Dear congregation, we saw last week how the Lord worked a city-wide repentance throughout Nineveh, that Assyrian city, through the preaching of the prophet Jonah. This pagan city known for its barbaric practice and hatred of the people of God turned in sackcloth and ashes and fasting from the king on down to the lowest ranking people, all based on the stern, strict, and slender preaching of Jonah. By the way, Nineveh still exists today and there is a Christian community in Nineveh in Iraq and a testimony how the Lord can work and does work across this world. But back then in those days, what a amazing work of God this was. It was nothing less than stunning. No doubt the angels in heaven rejoiced, hell trembled, and dear friends, the Lord has not changed. The Lord is still the same today. And the awakening that came in Nineveh has come to all sorts of places the world over, where society-wide or city-wide, or countrywide. There were large amounts of people who were brought into the gospel net. Let me just, for your encouragement and prayer, tell you about two that happened on our soil. In Manhattan, New York City, in 1857, a Dutch Reformed layman named Jeremy Lanford advertised a noon weekly prayer meeting. And he did this all over that area of Manhattan. And the first meeting was held on September 23, 1857. And only a disappointing six people showed up, but they prayed. And after three weeks, it was 40 people. And the people asked for a daily noon hour prayer meeting. And a few weeks later on October 10, there was what I read was a stock market crash in Manhattan. October 10, 1857. And people started flocking to this prayer meeting so much so that within six months, 10,000 people in Manhattan, stopped their daily work at noon and prayed together in churches and buildings and wherever they could find a place to pray together. And this revival spread to other cities as well. Portland, Oregon, which is now in the news for rioting, experienced at this time that 200 businesses in Portland, Oregon agreed to close from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. for prayer. Imagine that. 200 businesses closed for three hours so that people could pray. And revivals sprung up all sorts of different places. And crime went down. And jails emptied out. and churches filled up and conversions were numerous. God has sent showers of blessing. And then some 50 years or so later in 1904, 1905, there was a revival in Wales and it blew over to Canada and the US and other places as well. And it's been estimated that in Wales alone, During this one-year period, there were a hundred thousand conversions. Obviously, we can't judge them one for one, but there were lives that were evidently changed by the truth of God. And this revival also swept over our nation, and in some areas had such an effect that, for example, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, which is now known, unfortunately, for casinos and gambling, but a good century ago, There are reports that among its 60,000 inhabitants, there were less than 50 people who remained unconverted from all appearances. Imagine that. From a number of 60,000 people, only 50 unconverted people. And again, we can't judge every one of these, but this is the report. Well, these are just two instances of which we could speak all night about how the Lord has worked in different places at different times. And all, not through a Jonah, as the Lord did in Nineveh. Not through some skilled preachers. Because as we saw in the case of Jonah, there was no skillful preaching going on there. But it was all, and it is all, because of the greater than Jonah, the Son of God who speaks to us in our text words tonight about himself. And he says in verse 41 of Matthew 12, these words especially are our focus. The men of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah. And behold, a greater than Jonah is here. With the Lord's help, we wish to see how the Lord Jesus Christ is a greater than Jonah, and there will be five ways in which we'll see how Christ is so much greater than Jonah, and we'll deal with those as we go along. But first, a word about the context. We always have to interpret Scripture in its context, don't we? And when you read Matthew 12, we couldn't read the whole thing, but you can read the whole of it later. There are four things going on that help give us the backdrop of this glorious statement of the Lord Jesus Christ. First of all, there were Jesus's signs, Jesus's signs. He'd been teaching about the kingdom of heaven, and his preaching was accompanied by miracles, beautiful, gracious miracles. which showed that the kingdom of God had come. In verses 10 through 13, he heals a man whose arm, whose hand had been shriveled up, an emblem of brokenness and of need, and Christ stoops and heals this man in a wonderful display of tender mercy and powerful majesty. In verse 22, he does another amazing sign, where a man possessed by a demon, a man who was also blind and dumb, is delivered from this demon, and he is cured by the Lord, who had such compassion on him. And the Lord Jesus Christ wants to make clear that his power is exercised upon people who are broken and in need and require his sympathy, which he so has deep in his heart for needy souls. And that's what the Lord wanted to display in his ministry, his love. for broken and needy souls. In fact, in this chapter, Matthew quotes Isaiah, and that beautiful verse, which you know, a bruised reed, he will not break. And smoking flax, he will not quench. That's my Savior. That's my Lord. Despite all