What we looked at last week, the word that came to Jonah. The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh and preach to it the word that I tell you.” Jonah arises, goes to Nineveh, preaches the message which was themed and summarized by at least these words: “40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” The message of judgment, the message of repentance, pricks the hearts of the people of the city of Nineveh, and so that they are affected deeply, and they respond in repentance. But today I want us to consider more specifically the repentance that reached them. So the word comes to Jonah, but the word also comes to the Ninevites. But what did this word affect in the lives of the Ninevites? How did the word change the city that day? How did the word of God and preaching in the power of the Holy Spirit transform the city and bring them to such a place as we read in this text of Scripture? The efficacy of God's word, or the effectiveness of the preached word, is a unique mark of the Christian gospel. Every religion in the world reveres their holy and sacred scripture. Whether it be Buddhist or Hindus, or whether it be Muslims. They all have a holy book, and they all revere the holy book. Yet, it is unique to the Christian faith that it is that the word of God affects change. To them, they see their holy book as a book that informs you, and if you apply yourself faithfully to it, you will experience change. But uniquely to the Christian gospel and the Christian message and the word of God is the belief that God's word transforms. Passages like this: that we are born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which lives and abides forever. Verses like this: “So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” The word creates faith in us by the power of God's Spirit. Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12, “The word of God is living, and it is powerful, and it's sharper than any two-edged sword, and it pierces through, dividing asunder the soul and the spirit, it separates and examines the thoughts and the intents of man's heart.” The word of God uniquely does this. That's why God can say, because He's so invested in His word, He says, “I, My word shall not return unto Me void, but what I send it to accomplish, that will it will accomplish.” This is unique to the Christian message. And this is important for us to understand as we come here to this passage, because what we are not seeing is a whole bunch of people that have goodness within themselves to recognize and change themselves. What we are witnessing in the case of the Ninevites’ conversion is the power of God's word and the visitation of God upon a city. That God, through His word and by His Spirit, transforms them, humbles them, breaks them, creates faith in them, and brings them to repentance. Now, this view of God's word explains to us the history of the Christian church. As you look through history, what you see in the Christian church is the power of God's word to build His church. And you see this particularly in the times of revival. On July 8th, 1741, Jonathan Edwards was in Enfield, Connecticut. And he was there for a midweek service. And the people at Enfield were regarded by someone who was regular there as thoughtless and vain. There was a carelessness about them. They were generally unconcerned about God and about His word, and they didn't really have much interest in the things of God. That's the kind of condition that the church was in. Edwards was not the intended preacher that day. But the preacher that was meant to preach fell ill, and so one of Edward's friends, who must have been very closely related to the church, if not the pastor of the church, nudged him and said to him, “Why don't you speak for us?” Jonathan Edwards had a sermon that he had preached before in a previous place, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” He had this sermon. He's preached it before, but he takes it out. I guess he had it on hand, and he ascends the pulpit, and he begins to preach this word that he had preached before in another place. This time, when Edwards preached it, he was unable to finish. You say, “Why was he unable to finish?” Well, it was reported by Edwards and by others that the impact of the word of God upon the people at Enfield was so deep that they began to shriek and cry out to God for mercy. Such was the extent, and their crying out and weeping was so loud that Edwards was forced to discontinue the sermon. The pastors that were present in this midweek service spent the rest of the evening consulting and consoling with sinners about their soul and helping them come to the saving knowledge of Christ. And many that day came to the knowledge of Jesus Christ and found forgiveness of sins as they broke down under the powerful word of God. Now, the impact of this sermon did not stem from Edward's technique. He was not the kind of guy that would stir up the congregation. In fact, it's reported that as Edwards preached, and people began to cry out and screech, that he paused and waited for people to calm down, and then he would continue on again. But the Spirit, empowering the preached word, produced such efficacious results, and God pierced the hearts of sinners that day and brought them into the kingdom of God. That was in Enfield several hundred years ago. And we could say, in a very similar way, around 720 or 750 BC, a prophet walks