The Short Chapter, 10 verses, I'm talking about Jonah's experience
in Nineveh. Now that he's finally there, if you look down
at verse number one, the Bible says, the word of the Lord came
unto Jonah the second time saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh,
that great city and preach unto it the preaching that I bid
thee. So notice, you know, God tells Jonah what to do if you go
back to Jonah chapter one, and verse number two, this will kind
of be an overreaching theme of this chapter tonight. God, you
know, the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, but it
was the same message. All right, it was not a different message.
It was the same message. We need to realize that in our lives.
We'll talk about that towards the end of the sermon. But if
you look at verse number two, where of Jonah chapter one, the
Bible says, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and
cry against it for their wickedness has come up before
me. This is exactly the same thing that God repeats in Jonah
chapter three, in verse number one, and verse number two. So
God basically comes I mean, Jonah eventually gets to Nineveh,
but he kind of went the long way, you know, he kind of went
the wrong way, then he went to the whale and all that thing.
And then the whale brought him back and he finally gets to
Nineveh. But the point I'm trying to make here is that
while it was the same result, it was through much suffering by
Jonah and other people. But it was the same message that came
to Jonah, there was not a different message, the Word of
the Lord is not going to change. That's what we need to
understand this evening is the Word of the Lord is the same.
The difference is us. The difference is how we react to
the Word of the Lord. Look down at verse number three. So Jonah
arose. Now this is this is interesting, because if you look
at chapter number one, it says he also arose except he arose to
flee in chapter one. So this time, Jonah arose to go to
Nineveh and went on to Nineveh, according to the Word of the
Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three
days journey, and Jonah began to enter into the city, a day's
journey, and he cried and said, yet 40 days in Nineveh shall be
overthrown. So he travels three days to get into Nineveh. And
then he traveled a day into Nineveh, crying this message
that in 40 days, Nineveh shall be overthrown. It was a pretty
simple and direct message that Jonah was preaching. Now the
difference between this story and a lot of most of the other
prophets in the Bible is verse number five. If you look at
verse number five, we see how Jonah chapter three is unique in
the Bible where it says, the people of Nineveh believed God
and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of
them even to the least of them. So what these people did was
they believed what Jonah said. They believed when he came and
he said God is going to destroy this city. If you don't get
right. They believed him and they got right. I mean, if you
read the Old Testament, especially a lot and you come to
this where you're like, whoa, because like they never get
right. They never listened to the man of God. They never
listened to the prophet. But it says that Nineveh believed God.
Now here's a little side track I want to take you on. Turn to
Romans chapter four. Turn to Romans chapter four. And let me
just kind of explain that statement of Nineveh believed
God. All right, I want to show you how salvation is the same in
the Old Testament as it is in the New Testament. We're not
dispensationalists where the Bible does not teach that
certain people were saved a certain way and other people
were saved a certain way. But there are some things we need to
understand about that statement Nineveh believed God. All right,
talking about the city itself. Okay, look at Romans chapter four
and look at verse number one. This is talking about Abraham
and how Abraham was saved. All right, look at verse number one.
What shall we say? Then then that way, Abraham, our father as
pertaining to the flesh, hath found. For if Abraham were
justified by works, he hath where of to glory, but not
before God. Now this is talking about how Abraham is not I mean,
this this is a real deep Bible study between James chapter two
and Romans chapter four. But what the simple point of trying
to make tonight is Abraham was not justified before God
through his works. He was justified to men through his
works. Men looked at Abraham and look, that's the same with all
of us. The only way this is James chapter two right here.
