South Woods Baptist Church

The course of the world has been affected by spiritual awakenings. Our own history as a nation was altered due to the two "great awakenings" which led to widespread conversions in the 18th and 19th centuries. As the term "awakening" might suggest, it refers to a sudden, unexpected increase of the sovereign work of God in widespread fashion. The consciousness of communities toward the things of God are elevated, a fear of God sweeps through like a tornadic wind, and many are brought to a genuine knowledge of Christ in a short period of time. Work that might have taken years to accomplish takes place in a matter of days.

When Isaac Watts commented on the first Great Awakening in the American colonies, he wrote, "We see how easy it is for him [the Lord] with one turn of his hand, with one word of his mouth, to awaken whole countries of stupid and sleeping sinners, and kindle divine life in their souls. The heavenly influence shall run from door to door, filling the hearts and lips of every inhabitant with importunate inquires, What shall we do to be saved? And how shall we escape the wrath to come?" [A Narrative of Surprising Conversions, Jonathan Edwards, 3].

 

It was in the midst of such a surprising awakening which we find Jonah. "Surprising" might be the right term, for the last people on the face of the earth who might possibly see a sweeping work of God would be Nineveh. This ancient city was home to superb artisans and builders who constructed an elaborate city with 200 feet high walls, with a breadth wide enough for three chariots to pass simultaneously. Their scientific minds coupled with military prowess produced the most feared people on the face of the earth in the 9th and 10th centuries BC. Their disregard for human life was notable. They would cut the noses off of those whom they conquered, and many they would literally skin while alive. As the Psalmist would describe the depravity of man, "There is no fear of God before his eyes" (36:1). The least likely place that a spiritual awakening would take place in the early part of the eighth century BC was Nineveh.

 

Yet it was to this wicked city that Jehovah sent his prophet to proclaim divine judgment. In the process of his own rebellion, Jonah came face to face with the severity of divine judgment. The fear of God was certainly before his eyes. After being expelled onto dry land from the fish's belly, he made the 600-650 mile journey from the Mediterranean coast to Nineveh, the capitol of the Assyrian Empire. He had considerable time to ponder the judgments of God and to think of the mercy he had been shown, as he likely traveled for a month before reaching his appointed destination. Jonah's own experience had prepared him to preach with unusual unction. "The jewels of spiritual service are always quarried in the depths of spiritual experience," as Sinclair Ferguson wrote [Man Overboard!, 94]. Jonah was prepared.

 

But in the secret places of the heart, the Spirit of God worked to prepare Nineveh as well. The prophet had no clue as to what might take place when he entered this city of ruthless people to tell them that they faced imminent destruction at the hand of Jehovah. Surprisingly, the Lord worked to pluck from the fires of judgment a Gentile people for himself. The fact that Nineveh had not prepared themselves for revival nor had even sought revival did not hinder the working of the Lord.

 

The Lord God is not constrained nor manipulated by man to exercise His sovereign pleasure in widespread conversion of unbelieving communities and nations. The book of Jonah offers a telling example of God's work to awaken unbelievers. How did this awakening come about? Let us consider the insights of our text.

 

I. Awakening message

 

Central to every spiritual awakening we have recorded in history is the proclamation of God's Word. We often hear of prayer preceding awakenings, and indeed it does in many cases, but we always see the proclamation of the Word which ushers in the mighty movings of God's Spirit. God is pleased to unite his saving power with the clear exposition of his truth.

 

I realize that we hear much about how Jonah was an oddity in Nineveh. Certainly a man who had spent three days in a fish's belly and had been bleached by its gastric juices would be an oddity! But that was not the force which brought about change in Nineveh. The opening call of God upon Jonah's life was to "cry against" Nineveh because of their wickedness (1:2). That was a cry of proclamation, delivering the word of truth to them. Again, in Jonah's recommissioning, the Lord clarifies that he is to "proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you" (3:2). Jonah was a messenger, delivering the word of the Lord to this ungodly people. I believe that it is imperative for us to consider the message of Jonah in helping us to understand God's working in spiritual awakenings.

 

1. Content

 

Jonah had something to say. He did not simply 'beat his gums together' in an exercise of verbiage. His message was streamlined, to the point, and a reflection of the revelation of God to him. He was a man on a mission. As fine as it may have been, he was not establishing social ministries to Nineveh. He did not come to introduce them to the latest programs in the life of Judaism. He brought no cute cliches or entertaining speeches. He came to preach the word of the Lord with authority.  