into the city of Nineveh, and God decides to visit them in great power, similar to that of Enfield, if not greater, on a larger, much larger scale, and 120,000 souls break down in repentance because of the preached word of God through the power of the Holy Spirit. What happened? What did the word do to these people? How did it change these people? Well, notice the following statements in our text of Scripture. We see that in verse number 5, they believed God. They called for a fast. They put on sackcloth. They turned from their evil way, which was described to us in verse number 10, that they, in verse number 8, that they, that they turned from the violence that was in their hands. The Ninevites were a ruthless, violent city, and here they are turning from their violence because of the power of God's gospel descending on that city by God's almighty grace. The people that did not believe in God now have a new confidence in God. They believe that God is the God who is Judge of all the earth. And in 40 days, Nineveh will be overthrown, but He's also the God of mercy, that if we want to find mercy, we must flee to Him. And so they're calling out mightily upon this God so that they might be saved, that they might be delivered, that they might receive mercy. The people are utterly broken. They put on sackcloth, a sign of humiliation, something that someone would wear in a funeral when someone dies, because they see that their sin is so great. And so they put on sackcloth and they are broken under the weight of their sin. The atmosphere of this city is one of deep humiliation, one of brokenness, one of holy fear. God had visited the Ninevites that day, and the people of Nineveh repented. They turned from their evil way and they turned to God. They experienced that day the salvation of God. And in verse number 6, we read that the word not only reached the Ninevites, which brought about their repentance, but the word reached the king of Nineveh. And it's amazing to see what the king of Nineveh does here. The king of Nineveh responds in utter humility and brokenness. When he hears the word of God in verse number 6, he arises, he arose from his throne, the Bible says, he removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. What we see here is that the king relinquishes his rule. He realizes that he is not the king of the universe. He is not truly the king of Nineveh. There is one king who is greater, Lord Yahweh. And you've got to understand the significance of this because the kings of Assyria were like demigods. They were, they were called the sons of God. And some of them were revered as God Himself, but they were like mediators between God and man. And they were these demigods or these, these, these sons of the gods. And for him to get off his throne and to stand down with the people was a big statement. He was declaring that there is no other God but God Yahweh. There is no other ruler or king but Jehovah God. His descent from the throne down to the people is him saying also that I'm no different to you are. You're in sackcloth and ashes down there. I descend from my throne and sit with you in sackcloth and ashes because both king and people, we are all fallen short of God's glory. He relinquishes his rule, realizing that God is king. He relinquishes his glory. He takes off his robe, which represents his majesty and his power and his might, and he puts on sackcloth, and he sits in the ashes. To him is restored the fear of God. He was a man that perhaps gave no thought to the true and living God. God is not in his thoughts. He's a pagan king. He thinks himself to be God, and he worships other gods which better reflect his own character rather than the true and living God. And this man, this demigod, as it were, this one who is like the sons of God, renounces, sorry, fears God and humbles himself, crying out that God would have mercy on him. And he cries, gets all the people to say, “Cry out to God for mercy.” Mightily cry out to Him. It's an amazing thing. This king renounces his sin. You say, “How does he renounce his sin in this passage?” Well, he issues decrees for usually his own glory and for his own rule and power. Now, he uses his influence and his power to issue decrees for the glory of God. He begins by saying, “All of us, let us humble ourselves and repent. Let us all cry out mightily to God.” This is a turning of his way. This is a change of his heart. This is what God has done in this king's heart, bringing him to repentance. We have to understand that this would have marked the safest day in the city of Nineveh. A woman, young woman, walking through the night back home was more safe than ever this day. She was safe on the streets, just as safe as she'd be in the safety of her own home. This was the day perhaps where young people and teenagers that had stolen things from the marketplace, that had taken things that had not belonged to them, that had stolen things from their neighbors, were starting now knocking on doors saying, “Here, I've taken this from you and I've sinned. Forgive the works of my hands and my sinful deeds.” This is the day that the abusive husband that would insult his wife and lay a hand on her will now turn to her and say, “Forgive me. Forgive me, for I have sinned against you. And I've used the hands which God has given me for His glory only to work evil in this house.” This is the day when the brothels were closed. This is the day