 Jonah chapter 3, the short chapter, 10 verses, talking about Jonah's experience in Nineveh. Now that he's finally there, if you look down at verse number 1, the Bible says, the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So notice, you know, God tells Jonah what to do if you go back to Jonah chapter 1 and verse number 2, this will kind of be an overreaching theme of this chapter tonight. God, you know, the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, but it was the same message. It was not a different message, it was the same message. We need to realize that in our lives. We'll talk about that towards the end of the sermon. But if you look at verse number 2, where Jonah chapter 1, the Bible says, arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before me. This is exactly the same thing that God repeats in Jonah chapter 3 in verse number 1 and verse number 2. So God basically comes, I mean, Jonah eventually gets to Nineveh, but he kind of went the long way. You know, he kind of went the wrong way, then he went to the whale and all that thing, and then the whale brought him back, and he finally gets to Nineveh, but the point I'm trying to make here is that while it was the same result, it was through much suffering by Jonah and other people, but it was the same message that came to Jonah. There was not a different message. The word of the Lord is not going to change. That's what we need to understand this evening, is the word of the Lord is the same. The difference is us. The difference is how we react to the word of the Lord. Look down at verse number 3. So Jonah arose. This is interesting because if you look at chapter number 1, it says he also arose, except he arose to flee in chapter 1. So this time Jonah arose to go to Nineveh and went on to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days journey, and Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried and said, yet 40 days in Nineveh shall be overthrown. So he travels three days to get into Nineveh, and then he traveled a day into Nineveh crying this message that in 40 days Nineveh shall be overthrown. It was a pretty simple and direct message that Jonah was preaching. Now the difference between this story and a lot of most of the other prophets in the Bible is verse number 5. If you look at verse number 5, we see how Jonah chapter 3 is unique in the Bible where it says, the people of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed a fast and put on sack cloth from the greatest of them even to the least of them. So what these people did was they believed what Jonah said. They believed when he came and he said, God is going to destroy this city if you don't get right, they believed him and they got right. I mean if you read the Old Testament especially a lot and you come to this where you're like, whoa, because like they never get right. They never listen to the man of God. They never listen to the prophet. But it says that Nineveh believed God. Now here's a little side track I want to take you on. Turn to Romans chapter 4. Let me just kind of explain that statement of Nineveh believed God. I want to show you how salvation is the same in the Old Testament as it is in the New Testament. We're not dispensationalists. The Bible does not teach that certain people were saved a certain way and other people were saved a certain way. But there are some things we need to understand about that statement Nineveh believed God. Look at Romans chapter 4 and look at verse number 1. This is talking about Abraham and how Abraham was saved. Look at verse number 1. It says, What shall we say? Then that Abraham our Father as pertaining to the flesh hath found. For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory but not before God. Now this is talking about how Abraham is not, I mean this is a real deep Bible study between James chapter 2 and Romans chapter 4 but the simple point I'm trying to make tonight is Abraham was not justified before God through his works. He was justified to men through his works. Men looked at Abraham and look that's the same with all of us. The only way, this is James chapter 2 right here, the only way men can see your faith is through your works. So if you have dead faith, meaning you have little to no works in your life, men can't see your faith. So they're not going to, men aren't going to call you a friend of God as they called Abraham if you just aren't doing the works that you're supposed to do. So Abraham was not justified by works in Romans chapter 4. But look at verse number 3. It says, For what sayeth the scripture? He believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. That's how he was saved. He believed God, he did what? He trusted in God. He trusted in the future Messiah. He believed God about the coming of Jesus Christ. So he believed into the future just like we believe and trust into something that has happened 2,000 years ago. It's very simple but salvation is the same in the Old Testament as it is in the New Testament. No difference. It's just by belief or trusting on Jesus or even the promise of the coming Jesus or the coming Messiah in the Old Testament. Now go back to Jonah chapter 3. Now I want to kind of contrast that statement in Romans chapter 4 in verse number 3 where it says Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. I want to contrast that with Nineveh believed God. So nations are not spiritually saved. That's what we need to understand. You are not spiritually saved as a collective. So you are not granted salvation by who your dad is or what church your family goes to or whatever. You are saved spiritually individually on your individual trust and where you put that trust in, whether it be your own works, whether it be in some false God, whether it be Jesus Christ. So you are either saved or not saved on your own trust, your own belief. We are talking about