      

It is obvious that the message he preached had an impact upon their lives, for we read, "Then the people of Nineveh believed in God ["believed God" NKJV, NIV]." These were pagan, unbelieving people who had no knowledge of God before them. They had no Scripture to read. They had received no previous ministry of divine revelation as far as we know. They heard the preaching of one man declaring the law and judgment of God against sinners; and they responded in faith in that revelation proclaimed.

 

Notice the message Jonah preached. "Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown." Was this the entire message he preached? Most commentators think that Jonah probably said more but this summarized his message. He likely told them of his calling, his running from God, and the divine judgment which he faced. In light of that, Jonah assured the Ninevites that God's judgment was upon them. He surely reproved them for their wickedness because we see later that the king of Nineveh proclaimed to the citizens, Let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands. Jonah's preaching applied the law of God to the actions of the Ninevites. They saw that their sin demanded a divine response. They understood that such sin requires His burning anger against them.

 

Jonah gave great attention to the law and judgment of God. It was not easy to listen to him. There was no appealing to men's senses in the message. He let them know that their offense was so great that they stood on the precipice of the severe judgment of God. There was no escape. Does the preaching of Jonah parallel any of the other great awakenings in history?

 

I believe that we see similar preaching throughout history. The period of the Reformation was certainly a great awakening of mammoth proportions. The preaching of Luther, Calvin, Knox, and others was not soft, felt-need messages. They proclaimed the judgment of God. Luther's 95 Theses which he nailed to the church door at Wittenberg declared the fallacies of the Roman church and the sure judgment of God. As example, consider, "32. Those who suppose that on account of their letters of indulgence they are sure of salvation will be eternally damned along with their teachers." John Knox thundered with such fierceness of divine judgment that even Queen Mary trembled at the thought of him.

 

In the first Great Awakening of the 18th century, we find men like George Whitefield, Gilbert Tennent, his brother William, and Jonathan Edwards, preaching the severity of divine judgment against sinners. Edwards "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" was preached at Enfield, CT, July 8, 1741, and was met with loud cries from anxious unbelievers, as many grasped onto the pews and columns in the church to keep from sliding that moment into hell. One paragraph from that sermon will help us to see the focus of judgment against law-breaking sinners.

They are already under a sentence of condemnation to hell. They do not only justly deserve to be cast down thither, but the sentence of the law of God, that eternal and immutable rule of righteousness that God has fixed between him and mankind, is gone out against them, and stands against them; so that they are bound over already to hell. John iii.18. "He that believeth not is condemned already." So that every unconverted man properly belongs to hell: that is his place; from thence he is John viii.23. "Ye are from beneath," and thither he is bound; it is the place that justice, and God's word, and the sentence of his unchangeable law, assign to him [Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. II, 8].

Later, as Edwards commented on the extraordinary work of divine awakenings, he said this about his preaching. "I never found so much immediate saving fruit, in any measure, of any discourses I have offered to my congregation, as some from these words, Rom. iii.19. 'That every mouth may be stopped;' endeavouring [sic] to show from thence, that it would be just with God for ever to reject and cast off mere natural men" [italics added; Jonathan Edwards on Revival, 31]. I realize that this would not be popular preaching in our own day of appealing to the felt-needs of man, but it was preaching which the Lord owned in mighty power. It was a preaching of the judgment due to man because of the wicknedness of his nature and because he has broken the laws of God, so that his only hope is the mercy of God.

 

Before we can understand the good news of the gospel, we must see that "whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may become accountable to God" (Rom. 3:19). A man will continually try to justify himself by excusing his sin and parading his good deeds as sufficient for righteousness. But the message of the law of God is that we are spiritually bankrupt, hopeless, and in spite of our best efforts, without God in this world. Have you come to see this in your own life? Have you been smitten by the law of God so that you realize your own sinfulness before God and that God himself can justly send you to hell?

 

Jonah did not preach, "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life." He preached God's loathing of them, his "burning anger" toward them, and the certainty of his judgment. I dare say, that most sinners will not give thought to God until they begin to feel the flame of divine wrath leaping toward them. Some among us are in that same boat. You have heard the gospel over and over yet you carelessly pass it by. Do you not see that just as God determined to judge Nineveh, he likewise determines to judge you? This was the message Paul declared to the Romans. "For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, 'AS I LIVE, SAYS THE LORD, EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW TO ME, AND EVERY TONGUE SHALL GIVE PRAISE TO GOD.' So then each one of us shall give account of himself to God" (Rom. 14:10-12).  It was the message Jesus Christ declared to the multitudes. "For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and WILL THEN RECOMPENSE EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS" (Matt. 16:27). It was the message delivered to the most scholarly people of the first century in Athens. "Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead" (Acts 17:30-31).

