(Read Jonah 3)
JONAH’S was a short sermon; it contained but eight words in all. Hear what he said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” That was the burden of Jonah’s preaching. It was a word of threatening judgment.
“Nineveh, that great city! Who can overthrow it? who can touch Nineveh?” unbelief might have so said. And what does unbelief now say? ― That the Bible is an old woman’s book. Ah! but why then is there such a fuss made about the ruins of Nineveh? Do they not prove that the Bible is true? What Jonah threatened, has come to pass. Nineveh has been overthrown.
Mark what effect these eight words of God had on the inhabitants of the great city. Did the Ninevites sit down, and calculate what they could do before the day of overthrow should come? Did they say, “We have forty days before us yet; we will have our fling of sinning?” No! not one so spoke. “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.” They believed God, and neither scoffed at the preaching, nor reckoned on these forty days of grace. They one and all of them repented. You might have heard the king say, “What avails my kingly robe, if in forty days I shall be in eternity?”
He flung his robe aside. We read, “The word came unto the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.” What a wonderful sight I King and people are clothed in sackcloth, and sitting in ashes!
Sinner, have you laid aside your robe? Have you clothed yourself in moral sackcloth, and do you sit in the ashes of repentance? Hear what the Lord says, “The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it.” Why? “Because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here” (Matt. 12:4141The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. (Matthew 12:41)). Yes, indeed a greater than Jonas was here! But have you repented? The Ninevites repented when they heard the prophet’s words; and you, my reader, have often heard the words of the Lord’s ambassador, but have you repented?
Do you ask, “Must I repent in order to be saved?” Most certainly you must repent. Then what is repentance? “Repentance is the tear-drop in the eye of faith.” Faith is believing God, and repentance is humbling one’s self before God. You have sins, for you know you are a sinner. Do not think of others; think of no one but yourself. I mean you. When a man really repents, he thinks every one right but himself. Have you been wakened up to the fact that you are a ruined sinner? The Lord Jesus has come; but the point is, do you believe it, and do you see you need a Saviour? The Ninevites repented, and mercy followed their repentance. “God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did not.”
If you repent, you will first come to yourself. This is what we read the prodigal did in Luke 15:1717And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! (Luke 15:17), when he had spent all in the far country, ― “he came to himself” Did you ever think that you were a spiritual lunatic, my reader? You may have read in the daily paper of one who in a fit of momentary insanity took away his life; but did it ever occur to you, dear unsaved soul, that you are a spiritual suicide, that you are sacrificing your precious, your never-dying soul? Yours is no momentary insanity! Is any moral insanity greater than that evinced by thousands, who are hastening on the road which leads straight to hell, where they perish forever? They are spiritual suicides, who hear the Gospel, but do not believe it. The men of Nineveh were wiser than you are. They heard, and they repented, for they believed the word of God.
Repentance is a blessed thing. The moment you repent, God rejoices. “Joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth.” Jesus said so; and why all this joy? Because the sinner who repents, is awakened to see his real condition before God. It is the Spirit of God which works this repentance, and it is because the word of God is believed and received into the heart. What is it that makes the sinner anxious at the Gospel meeting? It is the Spirit of God at work with him. He hears God’s word, which tells him what he really is, namely, a sinner before God. Oh, what a beautiful sight is a company of anxious souls! Heaven beheld a city-full, when in Nineveh, from the king downwards, every soul believed the word of God, and repented. The people were clothed in sackcloth; and if you repent, as you read this paper, God will see you in the dust of repentance, and clothed in moral sack-cloth and ashes.
Had you gone into Nineveh after the day of Jonah’s preaching, you would have found no laughter there. Solemn anguish of soul was written on every face. What a thorough humbling before God that was That is what you need, my friend; what must be, before God can repent Himself of the evil He hath said must fall―yea, does now rest― on the impenitent sinner. I suppose earth never presented such a sight as that which Heaven beheld when, from one end of the city to the other, the people of Nineveh lay in self-abasement before God.
When a man judges himself, and believes that which God says is the truth regarding him, he repents. Now what has He said of you? I address my unsaved reader. He says, You are lost! Do you believe it? You say, “I hope not.” Friend, you have not repented, ―that is clear. You have not yet gone down in your own eyes, as did the prodigal. He said, “I am no more worthy to be called thy son.” He allowed and declared what was the true state of matters within. There was no cloaking up of what he really was, yet he had a wrong thought about his father. He expected to get a servant’s place in the house; and with all the humbling the Ninevites manifested, there was something wrong at the bottom with them also. They had a wrong thought about God. They said, “Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away his fierce anger, that we perish not?”
“Who can tell if God will turn?” Ah, that was all they could say of God? They did not know the heart of God; but I do, and I can tell you that the moment the sinner repents, God will save him. “If,” was all they could venture on. I can tell you assuredly, that when you bow to the word of God, you will have the Father’s kiss of love. He longs to see you coming from “the far country.” God gave His Son to take the guilty sinner’s place. God was never unreconciled, and now we pray you to be reconciled. Listen to the Saviour’s words, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth, in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” The men of Nineveh might say, “Perhaps we shall not perish;” but Jesus said, “Whosoever believeth shall not perish.” That is God’s answer to all doubting, all unbelief.
They repented at the preaching of Jonah, but the Gospel we preach tells more than Jonah’s sermon did. It tells that Christ has come and done a work, which enables God to bless every one who comes to Him, having “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:2121Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. (Acts 20:21)).
When you believe what God says of you, you will have this repentance toward God; and when you simply trust Jesus, you have faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
You tell me you are miserable! Well, I thank God you are miserable; I rejoice to hear it, for then I am sure you are on the way to blessing. But do I hear another say, “I never was miserable because of sin?” So much the worse for you; but your day is coming, you must get into God’s presence sooner or later. Better far to get there now, when God is blessing, and whilst grace reigns. Listen to what the Word of God says to you: ― “Despisest thou the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?”
Heed what Romans 2. says. Oh, what an awful thing for a sinner to despise the goodness of God! Well, you have done this, for you have heard the Gospel which tells of His grace, and you have not bowed to it. You are still unsaved! What a testimony against yourself! You know not that the goodness of God ‘would lead you to repentance. Oh, embrace the present moment. Come to Christ now. God is working by His grace, Christ has finished His work, and the Holy Ghost is here convincing of sin. Turn to God, and you shall be blessed. Salvation is sure, if you come now. Listen to the beseechings of grace, ―the rich grace of the Saviour-God. Let His goodness lead thee to repentance. Come to God as you are, ―a sinner, in your rags. Come now, ―
“Come, ye weary, heavy-laden,
Lost and ruined by the fall;
If you tarry till you’re better,
You will never come at all:
Not the righteous―
Sinners Jesus came to call.”
Did the prodigal get new clothes before he started for the father’s house? Not In his rags he came, filthy and unworthy as he was. Oh, touching love! He got the kiss of reconciliation the moment he came. Let this repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, be found in your soul. Let there be the simple earnest reception of the Gospel now. God calls you. When He called Abraham, Abraham obeyed; “he believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.” May you do so just now. I have believed God, I have seen my ruin, I have come to Jesus. I know His work is done, and it avails for me. Do you think you are too great a sinner to share the benefits of what Christ has done? I can relieve you on that score, if only you will listen to the precious words of Revelation, which calls upon every soul who reads this to believe. “Let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” “Whosoever,” charming word! heaven-born word! Sinner, of whatsoever caste you are, that word whosoever calls upon you to bow to God’s invitation to believe, to rejoice, and to be saved.
W. T. P. W.