a nation here. So what you need to understand about Nineveh, when it makes the statement Nineveh believed God, we are talking about their physical salvation. We are talking about saving them, the city from destruction. That's what it is referring to when it says the people of Nineveh believed God. It's talking about the collective, believing God. But, it implies that there were at least many people, I believe, in Nineveh that were saved because it implies that if they believed the word of the Lord coming from the prophet, it also implies that they had believed personally on the coming Messiah and were personally saved. At least some of them. Of course, not all of these people are saved. There's never been a city ever where everyone has just saved a hundred percent. But when it says Nineveh believed God, it is saying that as a collective they listened to the prophet. And it's for their physical salvation. It is so when Jonah said back in verse number four, it says, yet forty days Nineveh shall be overthrown, he's telling them how to be physically saved. He's telling them how to not be destroyed by God. But just the statement Nineveh believed God implies that there are believers in Nineveh. Okay? How many? We don't know. Percentage? We don't know. But nations are physically saved, but to be individually saved, that is a personal thing. But look, you'll run into people like this out soul-winning all the time that think that it's like a collective thing. You know, you'll knock on somebody's door and a husband will answer the door and you know if you're going to heaven, oh yeah, my wife knows all that. Well, they're not understanding. You're not saved by your household. You're not saved by what your wife believes or my mother-in-law's a deacon. I got this. No problem. You know, you're saved by your personal belief. Okay? It's a personal thing, your spiritual salvation, your eternal salvation, the real salvation that matters. Okay? So, nations are also, nations are saved physically or not saved physically, meaning they're destroyed or saved physically, kept as a nation or as a city in this case. They're saved through listening to God or not listening to God, alright? And you know, nations are judged on this earth. That's basically the way you need to read the Bible. God does it all the time. He judges nations on this earth. He judged Judah. He judged the northern kingdom of Israel. Then he went and he judged all the nations that even attacked Judah and the northern kingdom of Israel. He judged Egypt. He judges all these nations. But nations are judged on this earth. Our nation will be judged on this earth. It's going to happen, alright? Nations are not saved spiritually. When it says Nineveh believed God, it's talking about the collective people of Nineveh believed the prophet Jonah. It implies that people were saved there, but it's talking about their physical salvation from being destroyed in forty days by God, alright? But a nation full of saved people, you would think that they would follow the word of God. You would think that they would listen, right? Which would lead to their physical salvation as a nation. Go back to Jonah chapter three. Jonah chapter three. Look at verse number six. Now it's saying, so you have this shocking event in verse number five where the people actually listened to the prophet. Now we get a little bit more context on, you know, some things that helped them listen to the prophet, which is a point I really want to get across to you this evening. Look at verse number six. It says four word. So it's kind of explaining. It's saying what it means that word four, it's saying, you know, here's kind of why that happened. It's explaining what the cause of that was. It says four 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 he sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh. So here we see that Jonah got some pretty important help here from the king of Nineveh. He caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles saying, let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything, let them not feed nor drink water. So not only do we see that Nineveh believed, but we understand that why Nineveh believed or what led them down this path was the fact that this king took Jonah's words. The king believed Jonah's words and he published it throughout the entire city and demanded that they get right and they fast and they take what Jonah was saying seriously. He helped spread the word of the Lord throughout the city and by his example himself as the king and then his nobles, his princes or whatever you want to call that, they also helped, you know, lead the people in that area. I mean Jonah was just one man. It says that he traveled across the city in a day because this was a massive city, but it was the king and his nobles that published this word of the Lord out amongst the people, the king had the power to get the message out. So this really shows you, this really shows you the influence of a leader here in Jonah chapter three and verse number six. You say, why did they, listen, why did they change their mind? You know, contrast this with First Kings chapter twelve. Go to First Kings chapter twelve. We'll just look at this idea of the influence of a leader for just a few more minutes. Go to First Kings chapter number twelve. First Kings chapter number twelve, I'm going to go there myself. First Kings chapter twelve and look at verse, look at verse number twenty-six of First Kings chapter twelve. First Kings chapter twelve, look at verse number twenty-six. This is right after Rehoboam takes the southern kingdom of Judah and Jeroboam takes the ten tribes to the north. The kingdom is just split here and Jeroboam is worried that the people are going to follow the religion in Jerusalem. They're going to follow the religion of the nation of Israel as it always has been, the one true