the power that is His, He doesn't use it to crush that which you and I crush. But he binds up, he heals, he cares, he sympathizes. Even now from heaven, he's the sympathizing high priest for all those in need who look to him. So first of all, we have signs, these precious signs of the Lord Jesus. But secondly, we have the people's sin, a terrible sin. You can read about this, for example, in verse 24. When the Pharisees, the most religious people, schooled in Moses and the rabbis, when they see these wonderful displays of the Lord's mercy and power, guess what they say? They say, this fellow does not cast out devils but by Beelzebub. the prince of the devils. What an awful, what an awful statement. What an awful sin. These highly religious people are evidently so full of hatred and pride that they actually dare to say that Jesus' glorious, tender, compassionate works are the works of Satan. Instead of being the works of light come down into this world, they are the works of darkness. And the Lord makes clear that they are treading on very thin ice. The Lord Jesus here begins to speak about the sin against the Holy Spirit. The sin which cannot be forgiven. Now just as a side note here, some people become very alarmed. when they hear about this sin, and they fear that they may have committed that. Now, dear friend, it's understandable that you're alarmed by this. None of us should want to sin at all. And certainly we don't want to sin, the sin against the Holy Spirit, but it's been often said, and I repeat it again, and that is that those who have committed this sin are not concerned about it at all. They scoff about these things. No concern for it. But the sin against the Holy Spirit, just to be brief and clear about this, I don't wanna let you walk away with questions about this. This won't be the focus, but just so that you know, the sin against the Holy Spirit, which is what these Pharisees were coming so very close to, is the direct defiance against the Holy Spirit's convincing arguments that Jesus is the Christ. It's the hardening of the heart against all that the Holy Spirit does, arguing for the Messiahship of the Lord Jesus Christ, and a deliberate choice to call the Holy Spirit's work Satan's work. And that is such a heinous and grievous sin. And again, no one who does this is concerned about this. But the Lord Jesus warns against this. He warns these Pharisees, you're treading on thin ice. Every sin can be forgiven a man, but whosoever speaketh like this against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him neither in this world, neither in the world to come. Do you see how the Lord Jesus Christ is honest and solemn and serious with these souls before Him who are doing this? They're hardening their hearts. with the work of Christ so obvious before him and the work of the Holy Spirit who's attesting to his messiahship and they're looking at this and bitterly, enviously, and hatefully they're saying that's the work of Satan. That's not the work of Messiah. That's not the work of the Holy Spirit. Oh my dear friend, never ever come close to that and never come close to any hardening of your heart no matter what it is fall in with God, fall under the gospel. So there's signs, there's sin. And then notice thirdly, there's the seeking of other signs. Verse 38, our passage started with this. Then certain of the scribes and the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. Now, what is that? Lord Jesus has been doing signs. His whole ministry has been filled with signs. But what these scribes and what these Pharisees are saying is, Master, we don't want these kinds of signs. We want different signs. We want our own signs. We want thee to prove to us that thou art Messiah, but our way and on our terms. And dear congregation, this is a very wicked request. These Pharisees, these scribes, should have bowed under God. imploring Him for His mercy, for His grace. They should have seen their brokenness and their need for a Savior. The problem was they didn't think of themselves as broken or in need of a Savior. Instead, they're looking down on people, and they're looking down on Christ, and they are judging Christ, and they are hating on Christ, and they want Christ to meet their standards. And congregation, that is what man does. That is what a sinner does apart from grace. He wants Christ to meet his standard. Show us a sign that we might believe on thee. And probably what these Pharisees and scribes were looking for was not some other miracle like this, opening the eyes of the blind or things like that. They didn't need that. They didn't have regard for that. It had no echo in their soul because they were not broken. What they wanted was something spectacular where maybe the Lord Jesus Christ, a bit like people today speak about superheroes or something like that, but he would do something that the whole world would just be awed. Like maybe he would call a star down from heaven and it would strike the earth. Or maybe he would just, you know, by his word, he would take some or other building and cast it into the sea. Something spectacular. Something that is of note. Something that's impressive to the physical eyes, not the spiritual needs. The spiritual eyes of our heart. That's what they wanted. And so they're taunting Christ, and they are so very wicked. in doing this, if only they had seen their sin, their own need, and they would hit the ground and say, Lord, my will is shriveled up like that man with that shriveled up hand. Oh, Lord, please help me. Please heal me. Please touch