The only way men can see your faith is through your works. So
if you have dead faith, meaning you have, you know, little to
no works in your life. Men can't see your faith. You know, so
you know, they're not going to men aren't going to call you a
friend of God, as they called Abraham, if you just aren't
doing the works that you're supposed to do. So Abraham was
not justified by works in Romans chapter four. But look at verse
number three. It says, for what say at the scripture, Abraham
believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. That's
how he was saved. He believed God he did what he trusted in
God, he trusted in the future Messiah, he believed God about
the coming of Jesus Christ. So he believed into the future,
just like we believe in trust into something that has
happened 2000 years ago. It's very simple, but salvation is
the same in the Old Testament as it is in the New Testament. No
difference. It's just by belief or trusting on Jesus or even the
promise of the coming Jesus or the coming Messiah in the Old
Testament Testament. Now go back to Jonah chapter three. Now I
want to kind of contrast that statement in Romans chapter four
and verse number three, where it says, Abraham believed God and
it was counted unto him for righteousness. I want to
contrast that with Nineveh believed God. Okay, so nations
are not spiritually saved. That's what we need to
understand. Okay, we are not you are not spiritually saved as a
collective. Alright, so you are not granted salvation by you
know, who your dad is or who your fam, what church your
family goes to, or whatever you are saved spiritually,
individually, on your individual trust and where you put that
trust in, whether it be your own works, whether it be in some
false God, whether it be Jesus Christ, okay, so you are either
saved or not saved on your own trust your own belief, we are
talking about a nation here. So what you need to understand
about Nineveh, when it when it makes the statement Nineveh
believed God, we are talking about their physical salvation,
we are talking about saving them the city from destruction.
That's what it is referring to when it says the people of
Nineveh believed God, it's talking about the collective
believing God, what but it implies that there were at least
many people, I believe, in Nineveh that were saved, because
it implies that if they believe the word of the Lord coming from
the Prophet, it also implies that they had believed
personally, you know, on, you know, the coming Messiah, and
were personally saved, at least some of them, of course, not all
of these people are saved, there's never been a city ever
where everyone is just saved 100%. But when it says Nineveh
believed God, it is saying that as a collective, they listened
to the Prophet, and it's, it's for their physical salvation. It
is so when when Jonah said back in verse number four, it says,
yet 40 days Nineveh shall be overthrown. He's telling them
how to be physically saved. He's telling them how to not be
destroyed by God. But just the statement Nineveh believed God
implies that there are believers in Nineveh. Okay. How many? We
don't know percentage. We don't know. But nations are physically
saved. But to be individually saved. That is a personal thing.
But look, you'll run into people like this out soul winning all
the time that think that it's like a collective thing. You
know, you'll you'll knock on somebody's door and a husband
will answer the door. And you know, if you're going to heaven,
oh, yeah, yeah, my wife knows all that. Well, they're not
understanding you're not saved. You're not saved by your
household. You're not saved by what your wife believes, or my,
my mother in law is a deacon. I got this no problem. You know,
you're saved by your personal belief. Okay, it's a personal
thing, your your spiritual salvation, your eternal
salvation, the real salvation that matters, okay. So nations
are also nations are saved physically or not saved
physically, meaning they're destroyed, or saved physically,
kept as a nation or as a city. In this case, they're they're
saved through listening to God or not listening to God. All
right. And you know, nations are judged on this earth. That's
that's basically the way you need to read the Bible. God does
it all the time. He judges nations on this earth. He judged
Judah, he judged the northern kingdom of Israel, then he went
and he judged all the nations that even attacked Judah and the
northern kingdom of Israel. He judged Egypt, he judges all
these nations, but nations are judged on this earth, our nation
will be judged on this earth, it's going to happen. All right,
nations are not saved spiritually, when it says Nineveh
believe God is talking about the collective people of Nineveh
believed the Prophet Jonah, it implies that people were saved
there. But it's talking about their physical salvation from
being destroyed in 40 days by God. All right. I mean, but a
nation full of saved people, you would think that they would
follow the Word of God, you know, you would think that they
would listen, right, which would lead to their physical salvation
as a nation. Go back to Jonah chapter three, Jonah chapter
three, look at verse number six. Now it's saying so you have this
shocking, you have this shocking event in verse number five,
where the people actually listen to the Prophet. But now we get a
little bit more context on, you know, some things that help them
listen to the Prophet, which is a point I really want to get
across to you this evening, look at verse number six, it says
for word. So it's kind of explaining, it's saying what it
means that word for it saying, you know, here's kind of why
that happened is explaining what what the cause of that was, it
says for word came under the king of Nineveh, and he arose
from his throne, and he laid his robe from him and covered him
with sack cloths cloth, and he sat in ashes. And he caused it
to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh. So here we see
that Jonah got some pretty important help here from the
