Boundless Grace and Mercy

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 100
• Hymn — All People That on Earth Do Dwell
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Sin
• Assurance of Pardon — 2 Corinthians 5:21
• Scripture Reading — Joshua 21:43–22:9
• Hymn — Let Children Hear the Mighty Deeds
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering
• Hymn — Arise, My Soul, Arise
• Sermon
• Hymn — Marvelous Grace of Our Loving Lord
• Benediction
• Doxology

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Sermon Title: Boundless Grace and Mercy

Scripture: Jonah 3

I. The Result of God's Far-Reaching Grace Is Obedience to His Commands

A. Jonah receives the command a second time — Jonah 3:1–2 nearly mirrors Jonah 1:1–2

1. The contrast is in Jonah's response: chapter 1 he flees; chapter 3 he obeys
2. God's discipline — the storm, the fish, and Jonah's prayer of repentance in Jonah 2 — drives Jonah full circle back to the original command

B. The fruit of redeeming grace is thankful obedience

1. Spurgeon: true thanksgiving is expressed not merely in words but in obedience — "thanks-living"
2. Jonah 2:9: "Salvation belongs to the Lord" — Jonah's repentance leads to his obedience

C. Application: Address the "main sin" from which other sins flow

1. David's rooftop sin (2 Samuel 11) — adultery, deceit, and murder all flow from the root sin; Psalm 51 confesses the root
2. Jonah's main sin is disobedience to God's command; all his miseries flow from it
3. John Owen: chief sins must be addressed with full vigor and violence
4. Challenge: identify and mortify the root sin, not merely its symptoms

II. The Result of God's Far-Reaching Grace Is Heeding His Warnings

A. Jonah's proclamation: "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown" — Jonah 3:4

1. No condition is stated in Jonah's message; God's relenting flows from his free grace alone, not obligation
2. Nineveh's response is immediate and comprehensive — fasting, sackcloth, and ashes from least to greatest, including the king (Jonah 3:5–9)

B. The theme of God's warnings runs throughout all Scripture

1. God's warning to Adam in the garden — Genesis 2:17
2. 120 years of warning before Noah's flood
3. Repeated warnings to Israel — Amos 4:6–12: "Yet you did not return to me, declares the Lord"
4. Paul's call to repentance in Athens — Acts 17
5. 2 Peter 3:9: God is patient, not wishing any to perish

C. The warnings of judgment are an expression of God's grace, not his wrath

1. Amy Carmichael: "We are not asked to understand, but simply to obey"
2. The warning spells the day of salvation — it is meant to drive us to cling to Christ before the day comes like a thief

III. The Result of God's Far-Reaching Grace Is Apprehending His Mercy

A. Two wrong responses to God's warning

1. Denial — "There is no God of judgment"
2. Despair — knowing God's wrath but unable to believe he will show mercy (Jonah in chapters 1–2)

B. The king of Nineveh apprehends God's mercy — Jonah 3:9: "Who knows? God may turn and relent"

1. Joel 2:12–13: "Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and he relents over disaster. Who knows whether he will turn and relent?"
2. Genuine repentance is not formulaic or transactional; it flows from a broken and contrite heart — Psalm 51:17

C. God relents from disaster upon Nineveh — Jonah 3:10

1. God is under no obligation; his mercy flows from the freedom and goodness of his will
2. God did not relent his wrath at Calvary — he poured it out on Christ as the propitiation for sin
3. Awareness of Christ's atoning work should produce not presumption but pleading mercy

D. Application: The Beatitudes describe the posture of those who apprehend God's mercy

1. Matthew 5:3–4: "Blessed are the poor in spirit… blessed are those who mourn"
2. True happiness in the Lord comes through obedience, heeding warnings, and resting in abundant mercy
3. "Trust and obey" — there is no other way to be happy in the Lord