An Outstanding Mercy

At this time, have come to the portion of our worship service where we consider God’s word.

This morning, the passage that we’re going to consider comes from Jonah chapter three.

Jonah chapter three.

I’m going to invite you to stand.

Let us read these words from Jonah chapter three and then we’ll remain standing and read Titus chapter two verses eleven through fifteen.

Jonah chapter three starting in verse three.

So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord.

Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breath.

Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey and he called out yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

And the people of Nineveh believed God.

They called for a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least of them.

The word reached the king of Nineveh and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and satin ashes and he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles.

Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock taste anything.

Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and let them call out mightily to God.

Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.

Who knows?

God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish.

When God saw what they did, how they had turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them and he did not do it.

Hear these words from the epistle to the letter to Titus.

For the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passion and to live self controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from a lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

Declare these things, exhort and rebuke with all authority.

Let no one disregard you.

Let us pray.

Father, we thank you for your word.

We ask, Lord, that you would cause this word to be prospered in our lips in my on my lips and that your Spirit would preach a better sermon than I can.

Father, cause these words to fall on fertile ground.

We would not hear it and dismiss it, but that we would hear it and heed and learn.

We might understand your ways, your purposes for our lives.

It is through Christ we pray.

Amen and amen.

You may be seated this morning.

This morning I want to begin with a question.

And the question is this.

What is it that you enjoy?

What is it that brings your heart contentment?

What is it that brings your heart satisfaction?

Is it a vacation with family?

Is it helping out your children or coming to the aid of someone in need?

Maybe it’s cooking or eating whatever is cooked.

Maybe it’s reading.

You know what brings you joy.

You know what brings you satisfaction.

What brings your soul tranquility.

What is it?

This morning that answer could be answered in many different ways.

Maybe as many people that are here this morning will have a different answer for that question.

But if we were to turn that question around and ask this question, what is that brings joy and satisfaction to God?

What would be that answer?

What does God delight doing?

What does God delight engaging in?

What does bring what is it that brings him satisfaction?

What is it that brings him pleasure?

What we find out as we read the Bible is that God takes pleasure in being worshipped.

He takes delight in being praised.

You might say, that’s pretty egotistical.

That God would delight merely in people singing his praises.

But when you read scripture, there is one reason foundationally that God likes to receive praise for.

And what is that?

God likes to receive praise in how he extends mercy to those who don’t deserve it.

If there is something that delights God, if there is something that God takes pleasure in, if there is something that God enjoys to do again and again, is to show sinners mercy.

He rejoices in it.

Just like you have a favorite food, God has a favorite activity.

Just like you like to enjoy your vacations and your expeditions, God delights in showing mercy.

He rejoices in it.

He takes pleasure in it.

There is not a day that he doesn’t engage in this very activity in you, brother and sister, friend.

Know this, God delights to show compassion.

In Luke fifteen, we get three stories.

One of a lost sheep, one of a lost coin, and one of a lost son.

And what we see is that there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.

Why?

Because God delights, takes pleasure to show mercy.

And so the main point of the sermon this morning is this, God is eager to show mercy.

God is eager to show compassion.

God is willing and able to extend grace.

God is not a penny pincher when it comes to extending mercy.

God is not trying to hoard mercy for himself.

God is eager to show mercy.

And the question is how does God delight to show mercy?

I think in the passage that we read, God shows us there are three ways that God delights to show mercy.

And the first one is this.

God delights to show mercy by communicating to us his will.

God delights to show mercy by communication.

God delights in showing mercy by communicating with us.

He doesn’t leave us to guess what is it that he wants us to do, but God communicates.

God sends his messenger to communicate his desire and his will.

And so we read in verse three of chapter three of Jonah.

So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, a great city, three days journey in breath.

But what this shows is that God is interested in this city.

God knows that Nineveh belongs to him.

God is interested in Nineveh not because they’re not merely because they’re sinners, but because Nineveh belongs to him.

He created Nineveh.

He created the people who belong there.