king of Nineveh, he caused it to be proclaimed 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. So not only do we
see that Nineveh believed, but we understand that why Nineveh
believed or what led them down this path was the fact that this
king took Jonah's words, the king believed Jonah's words, and
he published it throughout the entire city, and demanded that
they they get right and they fast and they they take what
Jonah was saying, seriously, he helped spread the word of the
Lord throughout the city. And by his example, himself as the
king, and then his nobles, his princes, or whatever you want to
call that, they also helped, you know, lead the people in
that area. I mean, Jonah was just one man, it says that he
traveled across the city in a day was this was a massive city,
but it was the king and his nobles that published this word
of the Lord out amongst the people, the king had the power
to get the message out. So this really shows you, this really
shows you the influence of a leader here. In Jonah chapter
three, in verse number six, you say, Why did they listen? Why
did they change their mind? You know, contrast this with First
Kings chapter 12. Go to First Kings chapter 12. We'll just
look at this idea of the influence of a leader for just a
few more minutes. Go to First Kings, chapter number 12. First
Kings chapter number 12. I'm going to go there myself. First
Kings chapter 12. And look at verse. Look at verse number 26
of First Kings chapter 12. First Kings chapter 12. Look at verse
number 26. This is right after Rehoboam takes the southern
kingdom of Judah, and Jeroboam takes the 10 tribes to the
north. The kingdom has just split here. And Jeroboam is
worried that the people are going to follow the religion in
Jerusalem. They're going to follow the religion of the
nation of Israel as it always has been the one true God. He's
worried about that. So he decides to create his own
religion. Look at verse number 26. It says Jeroboam said in
his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David.
He's worried that his 10 tribes that he's taken into this new
kingdom will follow the the lower kingdoms religion. If
these people go up to sacrifice in the house of the Lord at
Jerusalem, which is in Judah, then shall the heart of this
people turn again unto their Lord, even unto Rehoboam, king
of Judah, and they shall kill me and go again to Rehoboam, king
of Judah. Whereupon, he's like basically for this reason, the
king took counsel and made two calves of gold and said unto
them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Behold thy
gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of
Egypt. He set one in Bethel and put the other in Dan. And this
thing became a sin for the people went to worship before
the one even unto Dan. And he made a house of high places and
made priests of the lowest of the people which were not of the
sons of Levi. So he basically goes and he creates this brand
new religion that is very similar to the religion that
they of course it it has similarities to the pagan
religion that they were into in Egypt. And he creates these
calves of gold, and he gets the people to just start following
this false religion verse 32. And Rehoboam ordained a feast in
the eighth month on the 15th day of the month, like under the
feast that is in Judah. So he's just like copying, you know,
giving them a substitute fake religion. And he offered upon
the altar. So did he in Bethel sacrificing unto the calves that
he had made. And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high
places, which he had made. So he offered upon the altar that
which he made in Bethel, the 15th day of the eighth month,
even in the month which he had devised of his own heart, and
ordained a feast under the children of Israel, and he
offered upon the altar and burnt incense. Now go over to First
Kings chapter 14. First Kings chapter 14. So basically, he
creates this religion. He leads the people down this path. What
do the people do? The people follow him. He's able to
influence this entire nation, these 10 tribes to start
following this false religion. Look at verse number 15 of First
Kings chapter 14. Now this is what God thinks of it. It says
for the Lord shall smite Israel as a reed is shaken in the water
and he shall root up Israel out of this good land, which he had
gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river
because they have made their groves, provoking the Lord to
anger, and he shall give Israel up because of the sins of
Jeroboam who did sin, don't miss this, and who made Israel to
sin. So in Jonah chapter three, we see the king, we see that the
people believe God for the king, meaning because the king led
them down that path, because the king influenced them to listen
to Jonah. We see the exact opposite of this in Jeroboam,
where Jeroboam, look, you're all accountable for your own sins,
but the leader influences people to get into their own sins. It
says, there were the sins of Jeroboam, he started it, but he
influenced the people. And that's why it says he made
Israel to sin. So all those people that worship those calves
were were being influenced by Jeroboam's fake religion, by
Jeroboam's blasphemy, by his heresies, by all these things,
but they sinned themselves. Just as the people in Jonah chapter
three, believed God themselves, the people of Nineveh, it says,
believed God, Jeroboam did exactly the opposite. He
influenced in a bad way. This is important for us to know. This
is important for us to know that as leaders, as look as
parents, leadership equals influence. Leadership is
influence over people. You know, parents are as a parent, we need
to heed this. We need to understand that as a parent, we
are influencing our children, whether it be good, or whether
it be bad. We are influencing our children. You influence as a
parent every single day. I mean, there's a lot of danger out
there. There's a lot of danger for our kids out there. There
was just some, you know, queer march the other day where they
are literally chanting, we are coming for your children. This
is not a joke. I mean, there's a lot of danger out there.