God. He's worried about that. So he decides to create his own religion. Look at verse number twenty-six. It says, Jeroboam said in his heart, now shall the kingdom return to the house of David. He's worried that his ten tribes that he's taken into this new kingdom will follow the lower kingdom's religion. If these people go up to sacrifice in the house of the Lord of Jerusalem, which is in Judah, then shall the heart of these people turn again unto their Lord, even unto Rehoboam, king of Judah. And they shall kill me and go again to Rehoboam, king of Judah. Whereupon, he's like basically for this reason, the king took counsel and made two calves of gold and said unto them, it is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem, behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. He set one in Bethel and put the other in Dan, and this thing became a sin for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan, and he made a house of high places and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi. So he basically goes and he creates this brand new religion that is very similar to the religion that they, of course it has similarities to the pagan religion that they were into in Egypt, and he creates these calves of gold and he gets the people to just start following this false religion, verse 32, in Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, so he's just like copying, you know, giving them a substitute, fake religion, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made, and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made. So he offered upon the altar that which he made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart, and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel, and he offered upon the altar and burnt incense. Now go over to 1 Kings chapter 14, 1 Kings chapter 14. So basically he creates this religion, he leads the people down this path, and what do the people do? The people follow him. He's able to influence this entire nation, these ten tribes, to start following this false religion. Look at verse number 15 of 1 Kings chapter 14. Now this is what God thinks of it. It says, for the Lord shall smite Israel as a reed is shaken in the water, and he shall root up Israel out of this good land, which he had gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river, because they have made their groves provoking the Lord to anger. And he shall give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who did sin. And who made Israel to sin. So in Jonah chapter 3 we see the king, we see that the people believed God for the king, meaning because the king led them down that path, because the king influenced them to listen to Jonah. We see the exact opposite of this in Jeroboam, where Jeroboam, look you're all accountable for your own sins, but the leader influences people to get into their own sins. It says there were the sins of Jeroboam, he started it, but he influenced the people, and that's why it says he made Israel to sin. So all those people that worshipped those calves were being influenced by Jeroboam's fake religion, by Jeroboam's blasphemy, by his heresies, by all these things, but they sinned themselves. Just as the people in Jonah chapter 3 believed God themselves, the people of Nineveh it says, believed God, Jeroboam did exactly the opposite, he influenced in a bad way. This is important for us to know. This is important for us to know that as leaders, as look, as parents, leadership equals influence. Leadership is influence over people. You know, parents are, as a parent we need to heed this. We need to understand that as a parent we are influencing our children, whether it be good or whether it be bad. We are influencing our children. You influence as a parent every single day. I mean, there's a lot of, there's a lot of danger out there. There's a lot of danger for our kids out there. There was just some, you know, queer march the other day where they're literally chanting, we are coming for your children. This is not a joke. I mean, there's a lot of danger out there. Parents need to understand that they influence good or bad every single day. Every single hour, every single minute of your life, you are influencing your children. Every single decision that you make, you are influencing your children. Every single TV show that you watch, you are influencing your children. Every single movie you are influencing your children. Every single party that you go to, you are influencing your children. Every single drop of alcohol that a parent consumes, you are influencing your children. Every single sinful place that a parent goes to, they are influencing their children. Good or bad, the parents are influencing their children. And there's plenty of people out there wanting to influence in a bad way, in an evil way. So parents should take heed to these lessons of Jeroboam and of the king of Nineveh. You can influence good or you can influence bad. Every moment of your life. I mean, people see their children go astray in their teens or in their twenties. They see their children go into sin or go astray in some way. And they just, they look at themselves and they say, what happened there? But guess what? It wasn't in a moment. It was over 15 years. It was over 20 years of bad influence. Of not having the right influence from a leader. And then guess what? Those sins, just like the sins of Jeroboam, they become the sins of the next generation. They become the sins, you know, God forbid that any parent, you know, within the sound of my voice is, you know, is a parent who made their children to sin through their influence. I've heard it said many times and I've seen it too many times where, you know, the sins of the parents will be echoed and reverberated, you know, in magnitude in the children. It's true. The sins of Jeroboam who made Israel to sin. Because those