 

During the time of Edwards, a young woman named Abigail Hutchinson, was brought to an awareness of her own sinfulness and God's judgment against her. She was awakened to this reality when she heard of the conversion of another young lady, so that it stirred "a spirit of envy" in her toward that lady. She began to search the Scriptures herself, beginning at Genesis. That was on a Monday. By Thursday, Edwards comments, "...then there was a sudden alteration, by a great increase of her concern, in an extraordinary sense of her own sinfulness, particularly the sinfulness of her nature, and wickedness of her heart." She left off reading the Old Testament and turned to the New Testament. Again she was distressed beyond measure. "Her great terror, she said, was, that she had sinned against God: her distress grew more and more for three days; until she saw nothing but blackness for fear of God's wrath: she wondered and was astonished at herself, that she had been so concerned for her body, and had applied so often to physicians to heal that, and had neglected her soul." The more she read and contemplated, the more she realized that not only was she guilty of Adam's sin, but she had brought judgment on herself because of her own sin. The agony of her soul made her physically ill, until the wonder of divine grace began to sweep over her and "her mind was led into such contemplations and views of Christ, as filled her exceeding full of joy" [Edwards, Works, vol. I, 359-360, italics in original].

 

She saw that she "had sinned against God." That was the reality which struck Nineveh at the message of Jonah. Do you know this same piercing reality? We can talk about sin in general without acknowledging that our sin is against God. We can view it as if it is some detached actions of our being which has no bearing on anything. We realized that the Ninevites saw that their sin was against God by the statement, "Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them." There was a genuine response of shame and repentance over their sin, when the recognition of their sin confronted them. Have you seen that your sin has come before God, condemning you, and positioning you for the certainty of judgment?

 

2. Intent

 

The message of Jonah appeared to be only one of gloom. But the fact that the message was delivered was an evidence of the divine intent to show mercy. "Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown," Jonah thundered. Why warn the Ninevites of judgment to come? Why give them forty days to consider their ways and anticipate the burning anger of God? If you compare this to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, you realize that they did not have forty hours, much less forty days. When the divine messengers entered the city, they went in order to deliver Lot and his family from the burning anger of God which was on its way. There were no warnings, no pleas with them to turn from their sin. It was judgment alone. But at Nineveh, in the words of Samuel Davies, "Even when their wickedness has scaled the heavens, and come up before him, he condescends to give them another warning, and suspends the blow for at least forty days longer, to see if they will at length repent" [Sermons of the Rev. Samuel Davies, vol. III, 122].        

 

Throughout the time of the Old Testament prophets, they declared the impending judgment of God. Hosea exposes the spiritual adultery of Israel. Joel demonstrates the wickedness of the nation. Amos names one sin after another to show Israel her spiritual condition. Yet all of these prophetic oracles come with a window of divine mercy and the call to repentance. The fact that the prophets exposed their sin demonstrated the intent of God to show mercy to them if they would repent and turn to him.

 

The 19th century Scotsman, Hugh Martin, writes that "all threatenings are warnings; that they are uttered, in order, if possible, that they may not be executed. Had it been the purpose of God, finally and irrevocably fixed, to overwhelm the city with destruction, it would have been unnecessary and superfluous to give them intimation. The announcement was given, clearly, if possible, that the evil might be averted" [The Prophet Jonah, 268].

 

If you have heard of the judgment of God, if it has dawned upon you with any sensibility, then recognize it as a demonstration of divine mercy. For multitudes have no such warnings and they face the judgment of God having never heard the Word of God proclaimed. These warnings are never to be presumed upon as though God only teases but surely will not deliver. The Ninevites believed what they heard. They saw this window of mercy but did not presume that God would deliver them, for their king declared, "Who knows, God may turn and relent, and withdraw His burning anger so that we shall not perish?" All they knew about Jehovah they had heard from the lips of Jonah. They surely had plenty of superstitions which were common to that era. They had ideas of other gods. But Jehovah was different. They had not been saturated with preaching so that they thought nothing of the message delivered. Instead, they were serious about what they heard concerning the anger of God toward sinners. They gave themselves to seeking mercy from the God whom they had angered.