Parents need to understand that they influence good or bad every
single day, every single hour, every single minute of your
life, you are influencing your children, every single decision
that you make, you are influencing your children, every
single TV show that you watch, you are influencing your
children, every single movie, you are influencing your
children, every single party that you go to, you are
influencing your children, every single drop of alcohol that a
parent consumes, you are influencing your children, every
single sinful place that a parent goes to, they're
influencing their children, good or bad, the parents are
influencing their children. And there's plenty of people out
there wanting to influence in a bad way, in an evil way. So
parents should take heed to these lessons of Jeroboam and of
the king of Nineveh. You can influence good or you can
influence bad, every moment of your life. I mean, people,
people see, people see their children go astray in their
teens or in their 20s. They see their children go into sin or
go astray in some, in some way and, and they just, they look
at themselves and they say, what, what, what happened
there? But guess what? It wasn't in a moment. It was, it was
over, it was over 15 years. It was over 20 years of bad
influence, of not having the right influence from a leader.
And then guess what? Those sins, just like the sins of Jeroboam,
they become the sins of the next generation. They become the
sins, you know, God forbid that any parent, you know, within the
sound of my voice is, is, you know, is a parent who made their
children to sin through their influence. I've heard it said
many times and I've seen it too many times where, you know, the
sins of the parents will be echoed and reverberated, you
know, in, in magnitude in the children. It's true. The sins of
Jeroboam who made Israel to sin, because those sins become the
sins of the next generation. So your influence is something that
you need to have control over and need to understand. You have
that control. You have the control as the parent, as a
child's parent, nobody has more control to influence that child
than you. I was, I took the day off today and I took the kids to
the zoo. And I was, we were at the zoo and it's just a great
zoo. There's a plug for the Fresno Zoo. But I maybe I
haven't been to that many nice zoos, but I think it's a really
great zoo. But we're listening. We're walking through the zoo.
And there it was packed. There's tons of people, all these school
buses, and everything. And I walked by these two parents. And
maybe I'm just so far removed from this that it just seemed
really weird and strange to me. And the kids and I talked about
it for for several minutes after after it happened. But you see
these two parents, a dad and a mom, and their two small
children. And the dad saying, Yeah, we're just gonna head out
here in a few minutes. And the mom says to the dad, we can't
take the kids. We can't take we can't take the kids. They're
talking about their own children. And I'm just like,
this is so strange to me. We're like watching the wolves, you
know, and these these parents are having this conversation.
Yeah, we can't take the kids. Because if they came on the bus,
they demand that they, you know, we can't take them, they can't
go with us, they have to go back on the bus. And I'm just like,
this is just like, like short circuits and smokes coming out
of my ears. And I'm just like, this is so weird. And the dad's
just like, Oh, okay. Yeah, I didn't know that. Like,
literally, people are telling you, you know, what you can and
can't do with your kids. And you're just like, Oh, okay. But
guess what? That's influence creeping in. And you know, maybe
somebody that you know, is used to that type of thing. Like, oh,
that's common procedure with schools or whatever. Look, I
don't care. It shouldn't be. Like, the point is, is that you
should have the influence over your kids. There's all these
people trying to gain this influence. You say, you know,
we're coming for your kids. How are they coming for your kids
through influence, through teachers, through programs,
through teaching, through books, through influence. That's how
they're doing it. That's how they're trying to win over that
influence. Look, you must maintain the influence over your
children. And that may be a small thing. But that just seemed
really out of the ordinary for me. And I pray that that would
just never happen to anybody like that. Right away, you
would feel like, Whoa, whoa, whoa, somebody's telling me what
I can do with my kids. I don't think so. We're doing things
different from here on out. Because we must have the
influence over our kids. Because look, there's plenty of people
out there that want to write on that whiteboard. There's plenty
of people that want to fill out that slate of ideas and all
these different sick things that are going on out there. And we
must maintain that influence because look, influences
everything. leadership is everything, especially for the
next generation. Go back to Jonah chapter three. So just
notice, just notice that these people did this extraordinary
thing. They believe Jonah, they believe God. And it was the king
who influenced them. It was the nobles who influenced them, who
helped publish this. That's power right there. That is
power. But every single parent has that power. They need to
exercise that God given power in their families. Go to back to
Jonah chapter three, look at verse number eight. Jonah
chapter three, verse number eight. The Bible says, but let
every man but let man and beast he's now the king is still
decreeing this be covered with sack sackcloth and cry mightily
unto God. Yeah, let them turn everyone from his evil way. And
from the violence that is in their hands. It's always that
it always comes down to violence. I mean, I'm like a
broken record. I keep saying that again and again. The more
we turn from God, you may see a lot of weird stuff and a lot of
clown stuff going on. But it always is going to end up at
violence always. If violence is what that's hurting innocent
people like who children. It always ends up with that
abortion is violence. It's always hurting the innocent
hurting people that don't deserve it. It always ends up in
violence. Turning from God always ends in violence. That's
why God flooded the world, by the way, because it was violent.