They are image bearers in Nineveh and he takes interest in Nineveh.

God is interested in this wicked city.

Just like God is interested in New York, in Los Angeles, and even in the Chicago land area.

God was interested in the city of Nineveh because he wanted to do something.

And with us, it’s easily to dismiss the importance of these cities because we think that they’re going to hell in a handbasket.

That all they do is promote crime and injustice.

But even in the most wicked city, God is willing to take interest in them because he delights in showing mercy.

And so Jonah in verse four begins his preaching tour.

Jonah begins to proclaim the message that God gives to him.

Now the message that Jonah proclaims is pretty short.

We don’t know why it’s so short.

Maybe the author, the narrator is trying to summarize the sermon for us or maybe this is a instance where what we’re seeing is Jonah’s apathetic disposition toward the Ninevites, where he wants to give them the least information possible.

His sermon is eight words in English, five words in the original Hebrew.

But nonetheless, God is going to use his sermon.

God is going to use the sermon whether if it’s apathetic or indifferent.

God uses the sermon that Jonah proclaims to the people.

And he says, yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.

It’s weird that Jonah doesn’t begin with the usual thus says the Lord.

He gives no grounds for the judgment.

He doesn’t say the Nineveh is gonna be overthrown because of their wickedness.

He just says flat out, Nineveh is gonna be overthrown.

And he doesn’t tell them what they’re supposed to do to avert the danger.

Jonah just says, God is gonna overthrow Nineveh in forty days.

And yet, God uses his message.

God uses this short message from the prophet.

And if you think about it, through these five words in the original Hebrew, a revival came.

God used Jonah’s message and he uses ordinary means to bring about revival.

Revival came not through decision from the supreme court, not because who’s in the White House, not because the Christian group got relief in a court case.

Revival came because a message from God was proclaimed.

And if we want to see revival, we must speak the word of God to others.

If we want to see God turn hearts from darkness into light, we must proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.

What is the message that Jonah gives?

He says judgment is coming.

Despite Jonah’s flaws, what Jonah communicates is truth.

Judgment in his coming on the wicked.

Judgment is coming on those who don’t place their hope in Jesus.

Do you do we believe that?

Do we know that the wrath of God rests on those who don’t turn to him in faith?

Yes.

God is desiring to show mercy.

But if there is no repentance, the fearful expectation is judgment.

And God in his desire to avert judgment, he wants to communicate with Nineveh.

Don’t go down that path.

As a matter of fact, this idea of forty days, it could be that the author here is trying to give two options to Jonah, to to the Ninevites.

Because if we remember our bible stories from the beginning of the book of Genesis, we’ll remember that forty days was what was spoken to the people who were warned by the prophet Noah.

In forty days, destruction was gonna come.

But if we move to the book of Exodus, it was in forty days that God extended mercy to the Israelites after they had broken covenant.

So here it seems that God is saying, if you repent, if you turn from your wicked ways, I am willing, I am desirous, I am eager to show mercy.

Why?

Because God delights in showing mercy.

People misunderstand that the message of warning is actually a message of mercy.

Evangelist Rico Tice, he shared about an experience he had in Australia.

He says that he went out to swim at a certain beach.

And when he was about to get into the water, his friend mentioned to him, look, do you see those signs?

Those signs says danger sharks.

This evangelist brushed him off and he said, don’t be a killjoy.

I want to have fun.

And his friend replied, well, you go ahead and have fun.

But more than two hundred Australians have died in shark attacks.

Those signs are there to save you.

They’re not there to ruin your fun.

And the message of Jonah to the Ninevites was not to ruin their fun, but so that they can delight in a God who is willing to extend mercy to them.

Brothers and sisters, when we warn people about hell, we are warning them in mercy.

We are warning them in compassion.

We want them to escape the judgment that comes on those who don’t turn to Jesus.

We want them to experience grace.

Why?

Because there is an abundance of it in God.

And so Jonah speaks to them, mercy even when the message is of judgment.

