of the great ones of the earth but he stands as a fallen son of Adam accountable to his God and we have the record of his first hand individual dealings with God he rids himself of everything that would give the appearance of his position as a great one his position and posture and appearance are that of the most abject beggar in all of Nineveh he sits in sackcloth in ashes he gets away from his throne and he acknowledges in these external ways that he is a sinner who has been gripped by the presence of the horror of his crimes against almighty God he voluntarily assumes signs and symbols of grief humiliation and mourning and now in that believing and broken position a worm before God he is still a king in his position before men now if he has any regard for the good for the honor of the offended God before whom he has been humbled what will he do what must he do well the answer is obvious

23:27 and that's precisely what he did he will use his position of influence to influence others to flee from their sins for their own good and for God's glory in the world and it is one of the most significant experiences man has ever had in his life or is one of the greatest experiences of the world when we believe that we are born and from the inside a world of sin he could not change the hearts of the Ninevites, his declaration was made an effectual means of putting the Ninevites in the way of seeking God that did become effectual by the power of God. For verse 10 says, as we noticed last week, God saw their works that they turned from their evil ways. The sentence began with a public proclamation of problems to

24:49 humble themselves, to turn from sin, and to seek the mercy of the living God. And herein we see a vital principle, and it is this, whatever place of authority and influence a man has, it must be exercised for the advancement of truth and righteousness in the hearts of others. Whatever place of authority and influence a man or woman possesses, that place of influence must be exercised for the advancement of truth and of righteousness. And oh, what a powerful word this is, first of all, to parents. And here I want to apply closely and specifically. Dear parents, God has placed you and me in a position of authority, and we are obligated, first of all, to forget, as it were, our position of authority. And when we have dealings with the Word of God, to have dealings as common ordinary sinners, and like this king, to lay aside all sense of importance because of our position, and to have hard dealings with God concerning our own sins and our own failures. But having had hard dealings with God,

26:21 then we are obligated to use that position of parenthood to enact decrees and to make decisions which will prod our children to seek the living God and will put them in the way of truth and the influence of the Holy Spirit. You mean, Pastor Martin, you accurately are saying we should make them come to church? Well, what about when they're 16? What about when they're eight?

26:53 What about when they're 20? What isna doubt on it just a spacious soul? separation of church and state. He didn't sit around biting his fingernails wondering if the civil liberties boys would get after him. He had a God-given position of influence and if he had any love for Jixon, love for God, he had to exercise it for the concern of God's glory and the best interest of the souls of his followers. You see me and Pastor Martin, we should make our children come to family worship, yes. We should make them honor the Lord's day. Won't that make them bitter?

27:53 That's their problem, not mine. Won't that make them cynical? That's their problem, not mine. This king could not put grace in the hearts of his fellow Ninevites, but he had a position of authority that could bring the whole society into a grinding halt and to encourage them to seek God.

28:19 Now they could have run off in the field somewhere and sat around and smoked pot and listened to jungle music. What would have happened, I don't know. And certainly now that we are no longer living in a theocracy, the civil authority does not have power then to go out and get a man and beat him with a stick until he gets on his knees. They could have risen up, had a revolt, say, we don't like this business, the king setting such a poor example and getting all bothered about his sins. We hear, these laid aside his robes of dignity and moved off from his throne and sits like a mourner. And now he has the audacity to tell us to do the same. He risked his neck, but he was willing to risk it. And my dear parent, friend, until you're willing to risk your neck and to feel the point of that sword of division, some of you parents are so scared to death of alienating your children, you're patting them on the back on their way to hell. I had a pastor bear his heart to me recently,

29:27 broken hearted, saying, I don't know what to do, Brother Al. He said, in our church, it's a standing kind of orthodoxy that when the kids get 16, the parents say, I can't make them come to church anymore. I can't make them come Sunday morning, Sunday night, a prayer meeting. I can't make them sit for family worship. Where in the world do you get that notion out of the Bible? You and I have an obligation that is explicitly taught in the fourth commandment. Even when a stranger comes on our territory, we have the right and the obligation to dictate what shall and what shall not be done on our precincts on the Lord's day. You say, but my kids don't want to read the Bible and don't want to do this. Well, that's their problem. That's not yours. You set the framework of how to keep the Lord's day holy, and you forbid the activities that will dull the mind and draw the spirit away and aid them in their damnation and delusion. You can't put grace in the heart, but you can and must exercise your place of authority for their well-being.