Verse number nine, who can tell if God will turn and repent, and
turn away his fierce anger that we perish not that we what that
we are physically saved, he's saying that we are not
destroyed as a city. And look at verse number 10. Such a great
verse right here. We're going to go into this in detail. And God
saw their works. See, nations are physically judged on this
earth. They are physically destroyed or saved on this earth.
And they're judged by their works. That's not how you are
spiritually saved. But nations are judged by their works,
because God saw their works, that they the city turned from
their evil way. And God repented of the evil that he had said
that he would do unto them. And he did it not now there's a lot
there. And if you're a soul winner, you need to understand
this verse, I'm going to dissect the three points that you need
to understand about this verse as a soul winner, because there's
a real bad false doctrine going on out there today, that is
preached in a lot of Baptist churches, and a lot of
non-denominational churches that sound correct on the gospel. But
they put this idea that you need to repent of your sins to be
saved. And this is the quintessential verse to disprove
that. All right, look at verse number 10. We're going to cut
this up. The first one is this. There's three points that you
need to understand. And if you're a soul winner, you should
take notes and write these down so you can explain this to
people. The first point is this, turning from your evil way is a
work. That's the first point. God saw their works. And then he
explained, I mean, it's such a great verse, because God saw
their works, what were their works, that they turned from
their evil way. These people turned from their evil way.
There's two evils in this verse, by the way, one is justified and
one is not. When the Bible talks about God doing evil, it's not
talking about sin, it's talking about God hurting, or God
punishing, God doing bad things, God doing destruction. But it's
justified. If God's doing it, it's right, it's justified. So
the first point is that turning from your sins is a work that
you do. Look, folks, it's a good work. But it's a work. And you
are not saved through your works. This is one of the most
simple. This is what I mean, but you will find people out there.
I mean, Ephesians two, eight through nine, not of works,
there is nothing more simple in the Bible than that. Literally
three words, lest any man should boast, you are not saved through
your works. Not a little bit, not partly, not at all.
Otherwise, if it was 1%, I could brag about it. But I could boast
about it. If I had to have 1% good works, whatever that even
means. If I had to have 1% good works, and 99% trust on Jesus,
and I had that 1%, or I didn't, if I did have that 1%, I could
I could boast about it, I could say I got my 1%. You know, God
built the whole house, but I built the staircase. I could
boast about that staircase. Because some people didn't build
the staircase. But I did. Look, folks, it is one of the most
simple doctrines in the Bible is that you are not saved through
works. It's not of works. If it's of works, it's not of
grace. If it's of grace, it's not of works. I mean, it is like
the most simple thing that literally a six-year-old can
figure it out. It's very, very simple. Yet you will find people
out there that say, yeah, no, no, no, it's not of works. But
you got to turn from your sins. You're just like, you got to
repent of your sins. That's what they'll say. They'll say,
repent of your sins. And you're just like, so what they're
saying to you is that, yeah, it's not of works, but it is of
works. People believe this. People believe this. They have
been taught this. They've had this told to them so many times
that they literally, their belief, they are a walking,
talking oxymoron. They're a walking, talking contradiction.