In that same book, Rico Tice describes an interaction or he quotes this man by the name of Penn Jillette.

And Penn Jillette says these words, I’ve always said that I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize or evangelize or gospelize.

I don’t respect that at all.

If you believe there is a heaven and a hell and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life and you think that that is not really worth telling them this is because it would make it socially awkward, how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize?

Well, Pangilat is saying if you really believe that people without Christ are going to hell, he asked the question, how much do you have to hate someone to not tell them the truth?

My dear brothers and sisters, this is a hard reality.

But when we explain to people that there’s no hope outside of them in Jesus Christ, we are extending to them mercy.

So God in his love communicates.

God delights in showing mercy by communicating to us mercy.

And how does God communicate mercy to us?

He shows us that apart from Christ we are damned.

That there’s no hope for us.

That there is no relief for us.

But if you come running to the fountain of mercy, if you come and wash yourself in the blood of Christ, if you come and wash yourself in the precious savior, there is abundance of grace.

So the first thing that God does to communicate mercy to us is he communicates.

The second thing is that God works repentance.

God works repentance.

Look at what happens.

Jonah proclaimed the sermon eight words and what happens?

The people of Nineveh believed.

The people of Nineveh believed.

This is astounding.

This is amazing.

Just like Abraham left his homeland in belief after God revealed himself to him, the people of Nineveh believe.

How does this happen?

Because God is working repentance into their hearts.

He is opening up their eyes to see their predicament.

He is making them aware that they are doomed for destruction if they don’t turn from their wicked ways.

They believe the message.

We don’t know Jonah’s motive.

We don’t know how his heart was when he declared the message.

But what we do know is that God wrote a He drew a straight line with a crooked stick.

This is what we call effectual calling.

God is working in our hearts so that we could be our eyes could be opened, so that we can see the mercy that is extended to us in Jesus Christ.

That we are safe and secure.

That that that there is a bountiful mercy in his arms.

And so what we see in verse five is that people from biggest to smallest believe the message.

And so much so, repentance is it’s it’s demonstrated by their willingness to engage in sackcloth and to fast and to not intake food.

They were so discouraged or they were so depressed by the the possibility of danger that they were willing to humble themselves to seek God’s mercy.

So the people begin.

Jonah’s message didn’t reach the king immediately.

Jonah’s message was merely to the people and they didn’t wait for the decree that’s going to come here in the later verses.

They immediately respond in belief.

But it says that the king also replied, replied to Jonah’s message and he also believed.

Look at verse six.

It says that he left his throne and that he removed his royal clothing and he covered himself in sackcloth.

He showed himself to be penitent.

He showed himself to be remorseful.

He sat in ashes.

And then he makes this proclamation in verses seven through eight.

He says, Let there be fasting for both man and beast.

Let no one drink.

Let everyone man and beast take on sackcloth, call to God and turn from evil and violence.

Here is a proclamation going for from the king to his people saying, let’s turn to God.

How does this happen?

It’s because God was working in them mercy.

These Ninevites show simple faith.

They didn’t say, Jonah, explain to us.

Give the five proofs for God.

Explain to us what is the answer.

Why does bad things happen to good people?

No.

No.

No.

It was a simple faith.

If that’s true, and if this is the God who made heaven and earth, and if he is averting us and if he’s warning us, we believe that message.

That happens because God opened their eyes to see the truth of the gospel.

Jesus chastised the religious leaders of his time because they would not believe Jesus who was a greater proclaimer of God’s truth than Jonah.

And yet with the simple message of Jonah, an entire city turned from wicked ways to the one true God.

But notice in verse nine, there’s no presumption on the Ninevites.

They’re not demanding that God do something for them.

They’re not demanding that God have mercy on them.

He said the king says, who knows?

We don’t know.

Maybe God will forgive us.

Maybe the judgment that’s coming upon us will be averted.

They don’t presume upon God’s grace.

They don’t say, God, you deserve to show me mercy now.

They say we surrender.