in which the, the, the drinking houses were closed. This is the day in which God was magnified and the people were humbled. This is the day of repentance for the Ninevites. The day when their arrogance and pride was traded for sackcloth and ashes and crying mightily out to God. This is the day when friends and family got together not for joviality and for frivolous conduct, but for the humbling of themselves in the worship of the living God. Waiting on God's mercy, crying out to God for forgiveness. What has happened to Nineveh? What has happened to Nineveh is that God has visited Nineveh. Through His prophet, through His word, by His Spirit, and has granted these dark sinners repentance unto the acknowledging of the truth. Now, what if we read the following statement instead? “The Ninevites believed God, but they continued in their evil ways.” What if we read that the word reached the king of Nineveh and he thought it was a great oracle, and so he added it to the collection of the pagan writings of his fathers and had it read to him daily as a nice piece of literary work? How would you feel about that? I think the sad reality is that many of God's people today would be so excited to hear that. You say, “What do you mean?” Well, they'd say something like this, “Don't you see? 120,000 people just prayed the sinner's prayer. Amazing.” Right? “Here's a king now confessing Christ, or saying that God is the true God with his mouth. Amazing. Isn't that wonderful?” But the truth is, those of us who understand the word of God and understand the importance of the doctrine of repentance realize that if that was the commentary of the story, we would understand that the judgment would fall upon Nineveh in 40 days, and they would perish at the word of the Lord. Why would we believe such a thing? Because we understand what repentance is. It is more than just mental assent to the truths of the gospel. It is more than just theological orthodoxy and confessing creed. It is more than just church attendance. It is more than just baptism. It is more than just praying a prayer. Repentance is more than just walking an aisle and making a decision. Repentance is a transformation given to sinners by God whereby now they are changed from inward out. They are transformed by the power of God's Spirit. And the sin which they once lavished in and loved, now they hate. There's been a change of heart and a change of mind that inevitably results in a change of actions. So if we read something like, “The Ninevites believed in God but continued in their sinful ways,” we should stop and say there's something wrong with this story. And perhaps many of God's people today do not understand the seriousness of this because they themselves have not tasted of true repentance themselves. The truth is, according to God's word, if there is no contrition for over our sin, if there is no conviction of our sin, if there is no change and transformation in our lives, then we can be certain, according to the authority of scripture, that there has been no conversion. No matter what you profess, no matter what you say, if the gospel has not changed you, if you have not passed from death to life, if you cannot be regarded as a new creature in Jesus Christ, or if it could not be said of you as it was said of the Ninevites that they turned from their evil way unto God, then you can be certain that you do not know Him, according to the authority of Scripture. Repentance contains godly sorrow, because godly sorrow produces repentance, as was read to us just earlier by brother Joseph. Godly sorrow produces repentance. It's that kind of grief that we have over our sin whereby God transforms our attitudes and our minds and our desires so that they're fashioned after His desires, and so that we hate sin and we turn to Jesus Christ. It's a sorrow that is, that is, that is deep. It is a sorrow that touches our will and our mind and our emotions, and it touches the way that we think about life. It transforms us. And that godly sorrow produces repentance and it says, “Not to be repented of,” or “not to be regretted of.” That kind of repentance given to God, a given by God to sinners is a kind of repentance that we will never regret in our lives. It's one that we would look back on and say to ourselves, “Wow, how God had mercy on me. How I turned from my evil ways by His grace.” Godly sorrow produces repentance unto salvation, but the sorrow of this world produces death. And therefore godly sorrow that produces repentance is more than just acknowledging that we are sinful. Both Judas and Saul acknowledged that they were sinful. When Samuel called out Saul for his sin, and he said, “You've sinned against the Lord,” and that you did not fulfill His will in the battle, Saul said, “I have sinned. Honor me now,” to Samuel. But he was not truly repentant. What he wanted was restoration to the throne. What he wanted was restoration of the situation. He didn't like what would happen to him because of it, because Samuel told him that the kingdom will be removed from you this day. And he wanted the kingdom. But he wasn't concerned that he offended God. He wasn't concerned that he sinned against the Lord. And so with Judas, when Judas betrayed the Lord and he saw that Jesus was dead on the cross and was dying there, he took the 30 pieces of silver and threw it into the, into, into the place before the religious leaders, and he said, “I have