 

What is the typical response in our own day when someone is warned of God's judgment? There may be a shrugging of the shoulders, a changing of the subject, or even a theological rebuttal denying that a God of love could do such a thing. But I remind you that the same chapter that tells us 'God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,' also tells us that those who are unbelieving are judged already (John 3:16, 18). "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." It is the mercy of God that reveals his judgments with the intent that you might believe and be saved.                

 

3. Urgency

 

Just ask the typical person if he deserves to go to hell and face an eternity of divine wrath. What will he say? 'Me? Deserve hell? Oh, I'm not that bad! 'But how bad is our sin? We may retreat and say that our sin was not as bad as that of Nineveh. Yet Jonah warned them, "Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown." How many days do you have? If Nineveh had forty days, and it was extraordinarily wicked, how many days in the patience of God do you have who have broken his laws and snubbed his kindnesses? We can boast about our good deeds, but James writes, "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all" (James 2:10).

 

"Forty days" ticks off the calendar quickly. The citizens of Nineveh realized that Jehovah was serious about his righteousness and the violators of his law. Forty days and counting before divine wrath would be poured upon them, devouring them as it did Sodom and Gomorrah centuries before. Those cities had no warning, but Nineveh had forty days to prepare to meet a thrice-holy God whose burning anger against sinners had been ignited.

 

The urgency in Jonah's message is something which we have lost in our own day. We can approach this in a twisted theological sense and say, 'Well, since God is sovereign in salvation then he will save me when he gets ready. Meanwhile, I'm just not going to think about it.' Or we can take the youthful approach, 'I'm young; I have plenty of time to consider spiritual things; my whole life is before me; its something that Ill get around to one day.' Or we can blow this off by saying, 'I don't want anyone telling me that I must do something. I'm my own person, leave me alone'.

 

Our text records a different attitude at the urgent message of the prophet. "When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat on the ashes." The king did not hesitate to exchange his throne and robe for ashes and sackcloth. The word traveled through the city ahead of Jonah, who had only made it a third of the way into this ancient metropolis. The urgency of the message awakened the senses of the people to see that they could not presume upon God.

 

What does it mean to presume upon God? It implies that you are sovereign over salvation and not God, so that you can come to God for his favor whenever you decide it is convenient. Presumption implies that God's warnings and judgment are for others, not me. It suggests that I'm immortal, that death cannot touch me, that I have plenty of time to entertain ideas of religion when I think it is convenient and advantageous to me.

 

Jesus gave us an example of a presumptuous man. He described a rich farmer whose land was extremely productive. Everything was going his way. So he decided that it was time to tear down his small barns and build larger ones. It was time to advance his own agenda and fatten his own life. Then he makes this statement, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat drink and be merry." That is the presumptuous man. Hear the words of Jesus Christ to this man, "You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?" (Luke 12:16-21).        

 

Isaiah reminds us, "All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass" (Isa. 40:6-7). James declares that "you are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away" (Jas. 4:14).

 

To be careless with your soul is to be a practical atheist. If you do not heed the urgings of the gospel and the warnings of the law, then you are demonstrating that you do not believe that God is really who he says he is. How do you know that you have tomorrow to deal with your soul? How do you know that you will even be interested tomorrow in spiritual matters?

 

I still remember the night some 27 years ago when I urged the claims of Christ upon a friend of mine. We had played basketball together in high school, but I had not seen him since going off to college. We ran into each other at a basketball game. So as I chatted with him and a couple more friends, I challenged them about their need for Jesus Christ. That night I felt a deep burden to pray for this friend. I agonized on my knees for him, hoping to be able to say more about Christ to him the next night. But that time never came. In less than 24 hours my friend was dead, a consequence of his own sinful deeds. He presumed upon God and his presumption betrayed him.

 

The mercy of God which comes in his warnings, points you to the death of Jesus Christ on your behalf. At the cross, Jesus bore the weight of God's judgment against you. God the Father imposed his burning anger upon his own Son as your substitute. See the work of Jesus on the cross! See the empty tomb which declares the finality of his accomplished work! Cease your delays. Trust in Jesus Christ as your Prophet, Priest, and King while you hear the urgent warnings of divine judgment.

 

Conclusion--part I

 

The message of Jonah was not complicated nor was it entertaining to the ears. But it found a lodging place in the minds and hearts of the people of Nineveh. Does this same message, viewed from the light of Scripture, find a welcome in your heart this day? I urge you to heed the warnings of God. Find the only refuge for sinners through faith in Jesus Christ as your Substitute in His death and resurrection.

 

II. Awakening response (4/25/99)

1. Believe God
2. Turn from sin
3. Plea for mercy

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