Who knows? God may turn and relent; He may turn from His fierce anger, so that we will not perish.”Who knows whether God will not turn and relent, and turn away from his fierce anger, so that we might not perish?”Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?Who knoweth whether God will not turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?
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I love that right here. Here's the deal. Because of Jonah's obedience, he came and preached the message. You know what? Let me back up for a second because I didn't even tell you what Jonah said. Look at verse. let me back up to verse number four verse four and Jonah began to enter the city on the first day's walk then he cried out and said yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown this is what he said he cried out this was his sermon an eight word sermon I think my first sermon I preached was six minutes when I was fifteen I preached six minutes I ain't preached six minutes since he preached an eight word message yet 40 days and then none of us shall be overthrown y'all better get yourself together what he said in a few words y'all better repent and turn around or else the city is going to be overflowing and when he overthrown and when he obeyed God change happened the city believed God they proclaimed the fast they put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least even the king got right even the king turned his heart to God Even everybody, the animals, the dog bowed down and got right with God. …
So the first part of the subject is that repentance should he preached in the name of Jesus. There is a very important point that must here be noted—and that is that repentance is not to be preached in the name of Moses as a legal duty. Undoubtedly, it is a legal duty, for everyone who sins against God ought to repent of doing so. Whenever we have broken any Law of God, we ought to be sorry for having broken it. It is the natural, commonsense duty of the creature, when he has disobeyed any command of his Creator, to grieve that he has thus grossly offended his Maker and to resolve that if possible, he will not do so any more. But it is not in this fashion, simply as a legal duty, that Christ has bid His servants preach repentance. If we preach it thus, our labor will be in vain—at least to a very large extent! Nor are we to preach it merely as a matter of faint hope. There is, indeed, more than a faint hope for any man who is bid to repent because he will suppose, naturally and properly, that the God who bids him repent must have some designs of love towards him. But we are not to preach to sinners in such a fashion as simply to make them faintly hope that they may be saved. You know that when Jonah passed through the streets of Nineveh, his mournful and monotonous message was, "Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown." When that message was carried to the king, he laid aside his gorgeous robe and put on sackcloth, sat in ashes, proclaimed a fast for man and beast and commanded his people to turn from their evil ways! Yet he had no better hope than this—"Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from His fierce anger, that we perish not?" When they repented, God didhave mercy upon them and spared them. But we …
It was for this end, to avert the wrath of God, that Daniel sought God “with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.” This appears from the whole tenor of his prayer, particularly from the solemn conclusion of it: “o Lord, according to all thy righteousness,” or mercies, “let thy anger be turned away from thy holy mountain. — Hear the prayer of thy servant, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate. — o Lord, hear; o Lord, forgive; o Lord, hearken and do, for thine own sake.” (Dan. 9:3, 16.) 8. But it is not only from the people of God that we learn, when his anger is moved, to seek him by fasting and prayer; but even from the Heathens. When Jonah had declared, “Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown,” the people of Nineveh proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them unto the least. “For the King of Nineveh arose from his throne, and laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything: Let them not feed, nor drink water:” (Not that the beast had sinned, or could repent; but that, by their example, man might be admonished, considering that, for his sin, the anger of God was hanging over all creatures:) “Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?” And their labour was not in vain. The fierce anger of God was turned away from them. “God saw their works;” (the fruits of that repentance and faith which he had wrought in them by his Prophet;) “and God repented of the evil that he had said he would do unto them; and he did it not.” (Jonah 3:4.) …