me. Lord, I'm bruised. I'm broken like that reed. of which thou hast spoken. Please don't break me further, but bind me up and heal me. I need thy healing touch." Do you see, congregation, how these men wickedly, they want God to fulfill their agenda, to meet their demands. And dear friends, that spirit is not so far from any of us. The proud In vain his favor seek. Be mindful of that. even in holy things, in precious things, to look down on the Lord and say, but Lord, it must go this way, and it must go that way, and unless Thou does do this spectacular evident sign in my life, I will not believe. And so then we make God to serve us the way we wish to be served in our arrogancy and in our pride, and the Lord will not do that, and the Lord doesn't do that here as well. That's why we have, first of all, the signs that the Lord does show. We have the sin that the people manifest. We have the seeking for other signs. And then, lastly here, as part of the context, we have Jesus' scriptural sign. In the light of the arrogancy of these people, He says, I'm not going to give you what you're asking for, but I will give you something. And you won't like it, but I'm giving you a scriptural sign. An evil and an adulterous, that means an unfaithful generation respecting God, unfaithful, seeketh after a sign. But there shall no sign be given unto it but the sign of the prophet Jonah. In other words, you scribes, you Pharisees, open your Bible and read humbly, attentively what God did hundreds of years ago. and then still see if you need to ask for a sign, because you have there a glorious sign, the sign of Jonas, sign of Jonah, who was three days in the belly of a whale. We'll get to that sign here in a moment. But you see how this text forms a very serious, a very solemn backdrop. In congregation, life is no different today. We have a church here of religious people. We're glad you're here. But my friends, you can be here in one of two ways. You can be here needy, broken, in need of the Lord and of his mercy. The Lord is ready. As you heard this morning, with desire, he is ready to help you. With desire, he is ready to save you. With desire, he's ready to have this communion with you. But you can also see, sit here in a way that you are looking down on the bruised and the broken and on the Lord. And the Lord has to meet your standards. The Lord has to show you a sign that suits you. You want to dictate to the Lord how it all must go. Well, my friends, listen very carefully. Whoever we are, the Lord Jesus Christ makes clear that He is the greater than Jonah. And that is good news for all of us, if we will but hear it, if we'll be but come under that. My dear friend, it's a frightful thing, as we hope to see, if you won't. And so let us look at five ways in which the Lord Jesus Christ is so much greater than Jonah. Greater than Jonah. And the first way, congregation, is that Jesus didn't come reluctantly like Jonah did, but he came so very willingly. We looked at at Jonah. And we saw how reluctant he was as a messenger to the Ninevites. Instead of going to Nineveh and preaching God's word to them, he went the opposite direction. He fled from before the face of the Lord. He said, as it were, I am so against the Lord's way with these Gentiles that I'm going to get away from the Lord as far as possible. And when the Lord finally made him willing, through all the events with the fish and everything, the sea, when he was finally made willing, he was still at a base level. He was a reluctant messenger. And if that's not clear in chapter three, it's certainly clear in chapter four, verse two, where he sits outside the city and he complains against the Lord. Did I not say, O Lord, in my own country, Therefore, I fled before unto Tarshish, for I knew that thou wert a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. You see, Jonah has a controversy with God in which he thinks God is too compassionate and too merciful. And Jonah himself here is in a proud place, an arrogant place, just like the Pharisees in the chapter we read. He's against the compassion of the Lord for those in need of it. And congregation, if that marked Jonah and his preaching, and the Ninevites still repented, even with this hard, reluctant, angry messenger, How can we stay unchanged when here running out of eternity is the Lord Jesus Christ himself who can't wait to demonstrate his willingness to save sinners to the utmost His heart was throbbing with desire, as you heard this morning, with desire. Have I desired to eat this Passover with you? But already in eternity past, He had such desire to save sinners. Lo, I come in the volume of the book it is written of me. I delight to do thy will. I delight to save sinners, no matter how sinful, no matter how vile. Do you see, congregation, how much greater this Lord Jesus Christ is compared to Jonah? Jonah, the impression you get at least is that he's going up and down through these cities, and almost in muffled voices, in muffled voices he says, you have 40 days and Nineveh will be destroyed, will be overthrown, 40 days. The Lord Jesus Christ sees the crowds of people, and He is moved with compassion, because they are like sheep without shepherds. And his heart is brimful of love for lost sinners the world over. And dear friends, if the Ninevites repented then, how can some of you stay unrepentant under such a display of mercy? where the God of the universe, the Lord Jesus Christ, light of light, God of God comes down, takes flesh and blood to himself of the Virgin Mary, stoops so low as to be