sins become the sins of the next generation. So your influence is something that you need to have control over and need to understand. You have that control. You have the control. As the parent, as a child's parent, nobody has more control to influence that child than you. I was, I took the day off today and I took the kids to the zoo. And I was, we were at the zoo and it's just a great zoo. Here's a plug for the Fresno Zoo. And maybe I haven't been to that many nice zoos, but I think it's a really great zoo. But we're listening. We're walking through the zoo and there, it was packed. There's tons of people, all these school buses and everything. And I walked by these two parents and maybe I'm just so far removed from this that it just seemed really weird and strange to me. And the kids and I talked about it for several minutes after it happened. You see these two parents, a dad and a mom and they're two small children and the dad saying, yeah, we're just going to head out here in a few minutes. And the mom says to the dad, we can't take the kids, we can't take, we can't take the kids. They're talking about their own children. And I'm just like, this is so strange to me. We're like watching the wolves, you know, and these parents are having this conversation. Yeah, we can't take the kids because if they came on the bus, they demand that we can't take them, they can't go with us, they have to go back on the bus. And I'm just like this, I'm just like short circuits and smokes coming out of my ears. And I'm just like, this is so weird. And the dad's just like, oh, okay, yeah, I didn't know that. I'm just like, what in the world? Like literally people are telling you what you can and can't do with your kids. And you're just like, oh, okay, but guess what? That's influence creeping in. And maybe somebody that is used to that type of thing is like, oh, that's common procedure with schools or whatever. Look, I don't care, it shouldn't be. Look, the point is, is that you should have the influence over your kids. There's all these people trying to gain this influence. You say, we're coming for your kids. How are they coming for your kids? Through influence, through teachers, through programs, through teaching, through books, through influence. That's how they're doing it. That's how they're trying to win over that influence. Look, you must maintain the influence over your children. And that may be a small thing. But that just seemed really out of the ordinary for me. And I pray that that would just never happen to anybody. Like, right away, you would feel like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Somebody's telling me what I can do with my kids? I don't think so. We're doing things different from here on out. Because we must have the influence over our kids. Because look, there's plenty of people out there that want to write on that whiteboard. There's plenty of people that want to fill out that slate of ideas and all these different sick things that are going on out there. And we must maintain that influence. Because look, influence is everything. Leadership is everything, especially for the next generation. Go back to Jonah chapter 3. So just notice. Just notice that these people did this extraordinary thing. They believed Jonah. They believed God. And it was the king who influenced them. It was the nobles who influenced them. Who helped publish this. That's power right there. That is power. But every single parent has that power. And they need to exercise that God-given power in their families. Go back to Jonah chapter 3. Look at verse number 8. Jonah chapter 3, verse number 8. The Bible says, but let man and beast, he's now the king is still decreeing this, be covered with sack cloth and cry mightily unto God. Yea, let them turn everyone from his evil way and from the violence that is in their hands. It always comes down to violence. I mean, I'm like a broken record. I keep saying that again and again. The more we turn from God, you may see a lot of weird stuff and a lot of clown stuff going on. But it always is going to end up at violence, always. And violence is what? That's hurting innocent people. Like who? Children. It always ends up with that. Abortion is violence. It's always hurting the innocent. It's hurting people that don't deserve it. It always ends up in violence. Turning from God always ends in violence. That's why God flooded the world, by the way, because it was violent. Verse number 9. Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away his fierce anger that we perish not, that we what? That we are physically saved, he's saying. That we are not destroyed as a city. And look at verse number 10. Such a great verse right here. We're going to go into this in detail. And God saw their works. See, nations are physically judged on this earth. They are physically destroyed or saved on this earth. And they are judged by their works. That's not how you are spiritually saved, but nations are judged by their works. Because God saw their works that they, the city, turned from their evil way. And God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them and he did it not. Now, there's a lot there. And if you're a soul winner, you need to understand this verse. I'm going to dissect the three points that you need to understand about this verse as a soul winner. Because there's a real bad false doctrine going on out there today that is preached in a lot of Baptist churches and a lot of non-denominational churches that sound correct on the gospel. But they put this idea that you need to repent of your sins to be saved. And this is the quintessential verse to disprove that. Look at verse number 10. We're going to cut this up. The first one is this. There's three points that you need to understand. And if you're a soul winner, you should take notes and write these down so you can explain this to people. The