sinned against innocent blood.” There's a confession. But what did he do following? He didn't run to the cross of Jesus Christ and say, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner. How could I sin against you, my Lord and Savior?” No. He took his life. The sorrow of this world worketh death. Godly sorrow produces repentance. It's more than just an acknowledgement of sin. It's more than just regret for past actions. It's even more than just tears like Esau had when he sold his birthright. It is true sorrow that reaches down into the inward recesses of our hearts and changes the way that we feel about our sin ever so deeply. Godly sorrow's repentance has certain marks, and we would do well to familiarize ourselves with the marks of godly sorrow's kind of repentance and ask ourselves, “Have we experienced it?” It's more than just feeling depressed, and it's more than just the idea of being dejected. In fact, according to 2 Corinthians, it's quite the opposite. Godly sorrow that produces repentance worked in the Corinthians' lives in this way: It produced an earnestness in them. It produced a zeal in them. It produced an indignation and an anger in them against their sin. It produced a revenge and a punishment against sin and against evil, against the wrong that was done. You understand? It wasn't this lethargic giving up and say, “Woe is me, this is a waste of my life and I've wrecked it all.” No, no. Godly sorrow brings sinners to transformation. It motivates. It spurs you on to obedience. This is what we see in the case of the Ninevites. They're not saying, “40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no. How do we not be overthrown?” It's more than this. They're practically engaging in a life of repentance, demonstrating that they are subject to the mercy of God and that they're living lives transformed by His grace. They are stopping sin, and they are taking up obedience as those that have been touched by the power of God. And God sees this in verse number 10, and God sees what they did, how they turned from their evil way, and God relents of the disaster that He had said He would do to them, and He did not do it. Isn't that amazing? God sees His grace transforming sinners, and He's satisfied by the power of His Spirit's work in the lives of sinners, and sees that they have turned to Him in for mercy. And He sees that they're covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. But He sees that they are transformed by the grace of His Holy Spirit. And He doesn't fall for mere confessions. He knows what transformation looks like. And it's amazing how their repentance turns God from destroying the city. Isn't that comforting? That if we can say that we have repented from our sins, if we can look at our lives and say, “I'm not the same person I used to be since I met the Lord Jesus.” If we can say that I've been turned from darkness to light and I serve the living and true God, yes, I sin, yes, I fail, yes, I continue to fall short, but there's something different about my attitude towards sin, then you can be sure that God has relented from the judgment which He said He would pour out upon you. Isn't that an amazing assurance? When we come to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and are saved, God relents from the disaster that He was going to pour out upon us. The wrath of God works against the children of disobedience. But when the children of disobedience turn to Christ, the Savior, and they, and they believe on Him, God relents from His evil way and He's satisfied in the, in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is faith that lays hold of Jesus. And that faith saves. Do you know anything like the case of the Ninevites in your testimony? How has the word of God that you say has reached you affected and transformed your life? Has it caused you to relinquish your rule? Has it caused you to renounce your sin? Has it caused you to become now in a holy with a holy fear of God, concerned about Him, concerned about His glory? Perhaps the perpetual struggle with certain sin in our life is because of the fact that we have not tasted of true repentance or are not tasting of it more often than we should. You look at your life and you think that your life is like this perpetual cycle of disobedience in a specific area that you feel like this sin I cannot shake. The couple, married couple or engaged couple or a couple that is, that's getting to know each other and dating, they continue to sin against each other in the very same ways. And they say, “I'm sorry.” And the same thing happens the next day, and, “I'm sorry.” And the same thing happens the next day. Bickering, backbiting, cursing one another, neglecting their duty, being careless. And it's eating away at the relationship and you see the disaster that is coming upon the relationship and you ask yourselves, “Is this just how it's meant to be, or is there such a thing as transformation? Can there be change?” What about the bitter man who interprets the world through the eyes of his bitterness, enslaved by angry, bitter thoughts, looks at the world and thinks God owes him more, looks at his relationships and thinks they all owe me more? And he's bitter against the world around him. Is there any hope for him? Is there any transformation for him, or is this his lot in life? What about the addict that has tried Alcoholics Anonymous and tries every kind of thing to stop