COMING to this opening verse of chapter 3 of Jonah again it is the words ' a second time' upon which I would focus our attention.

I said in the introduction of the last sermon that there are two main threads that reveal themselves here in this verse. One being the sure purpose of God which was the focus of our thoughts last time. The other is that human sin, even the sin of God's servants, do not in the end upset the purpose of God. Wrapped up in this is the wonder of God's grace in Christ. Let us seek to open up these threads.

In this we see the sure purpose of God. Jonah's disobedience was an action which had as its goal the prevention of God's purpose, at least as far as Jonah was concerned. If it had succeeded, even if God had turned as it were to plan B and sent another prophet, it would have been a frustration of God's purpose. By God coming to Jonah a second time, we can behold a wonder. In it we see that the purpose of God held in its focus even the sin of Jonah, and in God's purpose it was necessary because it revealed the glory of God in a deeper way, and also was destined to make Jonah a more perfect and useful instrument in God's purpose. This does not mean God either condoned Jonah's disobedience or that he was the author of it. It just means that in all things God is in control and all is in his sovereign foreknowledge and purpose. This also does not mean that God saw that things were going to go like this, but that God ordered it to be so in his eternal thinking, but without in any way compelling Jonah to sin, or in any way mitigating the seriousness and wickedness of his disobedience. Such revelation as this goes far beyond what our minds can grasp in this life, but no doubt in glory things will be much clearer. We will still have questions which we can't resolve, but the biblical way is to hold the whole revelation in faith, trusting God where we can't explain or rationalize clearly.

THE NATURE OF SALVATION.

This second time for Jonah illustrates so profoundly the nature of salvation. This second time finds Jonah with a new start. It is start which blots out the past as if it has not happened. It has happened, but in the mind of God it is treated as if it had never happened.

This is the truth about our salvation through faith in Christ. Christ's work for us cancels all the debt of our sin which we owe to God. Christ's perfect work means that Satan has no more claim upon us. There is nothing now which he can point to as his claim that we have sold ourselves to him. Through Christ all our sins, and not only the ones already committed, but also the ones still to be committed, have been cleansed away. Christ has exhausted all the claims of God's law for retribution and punishment on account of our breaking his commandments, whether in thought or deed. We are justified freely through Christ and we are seen as spotless and righteous in the eyes of God. The old has gone the new has begun. This is the state of the believer in Jesus. This is the grace in which we stand and live before God.

Further and because of this, as we continue to sin and grieve over our corruption, and repent daily, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin, and we have an advocate before the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins. He turns God's wrath away from us and he exhausted that wrath on the cross, and ever lives to present his work for us before God in heaven as our advocate. His advocacy is sufficient and clears us from all charges.

This is the grace in which we stand. If it is a true grace, then we must never use it as an excuse to sin, but rather it is a compulsion of love within us to be holy as God is holy. We desire above all things to please the God who has loved us and saved us at such great cost.

GOD'S PURPOSE FOR JONAH'S MATURITY.

All of us are called to service for Jesus. All of us have a part and place in the body of Christ and in the well-being and growth of the body. All of us are unfit for such honour and responsibility. All of us need to be trained and taught so that we are more usable by the Lord. Jonah received such training and teaching through his sin, and God's dealing with his sin.

a. He learnt to know himself better and the corruption of his flesh, and so he learnt humility through what he suffered.

Before his disobedience he questioned God's command. He thought God's purpose a mistake and a hindrance to his ministry. He had confidence in his own wisdom. On top of this he had confidence in his own strength and ability. He learnt of the sin which dwelt in his flesh. With this painful learning of his corruption, he became more humble before God, and more ready to have no confidence in the flesh, and by faith have all his confidence resting in the Lord and his word.

How difficult this lesson is for us all. We listen to Satan's insinuations and question God. We neglect the means of grace in our arrogance and find ourselves overcome by temptation. We have what we feel are brilliant ideas, and without consulting the Lord, or in humility questioning our own wisdom, we go ahead in our own plans and wonder why disaster and lack of success and progress results. We constantly find ourselves taking pride in our achievements, and taking to ourselves glory which belongs to the Lord alone, for only by his wisdom, grace and blessing is their blessing and advance in the kingdom of God.

By his terrible chastisement Jonah learnt to know himself and distrust himself, and to depend on God alone, and in this he became more a person God could use.

For us, as we look back over our lives and the way God has dealt with us, we have to say that much pain and suffering we have experienced in our Christian lives is because God has had to chastise us, and we own that such chastisement has brought forth the fruits of righteousness.

b. Jonah proved the mercy of God, and because of this could preach with more conviction and faith.

Jonah was brought low in sorrow for his disobedience. He acquiesced in the rightness of all God's dealings with him. He accepted that he deserved judgement and even death at the hands of God. He learnt that he deserved nothing from God except condemnation, for he learnt not only the greatness of his sin, but also the awful corruption in his flesh from which sin was born.

In the light of this, when he prayed for mercy, and trusted in God for mercy, he learnt the wonder of the grace and mercy of the Lord. In the light of this light dawning on his soul, he was more fitted to go to others and declare the word of the Lord, for he knew that in the Lord there is mercy, mercy enough to cover all our sins.

c. Jonah proved that God answers prayer, and the efficacy of prayer when it is offered from a humble and contrite heart.

When in the belly of the fish Jonah prayed in his desperate need, he proved that God answers prayer. He proved that God heard his prayer, and that his prayer was not in vain.

Prayer is the great privilege which the believer in Jesus enjoys. The more confidence we have in prayer, that God hears and answers, the better servants of Jesus we become. We can go forth in service with courage, because we have an open line to Jesus in all our needs and the contingencies in life that effect us. We go forth with courage because we know we have a heavenly Father who loves to hear our requests. We know that in prayer we are coming to a king who is almighty, and no request, however large, is beyond his power to grant.

However, Jonah learnt that prayer is the privilege only of the humble and contrite spirit, and it is only in such a spirit that we can pray with confidence. God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

Jonah learnt to pray in adversity, and in such a school he learnt the true attitude in prayer. Because of all this he became better able to serve the Lord, for he would do nothing without communion with the Lord. No doubt the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time because he was communing with the Lord and communing in prayer with the right attitude.

d. Jonah learnt through God's dealing with him the power of God to save to the uttermost those who come to him in repentance and faith.

There can be no greater and more important lesson than this for the one who is called by God to proclaim the word of God. Only the power of God in grace and mercy can cause a fallen human being to turn from sin to God. Anyone who has sought to witness for Christ knows that no power of their own, no excellence in explaining the message, no earnestness on their part, can penetrate the darkness in the soul of others, or raise their dead soul. Jonah knew in his own experience the power of God that penetrated the darkness of his soul, and proved that God can and does save. To go forth in witness with this understanding, not only gives confidence in this ministry, but also turns us from any trust in ourselves to accomplish anything in the salvation of souls.

e. Jonah learnt humility and faith.

Jonah having sinned and been forgiven, now knew that our righteousness is nothing, and we are dependent on grace and mercy alone. So he went to Nineveh without self-righteousness, knowing he and his fellow Jews were in the sight of God in the same condition as wicked Nineveh.

CONCLUSION.