If you’re a God who’s averting us, we surrender to you.

If you’re warning us, it means because it means that you are trying to relieve us from the danger.

This is what the canons of Dorit say.

The articles one and two of the first head of doctrine says, all humanity had sinned in Adam.

And because they sinned in Adam, they deserved eternal death.

And it says that God would do no injustice if he left them to perish forever.

In other words, if God didn’t save us, he would have done nothing wrong.

Why?

Because he didn’t violate his command.

God didn’t sin.

God created Adam in perfect harmony with him.

It was Adam who violated and through Adam’s sin, we sin.

But what does the second article say?

Yet God, his love shines forth in sending his only son Jesus Christ so that whoever believes in him may escape condemnation.

That is the beauty of the gospel.

God didn’t have to save us, but this is what this passage teaches us, is that God delights.

He is eager.

He takes pleasure in showing mercy.

This is the evidence that God delights to show mercy, that he sends forth his son.

If you remember the story of the prodigal, the prodigal son.

The prodigal son takes his cue from the king of Nineveh.

The king of Nineveh says, who knows?

God might have mercy and the prodigal son says, I’m gonna just beg.

I’m not gonna come back as a son.

I’m coming back as a slave.

No presumption.

But knowing that in God’s house there is abundant provision and that is the message that God wants to communicate to us.

Dear brothers and sisters, let us not run from God.

When God speaks of us of his will, it’s not to kill our joy.

It’s to show us that if you go on living in that way, destruction is coming.

But here come turn, receive mercy.

Receive grace.

And that is what we see here in verse ten.

God is eager to show us mercy because he offers outstanding mercy.

God offers outstanding mercy.

God delights showing us mercy by extending us outstanding other worldly grace.

When God saw says, verse ten, he stopped.

You say that’s it?

That’s it?

I mean, what about all the evil that was committed?

I remember talking to someone.

He said to me, he asked me this question.

He said, if Hitler would have genuinely repented on his deathbed, genuinely repented, and had turned from the evil of his ways, My friend asked me, would he have gone to heaven?

My answer to him was yes.

His answer, he said, I don’t want to be in heaven where Hitler can possibly be there.

And the reason he answered that is because he doesn’t understand the God of mercy.

Why?

Because if Hitler would have been repentant, you know who would have taken the punishment for Hitler?

Jesus.

Jesus’ sacrifice was so great that it was so powerful that it could have paid the debt for someone who killed thousands and millions of people.

You see, if you don’t believe that your God is too small and the offer of salvation is too truncated.

But here we have a God who is willing to extend mercy.

You see if it were us, we would question the Ninevites.

How long did you fast?

How rough was that sackcloth?

How how much did you not drink?

How many days?

We would interrogate just to see how genuine the repentance is, but it says that God saw and he relented.

God saw them turn and he showed them mercy.

He showed them grace.

If you remember the story of the prodigal son, the prodigal son doesn’t make it home.

The prodigal son is interrupted by the father who runs to him when he sees him coming home.

That is the God who delights in showing mercy.

He doesn’t wait until we turn all the way.

He sees us turn and he runs towards us in our misery and in our sin.

Brothers and sisters, this is an astounding mercy.

This is an astounding grace.

Hear these words from author Dane Ortland in his book Gentle and Lonely.

He says this, nowhere else in the Bible is God described as rich in anything.

The only thing he is called rich in is mercy.

What does this mean?

It means that God is something other than what we naturally believe him to be.

It means the Christian life is a lifelong shedding of tepid thoughts of the goodness of God.

In his justice, God is exacting.

In his mercy, God is overflowing.

He is rich unto all.

That is he is infinite, overflowing in goodness.

He is good to a profuseness.

He is good to the pouring forth of riches.

He is good to an abundance.

That’s the God who we serve.

How do we know this?

Because of Jesus.

When Isaiah is speaking of Jesus, he describes them in this way.

He says, Jesus, he will not break.

A bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench.

He will faithfully bring forth justice.