They say you have to, it's not of works, but it's of works.
In literally the same sentence. So showing them this, that
literally turning from your evil way or turning from your
sins is a work, you should be able to make that connection
with people. You will go over this with people at the door. If
they are willing to listen, you will go over this and explain
this. So the first point is this, turning, it's a simple
point. Turning from your sins is a work. And thus it can have
nothing to do with salvation. Because salvation is not of
works. The second point is this, what does repent mean? What is
the meaning of repent? Who repented here? Who repented in
Jonah chapter three in verse number 10? The Bible says God
repented of the evil that he said he would do unto them and
he did it not. Turn to Genesis chapter six. If you just do a
word search of repent in the Old Testament especially, and
then I'll talk about the New Testament in a little bit, but
let's just do a word search in your Bible or whatever program
you use to search the Bible. You do a word search on repent,
you are going to find that many of the places that talk about
repenting, it is God repenting. Look at Genesis chapter six in
verse number six. The Bible says this, it says, and it
repented the Lord. That he made man on the earth and grieved
him at his heart. Go to Jeremiah chapter 18. Go to Jeremiah
chapter 18, you're like, how could God repent? Because
repent means repent of your sins, right? That's what
everybody thinks. Repent means, yeah, yeah, yeah. But this is
why when people tell you, when people tell you at the door
that, yeah, yeah, you have to believe and repent. You should
dig a little deeper on that. Because that is true. It's
actually repent and belief. But if they say you have to
believe and repent, you should dig a little deeper on what
they mean by the word repent. Because almost 100% of the time
they will say that you have to turn from your sins. And they
are not saved if they believe that. Because they are trusting
in their works. Look, it's not a small thing, folks. It is not a
small thing. Look at Genesis, or I'm sorry, Jeremiah chapter
18. Look at verse number 10. So we're talking about what does
repent mean? What does repent in the Bible mean? Literally the
dictionary, if you look up the word repent in the dictionary,
it will say repent of your sins. The dictionary itself has
changed the meaning of the word repent. God can't sin, folks.
Look at verse number 10 of Jeremiah chapter 18. This is so
interesting right here because it says, if it do, if repent
means turn from your sins, what does this sentence, what does
this verse mean? If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not
my voice, then I will repent of the good. What? What? Wherewith
I said I would benefit them. So if you believe that repent
means turn from your sins, that literally said, like, that
sentence doesn't even make any sense. You can't, I mean, you're
literally, you're in a logical circle there. Repent of the
good, which means repent of your sins of the good. What?
Repent doesn't mean turn from your sins. God can't, God has
no sins to turn from. God knows no sin, the Bible says. So
repent simply means when we look at what God is doing here, it is
talking about God changing his mind. God is looking at the
situation and God is changing the way he is going to react to
someone. Now the New Testament, go to Mark chapter 1, the New
Testament calls for us to repent for sure, definitely. But you
will never find the phrase repent of your sins in the
Bible. But look at Mark chapter 1, let's just look at a couple
places where the Bible says that we should repent. Look, you
should repent. If you do not repent, you cannot be saved.
That is a true statement. Look at verse number 15 of Mark
chapter 1, and saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of
God is at hand, repent ye and believe the gospel. Notice how
repent is first. It's saying repent ye, it's saying change
your mind. Change your mind from unbelief of the gospel to
belief of the gospel. Now doesn't it make perfect sense in
every single case of the word in the Bible? Go to Acts chapter
3. I was looking for a verse that had repent and sin in the
same verse and I found one. All right, go to Acts chapter 3.
Go to Acts chapter 3. Look at verse number 19. Acts chapter
3, verse number 19. This verse has repent. Repent of your sins
is not in the Bible. But this is the closest I could find. All
right, this is the closest I could find where repent and sin
is in the same sentence, the same verse. Acts chapter 3,
look at verse 19. It says repent ye therefore and be converted.