born in a manger, walks in this miserable earth, at least from his perspective, used to the glories of heaven as he was. And he is mocked. He is rejected. He goes to his hometown and preaches. And they want to kill him by throwing him over the cliff. And yet it is mercy in his heart. It is love for sinners that takes him all the way to the cross. There to die the just for the unjust. To bring sinners back to God. Oh, greater than Jonah. Show thy willingness, show thy readiness, show thy eagerness to save to the uttermost sinners tonight. Jesus didn't come reluctantly like Jonah, but willingly, oh so willingly. But secondly, Jesus is greater than Jonah because Jesus didn't suffer for his own sins as Jonah did. but he came to suffer for the sins of others. Now Jesus says to these Pharisees and scribes, he says, no sign will be given to you except the sign of Jonah, for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the belly of the earth. In other words, there's a parallel between what Jonah experienced as he was near death It looked like he was dead and gone. He was actually near death. But there's a parallel between that and Jesus actually dying and being in the grave. In the belly of the earth, that means in the grave. Now let me clear up something here a moment, because maybe you've wondered about this in the past, or you're wondering about it now. Why does the Lord Jesus say that He will be in the grave for three days and three nights? Because children, you know that the Lord Jesus Christ died on Friday, right? And He rose again on Sunday. So that's two nights, and that's really one whole day. So why can he say here, as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so the Son of Man shall be in the belly of the earth three days and three nights? Well, it's very easily cleared up. The way the Jews counted days, any part of a day was reckoned. So if I'm supposed to meet with you on Tuesday morning, I would say to you in Jewish style, I'll see you in three days and three nights. And it's just a formula. Three days, night and day belong together. So if there's any part of the day, so like tonight and Tuesday, those are considered a day. And then, of course, Monday in between. And that's how they would speak. And this is actually, you can see certain instances in the Bible where that's exactly the way they spoke. So don't be confused about that anymore. It simply means any part of the day is counted for a day, three days and three nights. But the point here in this passage is that the Lord Jesus saw in Jonah's experience something that he himself would go through. Not in a whale, but in the earth. Not almost dead, but truly alive. And it was a picture, prophecy of what he would endure. And he says to these Pharisees and to these scribes, you're not getting the sign you're asking for, but you have a sign. If you will open your Bibles, when you see Jonah going down into the depths, three days and three nights, and for all appearances, these sailors and everybody else who knew about it, Jonah is gone. But then all of a sudden, three days later, there's Jonah. He's alive by the power of God. But congregation, now here's the difference. And this is what I want to highlight. Jonah was in that belly of that whale because of his sin. God was catching up with him and punishing him because of his sin. straying from God, backsliding from God, running from God. So Jonah wasn't suffering on behalf of anyone else there, he only had himself to blame. The congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ hung on the cross and when he went into that grave, he did it all for love. All for sinners. There was nothing in that that he had to atone for himself, for any sin that he had committed in thought, word, and deed. Any original sin, any actual sin. No sin of commission, no sin of omission. It simply wasn't there. Heaven looked on Christ and said, He's holy, harmless, and undefiled, separate from sinners. And yet he went into the earth. Yet he hung on the cross. Yet he shed his blood and died. How is it possible? Well, Paul says it this way. He said, God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. Imputing our iniquity. Dear believers, upon Christ, in order that His righteousness might be imputed to sinners the world over. And He did this congregation out of love. He knew the price. He knew the cost. And He would go all the way. And dear friends, when Jonah walked those streets of Nineveh, was he going to pay the price for any of these Ninevites? No. He wouldn't have, even if he could have. But the Lord Jesus Christ, when he went over the land of Judea and Samaria and Galilee and beyond the Jordan, he did it knowing full well that the wrath of God, due to the sins of so many sinners the world over, would be laid upon him. He would drink the cup of the wrath of God to its bitterest. and Lois Drakes. And he plunged into that place for sinners like you, and like you, and like you, who've never done anything to deserve it. Who don't even of yourself cry to God, and need God, and sit there waiting for God. No, by nature we do none of those things. The Lord Jesus Christ says, is there a bitter cup of wrath for sinners? Give it to me. I'll drink it to the utmost, that they may go free, that they may be mine, that they may commune with me, that they may be united to me, that they may have my righteousness, that heaven will look down on them and see no iniquity in them. but see the righteousness of Christ in them. So that sinners far and wide can sit at a table and partake of bread and of wine, broke