it? The nicotine addiction, the alcohol addiction, you know, you name it, the pornography addiction or the substance addiction, and you think, “How can one break from these chains? Is there any hope for them?” Maybe you feel like you're described like Peter describes it in these really vulgar terms that were like the dog that returns to his own vomit, or the pig that when he is washed returns to his wallowing in the mire or in the mud. You think to yourself, “What on earth? Is this going to be my life?” I suggest to you that the problem is that our response to our sin is all too typical. We sin, we are troubled in our conscience, we don't like the consequences of our sin, and so we make quick confession. We desire to have some change in our lives because we want things to turn back to normal, and we make a little commitment to change. But the next thing we know, the failure is right there again, and it feels like it's not going anywhere. That's a worldly sorrow kind of repentance orchestrated by the flesh to silence your guilty conscience. And we all do it. I ask my son, even at this age, when he says, “I'm sorry,” it's automatic now. Do something wrong, he knows what's coming. So, “I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.” He even goes, “Are you happy?” after he says it. Oh, he needs a dose of godly sorrow. But we ask him, “Why, why are you sorry?” because we want to kind of see what's going on in that heart. He just knows the way to clear his conscience and move on. And we ask him, “Why are you sorry?” But we ask our children that question quite often, but do we ever ask ourselves that question, “Why am I sorry?” When you confess your sins to God in the morning, when you go throughout your day and you wrong the Lord, do you ever ask yourself, “Why am I sorry? Really, why am I sorry?” Why am I sorry? Am I sorry because I'm scared I'm going to get caught? Why am I sorry? Because I want things to get right in that relationship, and I don't like the pain of a broken relationship. Why am I sorry for my sin? Is it because I want increased comfort? Why am I sorry for my sin? Because I want to silence the guilt in my own heart? Because I want to spare myself from embarrassment? Why are we sorry? We should be sorry because we offended a holy God, and we've broken the first and the second commandment to love the Lord our God with all our hearts and to love our neighbor as ourselves. And this offends the Lord. We should be sorry because our anxiety and our fear says that God is not sovereign, and it says that God is not good. That's why we should be sorry for our anxiety and our fear, because it drags God's name in the dirt. Why should we be sorry for our covetousness and for our pride and for our lust and for our idolatry? Why should we be sorry for that? Because it says that God is not enough and that He doesn't satisfy. Let that sink in for a moment and let that work in your heart and let that truth produce in you by the power of the Spirit a godly sorrow that will cause you to rise and say like David, “Against You and You only have I sinned, oh God, and done this great wickedness.” We sit there and say, “You sinned against Bathsheba.” Yes, He did. And you sinned against Uriah. 100% He did. But David is so consumed with a godly sorrow that he sees the holiness of God so shining forth from His throne that he says, “God, I've sinned against You and You only, and I've done this great wickedness. Lord, have mercy on me. Blot out my transgressions. Forgive my sin.” We ought to see sin for what it really is, that disgusting vice that damages our walk with God and our relationship with others. It mocks God, it robs Him of His glory that is due to His name. And we ought to feel the weight of that. We ought to feel the guilt of that. We ought to feel the shame of that in such a way that it drives us to the mercy of God in Christ and causes us like the Ninevites to cry out mightily to God that He might have mercy on us. Perhaps you look at this text, you look at this passage, you hear this sermon, and you say, “I need a dose of godly sorrow in my life.” Well, it's time to be like the king of Nineveh, to give up the throne and embrace the dust and ashes. To lay aside your glory and come to the mercy of God. To come to the mercy of God in Christ, the crucified one who died for our sins upon the cross, and to look upon Him and say, “My sin is so heinous and so evil and so wretched, and I war against it this day because my sin was nailed to that sinless Savior's cross who bore it in His body on the tree. And God, have mercy on me, have mercy on me. Do not overthrow me. Do not judge me. Forgive me in the Lord Jesus Christ, for I have sinned and I have wronged Your name, and I've treaded upon the blood of the Son of God afresh and put Him to an open shame.” To flee to Christ, to sing, as we'll sing in a moment, “Lord, take away the love of sinning,” and to come to God knowing and understanding and believing that He is a merciful God, and that if we relent and turn from our sin, God will relent and turn from the judgment. Come with the confidence, believing in God's mercy. As Tom posted and is about Thomas Watson, what he said here, “God is more willing to pardon than to punish. Mercy does more multiply in Him than sin in us. Mercy is His nature. The bee naturally gives honey. It stings only when it is provoked.” Come to the Lord and He will have mercy on you. Let us pray.