30:38 But then this has a word of application to rulers and leaders in any sphere, not just to parents. The purpose of the civil ruler, according to Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2, 13 and 14, is to reward good and to punish evil. That assumes that there is a standard of fixed morality. Good equals law of God. Evil equals violation of the law. The whole assumption of Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2 is that government, according to Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2, 13 and 14, functions according to the will of God when it operates on the basis of the broad principles of the law of God, the responsibility of rulers. And if I had them before me, my bad voice and all, I think I'd preach to them that the responsibility of congressmen and senators and the judges who sit on the bench of the Supreme Court is not to wet their fingers and put it up to the latest winds of current opinion about morality.

31:42 Morality it is to call men to recognize that there are claims upon them, prior claims made by Almighty God. set the sanctity of life and said, Thou know murder whether in the womb or out of the womb, not commit adultery. Before the sanctity of sex, one man with one woman for life announced war, lesbianism, and homosexuality and bestiality. God have mercy on the courts and leaders of the land who wet their fingers and say, well, the current mood in society is a bit more libertarian, so we'll bend.

32:42 Rulers and leaders have a responsibility to use their place of influence for the interest of truth and righteousness. Ah, but someone objects, Pastor Martin, hasn't that been abused? Yes, it has been, but that sure isn't our danger in America. There are always dangers, there are limitations, and I'm not purporting to give a biblical philosophy of human government.

33:10 I'm simply extracting a very obvious principle upon which God has put His approval, that a man in a place of authority and influence is to exercise it for truth and righteousness.

33:25 And surely that applies to the leaders in the church. What are your elders to be? Little consensus takers meet you at the door every week saying, now, what would you like us to do? How would you like the church to be run?

33:37 Let's have a little chit-chat. No, no, my friends. We are in prayerful humility to wait before God, to search the scriptures, to cry to God for light and direction, and then in mutual counsel seek to ascertain the mind of God for the life of this church, and then to come before you with humility and with a sense of our awesome obligation to the great Shepherd, and we are then to lead the flock of God. We are to shepherd the flock.

34:13 We are to do what Peter says, exercise the oversight. That means we do not rule by common consent. We do not real rule by consensus. We seek to rule by being sensitive to the mind of the Spirit speaking in the scriptures.

34:33 And then in love, Loving, selfless humility to set the direction, to take the lead in our own lives, and to say, all who love Christ, follow us insofar as we follow Him.

34:50 We're all mixed up in our society, aren't we? What a mess we're in. No moral absolutes, no consciousness of the divinely ordained structures of authority, and our vaunted wisdom has brought us to this mess and into this quagmire of relativism until, unless God is pleased to bear His arm, it'll sink this nation into oblivion. But then there is a third element that I'll touch upon briefly, as I have a little voice yet to do so.

The Predominance of External Disruptions

35:31 It is the predominance of external disruptions in the repentance of the Ninevites. The predominance of external disruptions in the repentance of the Ninevites. Look at the text again. First of all, their normal eating patterns got all upset.

35:53 The people of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed a fast.

35:58 Their normal clothing patterns got upset. They put on sackcloth. I can imagine some fashionable young dame. She didn't like this.

36:07 Why? She had her finery all laid out for the...

36:09 Monday was going to be my frilly dress. Tuesday was going to be my nice, seductive, slinky dress. And Wednesday was going to be my little girl dress. And all of a sudden the decree comes out, put on sackcloth, girl.

36:24 Instead of primping your face in front of your mirror, throw some dust on your head.

36:31 I'm sure they had some beauty queens in Nineveh. I'm sure they had some fashion hounds. I'm sure this didn't go down too well.