first point is this. Turning from your evil way is a work. That's the first point. God saw their works. And then he explained, I mean, it's such a great verse. Because God saw their works. What were their works? That they turned from their evil way. These people turned from their evil way. There's two evils in this verse, by the way. One is justified and one is not. When the Bible talks about God doing evil, it's not talking about sin. It's talking about God hurting or God punishing. God doing bad things. God doing destruction. But it's justified. If God's doing it, it's right, it's justified. So the first point is that turning from your sins is a work that you do. Look, folks, it's a good work. But it's a work. And you are not saved through your works. This is one of the most simple, this is what, I mean, but you will find people out there. I mean, Ephesians 2, 8 through 9. Not of works. There is nothing more simple in the Bible than that. Literally three words, lest any man should boast. You are not saved through your works. Not a little bit, not partly, not at all. Otherwise, if it was 1%, I could brag about it. Look, I could boast about it. If I had to have 1% good works, whatever that even means. If I had to have 1% good works and 99% trust on Jesus, and I had that 1%, or I didn't, if I did have that 1%, I could boast about it. I could say, I got my 1%. You know, God built the whole house, but I built the staircase. I could boast about that staircase, because some people didn't build the staircase, but I did. Look, folks, it is one of the most simple doctrines in the Bible is that you are not saved through works. It's not of works. If it's of works, it's not of grace. If it's of grace, it's not of works. I mean, it is like the most simple thing that literally a six-year-old can figure it out. It's very, very simple. Yet, you will find people out there that say, yeah, no, no, no, it's not of works, but you gotta turn from your sins. You're just like, you gotta repent of your sins. That's what they'll say. They'll say, repent of your sins. And you're just like, so what they're saying to you is that, yeah, it's not of works, but it is of works. People believe this. People believe this. They have been taught this. They've had this told to them so many times that they literally, their belief, they are a walking, talking oxymoron. They're a walking, talking contradiction. They say, you have to, it's not of works, but it's of works in literally the same sentence. So showing them this, that literally turning from your evil way or turning from your sins is a work, you should be able to make that connection with people. You will go over this with people at the door. If they are willing to listen, you will go over this and explain this. So the first point is this, turning, it's a simple point, turning from your sins is a work. And thus it can have nothing to do with salvation because salvation is not of works. The second point is this, what does repent mean? What is the meaning of repent? Who repented here? Who repented in Jonah chapter three in verse number 10? The Bible says, God repented of the evil that he said he would do unto them and he did it not. Turn to Genesis chapter six. If you just do a word search of repent in the Old Testament especially, and then I'll talk about the New Testament in a little bit, but let's just do a word search in your Bible or whatever program you use to search the Bible. You do a word search on repent. You are gonna find that many of the places that talk about repenting, it is God repenting. Look at Genesis chapter six in verse number six. The Bible says this, it says, and it repented the Lord, that he made man on the earth and grieved him at his heart. Go to Jeremiah chapter 18. Go to Jeremiah chapter 18, you're like, how could God repent? Because repent means repent of your sins, right? That's what everybody thinks. Repent means, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But this is why when people tell you, when people tell you at the door that yeah, you have to believe and repent, you should dig a little deeper on that. Because that is true. It's actually repent and belief. But if they say you have to believe and repent, you should dig a little deeper on what they mean by the word repent because almost 100% of the time they will say that you have to turn from your sins. And they are not saved if they believe that because they are trusting in their works. Look, it's not a small thing, folks. It is not a small thing. Look at Genesis, or I'm sorry, Jeremiah chapter 18. Look at verse number 10. So we're talking about what does repent mean? What does repent in the Bible mean? Literally the dictionary, if you look up the word repent in the dictionary, it will say repent of your sins. The dictionary itself has changed the meaning of the word repent. God can't sin, folks. Look at verse number 10 of Jeremiah chapter 18. This is so interesting right here because it says if it do, if repent means turn from your sins, what does this verse mean? If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good. What? What? Wherewith I said I would benefit them. So if you believe that repent means turn from your sins, that literally said like that sentence doesn't even make any sense. You can't, I mean, you're literally, you're in a logical circle there. Repent of the good, which means repent of your sins of the good, what? Repent doesn't mean turn from your sins. God can't, God has no sins to turn from. God knows no sin, the Bible says. So repent simply means when we look at what God is doing here, it is talking about God changing his mind. God is looking at the situation and God is changing the way he is going to react to someone. Now the New Testament, go to Mark chapter one. The New Testament calls for us to repent for sure. Definitely. But you will never find the phrase repent of your