Again, totally understandable. Change your mind about from
unbelief to belief and what will happen? You will be
converted. You will be saved. Oh, here's the sins. That your
sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall
come from the presence of the Lord. So how does sin play into
the repenting? So you repent and you believe. You change your
mind. Look, you change your mind from whatever it is. I mean,
what am I repenting from? Well, I don't know. Did you believe
in Buddha? No, you're repenting from Buddha. It even could be
a sin that makes you sober to the point where you can believe
now what someone's telling you. You could even have to like
turn from, you know, you got to get out of some wicked
lifestyle or something and then, you know, get your head
clear and then someone gives you the gospel. But you're still
repenting from unbelief to belief. It's a change of mind.
It's a change of mind from whatever you believed before.
Buddha, Muhammad, whatever it is, you know, golden calves to
the gospel. Works. Always works. Always works. No matter what
other religion you repented from, it's works. It's works in
some way, shape, or form. But sins, the only way sins play
into the equation of repenting is you change your mind from
unbelief to belief and your sins are blotted out. That's the
role sins play in salvation. Sins have nothing to do with
salvation. You know, God commended his love toward us and
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Our sins
were there when we repented. Our sins were there with us the
moment we changed from unbelief to belief. The only role sins
play is the moment we trust on Jesus, our sins are blotted out.
They are no longer counted on us. God looks on the blood of
Christ and not on our sins which still exist. Yeah, we should
change our mind. Look, I hope you change your mind about your
sins every day. Nothing to do with salvation. Those are good
works that you do and you should do them. You should turn
from sins. That's what Romans 7, 6 is talking about. Go ahead
and turn there. Romans 7, 6 where Paul is saying, you know,
he's talking about our sins and our works. I can't remember the
exact way he puts it but look at Romans chapter 7 and verse
number 6. Romans chapter 7, look at verse number 6. Yeah, I
mean, this is all over Romans but this is one of my favorite
verses when it comes to this. You know, talking about just
like, you know, turning from your sins, you know, getting
with, getting right with God. Look at verse number 6. It says
we're delivered from the law. How are you delivered from the
law? When you're saved, you're delivered from the law. The law
no longer has you condemned to death anymore. That being dead
wherein we were held, that we what? We should serve in newness
of spirit. Look, you should. You should. You should turn from
your sins. Once you get saved, you should do that. Nothing to
do with salvation. It's something you should do. So,
look, it's repent of your sins is made up in the Bible. So,
not only is the phrase not even there in the Bible but people
attach it to, it's really a crazy stretch. It's not in the
Bible, number one. People attach it to salvation which
equates to a false gospel based on works. It's like this weird
way of taking the true gospel back to all the other false
religions. It's just, it's a clever way. Yet, you will have
people to tell you that, yeah, it's only by faith. It's just by
faith but you have to repent of your sins. Like, what?
Again, it makes no sense. They're saying it's just by
faith but it's not, it's of works too. It just, it doesn't
make any sense. Jonah three ten is a perfect way to explain
this. But here's a big one. Here's the third one. Here's a
third one that we need to take away from Jonah chapter three
in verse number ten. So, first of all, repenting of your sins,
turning from your evil way, turning from your sins is a
work. Number one. Number two, repent clearly means in the
Bible to change your mind. Repent and believe is a
perfectly good explanation of salvation. You must change your
mind. There must be repentance. There must be a change of mind
from not believing the gospel to the gospel. The third one is
this. The third one is this. You can change God's mind.
That's a pretty big deal. Look at Exodus chapter fourteen.
God repents. That's maybe the the huge takeaway from this
entire chapter. God repents. This is great news for us. Look
at Exodus chapter fourteen and look at verse number nine.
Exodus chapter fourteen and verse number nine. The Bible
says, this is talking about the golden calf. Moses is up in the
mountain with God getting the the ten commandments and right
away he's gone for just a few days and they start worshiping
a golden calf. The Bible says this in verse number nine. The
Lord said unto Moses, I have seen these people and behold it
is a stiff-necked people. Means they're stubborn. You can't
lead them. Now therefore let me alone that my wrath may wax
hot against them then I may consume them and I will make of
thee a great nation. God is literally saying to Moses here
he's like I'm just gonna wipe them all out. I'm gonna start
over with you. It's pretty extreme. And Moses besought the
Lord his God and said, Lord why doth thy wrath wax hot against
thy people which thou had brought forth out of the land of
Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand. Notice how
respectful he talks to God here. He's basically you know
this is a good example of a prayer here. All right. Where
for should the Egyptians speak and say for mischief did he
bring them out to slay them in the mountains and to consume
them from the face of the earth turn from thy fierce wrath and
repent of this evil against thy people. So Moses is advocating
for the people here. Moses is trying to change God's mind.