36:40 But emergency situations demand emergency measures. So the normal eating patterns got all upset. The normal clothing pattern is disrupted. The normal clothing pattern.

36:48 The normal class distinctions are all disrupted. Any other time you could tell a man's class in society by how he dressed. Now all of them got a hair shirt on covered with ashes. All class distinctions are obliterated.

37:02 Furthermore, priorities are all disrupted. A man can't take his beast and go down to market and sell his wares. Even the beast is to have a hair shirt on him. And even the beast is to be deprived of his normal water.

37:15 Well, if that's so, then you can't drive him to work. You'll kill the beast. So the poor beast stays in his stall, moaning, bellowing for thirst. God says, let him bellow.

37:29 Let every bleating of a thirsty sheep, every bellowing of a thirsty cow, let it be a reminder, you're in an emergency situation, Nineveh. Emergency measures are needed. And when you see a king sitting with a hair shirt and a pile of ashes along with a beggar, and all class distinctions are gone, then you say, what's happened? And you see Fufi, the beauty queen, sitting there with that shriveled up old woman, and she looks pretty much just like her, and her hair shirt and her dust on her.

38:02 You say, what in the world's God saying emergency situation demands emergency measures? And isn't it interesting how much of the narrative gives detail concerning this matter of the external disruptions in the repentance of the Ninevites? Now, what are we to make of all that? Well, let's give due allowance to the free expression of emotion in Eastern countries.

38:26 Let's take half of it and say, well, that's all Eastern temperament. When they greet you over there, they don't give you an innocuous little handshake, give you a big old hug. As I told you when I came back from Pakistan, when you greet the brethren there, it's not just a handshake or a hug, it's a handshake, three hugs, and a handshake to boot. I mean, they go in big for it.

38:46 And the emotions are expressed. It's much more freely in certain situations. The Wailing Wall in Jerusalem is well known to all of us. And the Old Testament is full of the accounts of that free expression.

38:59 You remember one time, some are so filled with hallelujahs, they're shouting, and the other crowd's so brokenhearted, they're crying. And it says, for great distance off, you couldn't tell whether it was primarily crying or shouting. There was just a full opening up of all of the springs of human emotion. All right, we can say, well, a lot of that, that was just temperament.

39:20 And then we can give due allowance for other cultural phenomena. But having done all of that, it's still telling us something. And you know what it's telling us? It's telling us when the greater and higher issues of God, sin, judgment, and divine wrath truly break in upon the hearts and consciousness of men, it will demand a total reorganizing of priorities until those great issues are settled in such a way as to give the conscience peace.

Application: Reordering Priorities for Salvation

39:54 And when the conscience has peace, then the life can go back to its normal patterns, minus the sin and the sinful excesses. But you see, the great principle here is that it was this holy dread, this conviction that we have been accumulating a mountain of divine wrath that so many of us have lost. And it's so pressed in upon them that food and clothing and all these other things vital in themselves suddenly paled into insignificance. Now, may I say by way of application that it's precisely at this point that some of you are hung up and will continue to be hung up until you face the issue squarely. The message of God comes to your ears again and again, telling you that the wrath of God is upon you in your sin, telling you that God poured His wrath upon His Son for all who will flee to refuge in Him. And the overtures of mercy are sounded as they were sounded so pervasively here last Lord's Day night, when the great emphasis was upon the mercy of God and the willingness of God to show that mercy to the vilest of sinners. Many of you, while you sit there, there's a stirring, the great issues of eternity somehow are brought

41:19 out of the realm of the ethereal and the distant and they impinge very powerfully upon your conscience. And like that man to whom Paul spoke, at least inwardly, you are exceedingly terrified under the preaching. But you know what your normal pattern is? After Sunday night service, to go home, go to the kitchen, go into the fridge, have something to eat, something to drink, a little chit-chat, flip on the television, watch the evening news, and what happens?

41:50 All the impressions you felt here are dissipated before 10 o'clock at night. Why? Because you're not willing to have a disruption of the normal pattern of things. And that's precisely what our Lord talked about in Matthew's Gospel, did He not?