sins in the Bible. But look at Mark chapter one. Let's just look at a couple of places where the Bible says that we should repent. Look, you should repent. If you do not repent, you cannot be saved. That is a true statement. Look at verse number 15 of Mark chapter one. And saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent ye and believe the gospel. Notice how repent is first. It's saying repent ye, it's saying change your mind. Change your mind from unbelief of the gospel to belief of the gospel. Now doesn't it make perfect sense in every single case of the word in the Bible? Go to Acts chapter three. I was looking for a verse that had repent and sin in the same verse and I found one. Go to Acts chapter three. Go to Acts chapter three. Look at verse number 19. Acts chapter three, verse number 19. This verse has repent. Repent of your sins is not in the Bible. But this is the closest I could find. This is the closest I could find where repent and sin is in the same sentence. The same verse. Acts chapter three, look at verse 19. It says repent ye therefore and be converted. Again, totally understandable. Change your mind about from unbelief to belief and what will happen. You will be converted. You will be saved. Oh, here's the sins. That your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. So how does sin play into the repenting? So you repent and you believe. You change your mind. Look, you change your mind from whatever it is. I mean, what am I repenting from? Well, I don't know. Did you believe in Buddha? Then you're repenting from Buddha. Are you, it even could be a sin that makes you sober to the point where you can believe now what someone's telling you. You could even have to like, turn from, you know, you gotta get out of some wicked lifestyle or something and then, you know, get your head clear and then someone gives you the gospel, but you're still repenting from unbelief to belief. It's a change of mind. It's a change of mind from whatever you believed before, Buddha, Muhammad, whatever it is, you know, golden calfs to the gospel. Works. Always works. Always works, no matter what other religion you repented from, it's works. It's works in some way, shape or form. But sins, the only way sins play into the equation of repenting is you change your mind from unbelief to belief and your sins are blotted out. That's the role sins play in salvation. Sins have nothing to do with salvation. You know, God commended his love toward us and while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Our sins were there when we repented. Our sins were there with us the moment we changed from unbelief to belief. The only role sins play is the moment we trust on Jesus. Our sins are blotted out. They are no longer counted on us. God looks on the blood of Christ and not on our sins, which still exist. Yeah, we should change our mind. Look, I hope you change your mind about your sins every day. Nothing to do with salvation. Those are good works that you do. And you should do them. You should turn from sins. That's what Romans seven, six is talking about. Go ahead and turn there. Romans seven, six where Paul is saying, you know, he's talking about our sins and our works. I can't remember the exact way he puts it, but look at Romans chapter seven and verse number six. Romans chapter seven, look at verse number six. Yeah, I mean, I mean, this is all over Romans, but this is one of my favorite verses when it comes to this, you know, talking about just like, you know, turning from your sins, you know, getting with, getting right with God. Look at verse number six. It says we're delivered from the law. How are you delivered from the law? When you're saved, you're delivered from the law. The law no longer has you condemned to death anymore. That being dead, we're in, we were held. That we what? We should serve in newness of spirit. Look, you should, you should, you should turn from your sins. Once you get saved, you should do that. Nothing to do with salvation. It's something you should do. So look, it's repented of your sins is made up in the Bible. So not only is the phrase not even there in the Bible, but people attach it to, it's really a crazy stretch. It's not in the Bible. Number one, people attach it to salvation, which equates to a false gospel based on works. It's like this weird way of taking the true gospel back to all the other false religions. It's a clever way. Yet you will have people to tell you that yeah, it's only by faith. It's just by faith, but you have to repent of your sins. Like what? It makes no sense. They're saying it's just by faith, but it's not, it's of works too. It just, it doesn't make any sense. Jonah 3.10 is a perfect way to explain this. But here's a big one. Here's the third one. Here's a third one that we need to take away from Jonah chapter three in verse number 10. So first of all, repenting of your sins, turning from your evil way, turning from your sins is a work. Number one, number two, repent clearly means in the Bible to change your mind. Repent and believe is a perfectly good explanation of salvation. You must change your mind. There must be repentance. There must be a change of mind from not believing the gospel to the gospel. The third one is this. The third one is this. You can change God's mind. That's a pretty big deal. Look at Exodus chapter 14. God repents. That's maybe the huge takeaway from this entire chapter. God repents. This is great news for us. Look at Exodus chapter 14 and look at verse number nine. Exodus chapter 14 and verse number nine. The Bible says, now this is talking about the golden calf. Moses is up in the mountain with God getting the 10 commandments and right away he's gone for just a few days and they start worshiping a golden calf. The Bible says this in verse number nine. The Lord said unto Moses, I have seen these people and behold it is a stiff