symbolizing broken body and poured out wine, and that Christ may be the host. And he's with his people, bruised and broken all of them, but he died for them. And my friends, with such a gospel, Will the Ninevites show you up and say, we had a reluctant prophet who at best paid for his own sins, and you have the gospel of a willing Savior who died just for the unjust. Oh, my friends, don't you see how wide, don't you see how high, don't you see how deep the gospel of this greater than Jonah is. Not only was he more willing, not only did he pay the price for sin, but dear friends, he was greater than Jonah because he didn't just come with a message like Jonah, but he was the message. Jonah had a message, a monotonous, a repetitive, but a true message. And he preached that. And God blessed that. And the Lord Jesus Christ preached many things. He taught in the synagogues. He taught in the open air. He taught the word of God. He was a prophet. He was a teacher. But dear friends, he's more than a teacher. He's more than a prophet. When he walked this earth, this is what the Apostle John says. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, but the world knew Him not. The Word became flesh. and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." You see congregation how Jonah had a message, but Christ is the message. He is the message enfleshed. He is the message walking, about, speaking, radiating His glory, taking the lowest place, Binding up the broken and washing the feet of the disciples and saying I've given you an example Everything the Lord Jesus Christ said and did was calculated to point to himself as the Word made flesh And that's why the Word of God says so very clearly. This is a sobering fact that God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken by His Son, in His Son, in the person of His Son. And that's why in Hebrews it says, too, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, so much greater than what the Ninevites had, so much greater than what Jonah was and had. He is the message. He is salvation. You see, congregation, all that Jonah could say was, yet 40 days, yet 40 days in destruction. The Lord Jesus Christ had such a full message. Oh, such a glorious message. Everything is in it. The Scriptures are filled with His yearnings, His invitations, His beckonings, His warnings, His entreaties, His calls, His arms stretched out wide. Oh my friends, that is the greater than Jonah. That is the Savior. Dear friends, we should hear the words of Christ still today from heaven as he speaks them. We should hear them as if they were dripping blood in a certain sense. Hugh Martin, who has a commentary on Jonah, he says this, bear in mind continually, it is the sufferer that pleads with you to flee from the strokes of that sword of justice whose burning edge pierced him. It is He who bore the mighty load, and He implores you not to rest an hour. under the weight of the curse due to sin. It is He who drank the cup of trembling and of death that implores you to prefer the cup of blessing and of salvation. My dear friends, these things have been signified before your very eyes this morning in the Lord's Supper. How can you resist? How can you push away? these overtures of mercy, the imploring voice of the Savior that says, come unto me greater than Jonah, love incarnate, who died the unspeakable curse of death and calls you to take a cup of blessing and to drink and be satisfied. and to rejoice in God and in Christ Jesus. Oh, dear friends, with such a message, will not Nineveh rise up in judgment and said, if only we had had that and we repented? Oh, my dear friends, Jesus is the message. But fourthly, the Lord Jesus is greater than Jonah because he didn't just demand repentance, As Jonah did, the Bible tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ gives repentance. You see that prophet going through Nineveh, crying judgment out upon the people there. What is this but the demand, the demand, the demand for repentance? And even that's implicit. He simply announces judgment. But the king, for example, he sees in it the call to repentance. But dear friends, the Lord Jesus Christ does so much more. But this is something that I pray God He would solemnize your heart if you are unrepentant tonight. If you could not come to the table of the Lord because you do not know this repentance. Oh my friend, you may be very religious. You may be as religious as these Pharisees and scribes that stood there in the audience of the Lord Jesus as he spoke to him. You may be more religious. But the Lord Jesus says a fearful thing. He says your heart and your life may be swept up like a house that's up for sale and that's been Clean and purified and garnished and it's picture perfect, but it's empty. You're a whitewashed life, sepulcher. And that's how you may pride yourself. That's how you may appear. And you may look down your nose at people who need this gospel, the way it is preached, who run for mercy. And you might look down at that, because you're all set, at least for now, so you think. Oh, my dear friend, do you not realize that the Lord Jesus Christ says that that vacuum in your life that looks so perfect to you is an invitation for seven devils to come and possess you. The one notices, oh, it's clean. There's a fresh habitation. And he takes seven friends, so to speak, with him and say, let's go. There's a place to live. Spurgeon says, men who become moralized and improved entirely of their own accord and in their own strength return to their old sins. Many men's lives