42:09 He said, the seed falls upon thorny ground, the thorns spring up and choke the word, then He interprets it. He said, these are they which hear the word. But the cares of this life and the lust of other things entering in choke the word and it becometh unfruitful. Oh, my friend, will you listen to me tonight?

42:35 Almighty God says, seek ye the Lord while He may be found. Ye shall seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. Are you saying, Pastor, that our seeking and searching somehow makes up some lack in the Word? The merit and righteousness of Christ?

42:55 No, a thousand times no. The Gospel feast is spread. Everything is ready and every provision for life and eternity is made in Christ. But Jesus says, strive to enter.

43:13 The Son of God who made the Gospel feast says, agonize to enter. There's a real devil determined to drag you to hell. To hell, my friend, whether you know it or not. The thief cometh not but for to kill and to steal and to destroy.

43:32 And there are real powers of darkness that would keep you enmeshed in your sins. And therefore God calls upon you to seek Him. To seek Him with all your heart and to do anything necessary to seek Him in earnest. That means for some of you, you need to walk by that kitchen tonight when you leave this building.

44:00 You need to forget your snack and get into your room and get on your knees and say, Oh, God, as Pastor was preaching tonight, I did sense the reality of that canopy of wrath. My conscience did trouble me. Oh, God, a hundred times to stifle the voice of the Spirit, to grieve and quench that Holy One who would have dealings with me. Cry to God!

44:29 He wants to have a chit-chat about the latest hit, and about the latest movie, and about the latest hit. Say, Friend, I'm sorry! I'm wrestling with salvation! Leave me to be with God!

44:52 Some of you are never going to be converted until you begin to manifest the kind of seriousness that reorders your priorities. Thank God for the example of the Ninevites. They got dead serious. And there was this tremendous external disruption.

45:16 Now, what was the genius of all that? They were not doing so many works, hoping to pile up merit, so many indulgences. No, no. Because verse 10 again says, God saw their works that they turned from their evil way.

45:34 You see, those were but the external expressions of inward heart dealings with sin in the presence of Almighty God. And I know not what else to do, my friend, but to plead, to entreat, to exhort, to admonish, in the name of the God of heaven, what more can we do for your salvation? We hold that for sinners, due to the door of mercy that is open. After months, my friend, you'll sit until you sink to hell. But our hands will be clean of your blood. But frankly, that gives me little comfort. I would rather that our voice would be instrumental to your conversion.

Exhortation and Prayer

46:38 You'll seek the Lord while he may be found. Be like the Ninevites who say, what is a meal or two when the judgment of the Almighty is coming toward us like a mighty juggernaut and we're in the path? What is our fashion? What is our normal commerce?

47:00 What are normal social relationships? What are friends? What are pleasures? The wrath of the Almighty.

47:09 What is fierce and frightening is coming toward us.

47:13 Oh, may God give you to feel it. May God give you to feel it. Some of you, even tonight, will find the glory and the wonder of the promise of God's mercy to believing sinners. May God help you to seek him while he may be found.

47:38 Call upon him while he is near. Let us pray. Oh, our Father, we pray for Jesus' sake. And for the sake of poor, blind sinners, boys, girls, young men and women, old men and women, help them to believe that your wrath does indeed hang over their heads if they are not in Christ.

48:21 Oh, may holy fear come to some heart tonight. And may that fear lead to seeking your mercy in Christ. Oh, God, we thank you that in this building tonight there are many who can say with John Newton, "'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved." Oh, how we thank you that for many of us the law holds no terror.

48:58 He, our Lord Jesus, has hushed the law's loud thunder. He has quenched Mount Sinai's flame. Oh, we thank you for the Lord Jesus. And, oh, we long that others shall know him in the sweetness of his forgiving grace.

49:24 To that end, seal the word to all of our hearts. To that end, work in us to will and to do of your good pleasure. We ask in the name of him who loved us and gave himself for us, even our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

49:46 Amen.