necked people. It means they're stubborn. You can't lead them. Now therefore let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them. Then I may consume them and I will make of thee a great nation. God is literally saying to Moses here, he's like, I'm just gonna wipe them all out and I'm gonna start over with you. It's pretty extreme. And Moses besought the Lord as God and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people? Which thou has brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand. Notice how respectful he talks to God here. He's basically, you know, this is a good example of a prayer here. All right. Wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say for mischief did he bring them out to slay them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth turned from thy fierce wrath and repent of this evil against thy people. So Moses is advocating for the people here. Moses is trying to change God's mind. Moses is literally asking God to repent. He's asking God to change his mind about what God just said that he was gonna do in verse number 10. He was just gonna destroy them all and start over with Moses. And Moses, it's such a great example of a prayer too. It would just be a great sermon right there. It's not like how to pray. You know what? When you pray, you should pray to God about the things that you're asking God for. How it will benefit him. How it will benefit God's kingdom. Not like, hey, God, can I get a Bugatti? You know, that's not gonna benefit anybody but me. And I mean, here's, I'm off that now. I won't bring that up anymore. It's just so fun to say, you know? But anyway, so the point is, Moses is advocating for the people, but he's explaining to God how it will benefit him. How it will benefit the kingdom of heaven. He's like, look, he's like, God, he's like, the Egyptians are gonna look at this and they're gonna be like, oh, you did all these things, the 10 plagues, you destroyed Pharaoh, you basically destroyed Egypt to save these people just to kill them in the mountains. I mean, he's being a good advocate here. And then he says, remember Abraham, Isaac, Israel, thy servants. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, that's Israel, Jacob. Thy servants to whom thou swarest thine own self and set us unto them. I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven in all this land that I have spoken of, I will give to your seed and they shall inherit it forever. And look what, he changed his mind. He changed God's mind. And the Lord repented the evil which he thought to do unto his people. He still punished them, but he didn't destroy them all. Moses calmed the anger down. He calmed God down. He gave God some good benefits to the kingdom of God. He reminded him about servants that did faithfully serve him in the past. And God repented of the evil. God repents. This is good news. He say, what, God, doesn't Malachi 3.6 say, I am the Lord, I change not? Yes, that's true. The word of the Lord changes not. We saw that in Jonah chapter one and Jonah chapter three where the word of the Lord came again unto Jonah but it was the same command. It was the same word. The commands in the Bible do not change but if we have free will God must have the ability to repent. It has to be that way. It's two sides of the same coin. If we can choose to listen to God as in Jonah chapter three or we can choose to run and flee from God God must have the ability to change the way he deals with us. And that is how God works. God repents folks. This is huge news. You can change God's mind. How? By the way you act. By the way you operate. By the fact that you change. This is the main takeaway here is that by how we respond to the unchanging word of the Lord how we respond. Because we're the variable folks. God is the constant. God's word is the same. It will never change. God does not change. What is righteous and what is not righteous what is a sin, what is not a sin the gospel never changes. But we change. One week we wanna serve the Lord and the next week we're all wrapped up in other stuff. We change and so God repents. God changes his mind he must. He changes his mind either he'll repent of the good or he could repent of the evil as we've seen tonight. Look I want God repenting of the evil in my life. I want God looking at myself in my family and repenting of the evil that I deserve. Because of how I'm responding to his unchanging commands that he has given me. God has the ability to repent. The word of the Lord doesn't change. It's we that change. We have free will folks. This is why Paul said in Romans chapter seven in verse number six that we should follow this newness of spirit. We should. Paul's like you should do this but not everybody's going to. So God's gonna repent for the good. He's gonna repent of the bad for some people. But I mean the main point is this. We can change. You know change is a really it must be impossible for some people because you find people that just won't change. You find people that maybe they were raised a certain way and they get to be in their 20s into their 30s and it just seems impossible for them to change. Another reason to have that influence over your children so they don't have to have this struggle. But guess what folks? If you're one of those 30 year olds or you're one of those 40 year olds or whatever your age is you can change and God repents. Meaning what? Meaning you can come home. You know you can get right and God will change the way he reacts to it. It's not like God's chastising you and no matter what you do God's just gonna just follow through on that all the way to the end. That's what we see in Nineveh. The people got right. They believed God and God right away. He repented of the evil that he said that he would do under them. God repents. The question is why don't we? Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.