are swept from foul vices and garnished with pretty human virtues, but they are not inhabited by the Spirit of God, and hence soon evil gets the upper hand, and the soul is worse than it is before. I'm speaking to someone or some people here who are priding themselves in their own righteousness and don't want to go lost at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. You can make ends meet spiritually. You can live on with your life. You can deal and manage your sin. And you look down your nose at others, and yet, my dear friend, there are seven devils on their way. Do you not realize you're not safe, my friend? Make the tree good, and its fruit will be good. You need Christ. You need this greater than Jonah. You're not safe, my friend. Oh, lose the battle that you're fighting against sovereign grace. Become a lost sinner and find in this greater than Jonah, everything your life needs. Your clean life, oh my friend, it needs Christ. Your decked out life, it needs Christ. Your garnished life, it needs Christ. Oh, every sinner here needs Christ. Every person needs Christ. the Ninevites they repented with so much less. And you, will you hold out? Will you not repent before the one who is exalted? For to give repentance and remission of sin. Maybe there's someone here who says you know that that's my exact problem. I've heard this this command to repent. You talked about it last week. And I don't know where to find it. I don't know how it can be mine. I looked this past week in my heart and there wasn't a drop of true repentance in my soul. How can I have this? I know I need it. Oh my dear friend, the problem is you're too high. You're too haughty. You're too lifted up. You need to fall and believe the word of God as he says it, not quibbling, not making excuse, not thinking that you're different, not thinking that you're the exception, not having all these pious excuses for why it can't be for you and why it can't be for you now. Oh my friends, do you hear this greater than Jonah? He says he is exalted for to give. repentance, and remission of sin. And shouldn't you just cry to Him and say, Turn me, O God, and I shall be turned. The Lord gives so graciously, so willingly, everything we need, faith and repentance and prayer and everything. His storehouse of mercy is so full, oh, that He would rend the heavens and pour down upon us these graces so needed. Lord, art thou not the greater than Jonah? Oh Lord, do it. Don't just demand, but give. And we know the Lord doesn't just demand, but He demands with one hand and He gives with the other hand. I will, if thou plead, fill thine every need, all thy wants relieving. Oh my friend, What a greater than Jonah we have. Maybe children you wish that you were there in Nineveh. And I agree with you, wouldn't that be something. and have that king speak to you, and all that dust and ashes, and all those animals, and all the rest of that. Wouldn't that have been impressive? You would forever remember it. You would tell your children and your grandchildren, and you'd tell it far and wide. But my friends, we have something so far greater. than that. And this should be told far and wide. Everyone should hear about this. We have a greater than Jonah. He's alive. He's real. He's true. And he still does the same things. His heart is not changed. But know one thing. Know one thing, congregation. None of us will be judged by Jonah in the last day. None of these Ninevites would meet Jonah in the last day and be judged by him. But the one who proffers peace and pardon today, this greater than Jonah, be warned, you will meet him. And he will judge the world in righteousness at the last day because God has appointed him as such. What a day that will be to stand before the one who was preached. in your hearing as the willing, the effectual Savior who could save to the uttermost all who come unto God by Him. And He will stand there. And oh my friend, please don't come there unclothed with the righteousness that is in Christ. Hear His voice today. while he proffers peace and pardon. He is great. He is so very great. He has a great salvation. But in that day, my friend, he will be a great judge. Oh, don't you see how today is the day of grace? Today, while you hear his voice, harden not your heart. The Ninevites will rise up. The Queen of Sheba, Jesus, says she'll be there. All these people whom we may have despised back then because they weren't Israelites, they were foreigners, they were from far away, and they came. and bowed the knee before God and before his Christ. This Queen of Sheba, she came all the way from Ethiopia to Solomon, and she wondered at what she heard from Solomon. And Solomon, though a king, though wise, oh my friends, that was just this. compared to the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh my friends, whoever you are, shall we nod as one man? All together, give ourselves entirely, soul and body, for time and for eternity to this greater than Jonah. He knows what to do. He will guard you as the apple of his eye. People of God, you sat here this morning. I trust you did. You had the signs and seals of his broken body and his poured out blood. Oh my friends, whatever awaits you, It may be Satan. It may be the world. It may be your own evil flesh. But remember, greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. He is greater than Jonah. He is greater than Satan. He is greater than your own evil heart. Oh, fall in with Him, and you will never ever be disappointed. Come what may, dear friends, the greater than Jonah is here. Amen.