Moses is literally asking God to repent. He's asking God to
change his mind about what God just said that he was gonna do
in verse number 10. He was just gonna destroy them all and
start over with Moses. And Moses it's such a great example
of a prayer too. That would just be a great sermon right
there. It's not like how to pray. You know what when you
pray you should you should pray to God about the things that
you're asking God for. How it will benefit him. How it will
benefit God's kingdom. Not like hey God can I get a Bugatti.
You know I mean that's not gonna that's not gonna benefit
anybody but me. And I mean here's I'm off that now. I
won't bring that up anymore. It's just so fun to say you
know. But anyway so the point is Moses advocating for the
people but he's explaining to God how it will benefit him how
it will benefit the kingdom of heaven. He's like look he's like
God. He's like the Egyptians are gonna look at this and
they're gonna be like oh you did all these things the 10
plagues you you destroyed Pharaoh you destroy basically
destroyed Egypt to save these people just to kill them in the
mountains. He's he's being a good advocate here. And then he
says remember Abraham Isaac Israel thy servants Abraham
Isaac Jacob that's Israel Jacob thy servants to whom thou
swearst thine own self and saidest unto them I will
multiply your seed as the stars of heaven in all this land that
I have spoken of I will give to your seed and they shall
inherit it forever. And look what he changed his mind. He
changed God's mind and the Lord repented the evil which he
thought to do unto his people. He still punished them but it
didn't destroy them all. Moses calmed you know the anger down
he he calmed God down he gave God some some you know some
good you know benefits to the kingdom of God. He reminded him
about servants that did faithfully serve him in the
past and God repented of the evil. God repents. This is good
news. You say what God God doesn't Malachi 3 6 say I am the
Lord I change not. Yes that's true. The word of the Lord
changes not. We saw that in Jonah chapter 1 and Jonah
chapter 3 where the word of the Lord came again unto Jonah. But
it was the same command. It was the same word. The commands in
the Bible do not change. But if we have free will God must have
the ability to repent. It has to be that way. It's two sides of
the same coin. If we can choose to listen to God as in Jonah
chapter 3 or we can choose to run and flee from God. God must
have the ability to change the way he deals with us. And that
is how God works. God repents folks. This is huge news. You
can change God's mind. How? By the way you act. By the way you
operate. By the fact that you change. This is the main
takeaway here. Is that by how we respond to the unchanging word
of the Lord. How we respond. Because we're the variable
folks. God is is the constant. God's word is the same. It will
never change. God does not change. What is righteous and
what is not righteous. What is a sin. What is not a sin. The
gospel never changes. But we change. One week we want to
serve the Lord and the next week we're all wrapped up in
other stuff. We change and so God repents. God changes his
mind he must. He changes his mind either he'll repent of the
good or he could repent of the evil as we've seen tonight.
Look I want God repenting of the evil in my life. I want
God looking at myself and my family and repenting of the
evil that I deserve. But because of how I'm responding to
his unchanging commands that he has given me. God has the
ability to repent. The word of the Lord doesn't change. It's
we that change. We have free will folks. This is why Paul
said in Romans chapter 7 in verse number 6 that we should
follow this newness of spirit. We should. Paul's like you
should do this but not everybody's going to. So God's
going to repent for the for the good. He's going to repent of
the bad for some people. But I mean the main point is this we
can change. You know change is a really it must be impossible
for some people. Because you find people that just won't
change. You find people that maybe they were raised a
certain way and they get to be in their 20s into their 30s and
it just seems impossible for them to change. Another another
reason to have that influence over your children so they
don't have to have this struggle. But guess what folks
if you're one of those 30 year olds or you're one of those 40
year olds or whatever your age is you can change and God
repents. Meaning what? Meaning you can come home. You know you
can get right and God will change the way he reacts to you.
It's not like God's chastising you and no matter what you do
God's just going to just follow through on that all the way to
the end. That's what we see in Nineveh. The people got right
they believed God and God right away. He repented of the evil
that he said that he would do unto them. God repents. The
question is why don't we? Let's bow our heads and have a word of
prayer.