You see that we were the bruised reed, A reed that was corrupted by sin.

A reed a branch that was ready to fall off.

And yet when Jesus comes and sees us in our predicament, he doesn’t finish us off to cast us off into condemnation.

He sees a bruised reed.

He sees a bruised branch and he comes near to mend the branch and and and he says that a smoldering wick about to be snuffed out, he doesn’t come out and blow it out.

What he does is he revives it.

He gives it life so it could burn for the glory of god.

God delights.

He takes pleasure.

He finds joy in showing mercy.

There is no red tape for God.

There is no bureaucratic hurdles that you have to jump through.

No unnecessary obstacles.

God is not trying to make it difficult for you to find mercy.

He is abundant in mercy.

Maybe you’re here this morning and you’re running away from this very God.

You’re running away from mercy.

God wants you to find grace.

He wants you to drink heavily from the fountain of goodness because God is rich in mercy.

So if you’re here this morning and you haven’t turned, my appeal to you is turn.

Turn.

As we read earlier, the question is what is involved in genuine repentance or conversion?

Well, two things.

The dying away of the old self and the rising to new life.

What is the dying away of the old self?

To be genuinely sorry for sin and more and more to hate and run away from it.

And when you run away from sin, you run to the arms of grace.

And so my question to you is, if God delights showing mercy to others, do you delight that others would receive mercy?

Again, there’s an appeal to us.

One of the ways we know we understand the gospel is when we’re willing to tell the gospel to others.

Why?

Because so much mercy has been poured on on us through Jesus Christ that we cannot not tell others about this goodness.

So let’s share.

Let’s share the good news of Jesus with others.

Let’s confess Jesus’ name.

Let’s be a witness to a dying world.

Let’s tell sinners who are on their way to judgment.

Let’s tell them here, There’s room for you at the cross.

There’s a place for you to receive mercy upon mercy, grace upon grace.

Let’s pray for our unconverted family members.

That they may receive mercy.

But not only that, it’s not only relegated to this evangelistic zeal, but it’s also in our personal lives, our families.

I could ask this question, husbands, do you delight in showing mercy to your wife and to your children?

Do you overflow with compassion?

Or are you stingy with grace?

Are you a penny pincher with compassion?

Are you exacting and giving mercy to the down to the penny?

Or are you just keep the change?

Wife, do you delight showing mercy to your husband and children?

Does your wife know Does your husband know that you are compassionate and that you are ready to forgive?

That just like God is ready to extend mercy, are you ready to extend mercy?

Children, do you delight showing mercy to your parents when they make a mistake?

Or do you delight showing mercy to your siblings?

Those who have gone and done things that you wouldn’t do.

And finally, congregation.

Do we delight showing mercy to one another?

Do we take pleasure in helping when our brothers and sisters are in need?

Do we delight in offering our gifts that God has given to us to the benefit of our brothers and sisters in this congregation?

Do do we are we exacting?

I’ll give just enough, but ask no more.

But but God is not like that.

God goes above and beyond.

He extends mercy and mercy and mercy.

Are we willing to offer up our lives to extend mercy upon mercy to our brothers and sisters?

And I’m talking about beyond just Sundays throughout the week.

Times where we have spare time.

We delight.

We take pleasure in showing mercy.

This morning we have seen that God delights in showing mercy.

God’s not shy about his mercy.

He is not stingy with his mercy.

God finds joy and satisfaction in showing mercy.

We should too.

Let’s not be stingy.

Let’s proclaim that Jesus saves.

Let’s not hoard up grace to ourselves.

Let us be lavish and say to all, there is abundant mercy in Jesus and there’s abundant mercy that I can extend to all.

Let us imitate God in showing mercy.

Let us pray.

Father in heaven, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for the love of God that has been lavished on our hearts.

Love of Jesus extends to us mercy upon mercy, grace upon grace.

I pray father that we would rejoice in that mercy.

Take pleasure in it, not to hoard it, but also to proclaim it to others.

It is through Christ we pray.

Amen and amen.