The Incredible Fairness of God

Well, happy Holy Day, brethren. We're delighted to be able to meet together here at the end of our stay in the Branson area. We've been enjoying seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles. And of course, now today, the eighth day, what we used to refer to more as the last great day, certainly a very wonderful additional celebration that we are directed by God, not only to observe, but to understand the significance of it. And clearly, Mr. New did a very fine job of explaining part of how our message is to proclaim this glorious plan that God is working out. I might note, of course, throughout this week, we've had very beautiful flower arrangements up here on stage. And of course, I know those are, you know, it takes time to put those together. They're a little bit fading, I think, over here on the side, since we've used them through the week. You can see a different decor up here around the podium anyway. This white decor, of course, is reminiscent or to remind us that, well, we are observing a different, a different festival. We know the reference or the connection to the great white throne judgment. And so I want to bring that to your attention. If you didn't notice it, it's very pretty. And I certainly appreciate those who put the time and thought into putting this together. It is, I think, very, very beautiful. And it's wonderful to be able to have that available for us. I think, I think, the people involved in doing it.

I want to cover, to begin with here in our service this morning, I want to cover just a few of the verses that we've already read. But I want us to think about the significance of them. And it ties in directly with what our sermonette was about. First Timothy chapter 2, first Timothy 2, verse 3 and 4, you see Paul revealing, as he is writing to Timothy, something very important. First Timothy 2, verse 3 and 4, it points out how God desires everyone, everyone, all of us, all of the other people who are alive on earth today. We have about 8 billion people on this earth at this time. But of course, we know many billions of people have lived and died. But it shows how God desires everyone to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. See, in many ways, we accept what God has done for us by giving us the knowledge of the truth. We accept that as a blessing or a significant factor in our lives. But as I'll point out, we didn't do anything to earn that. We are special, yes, in a sense, but maybe not in the way we might think at times. But at verse 3, Paul tells Timothy, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior. Verse 4, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth? See, the fact is that our creator God, our Heavenly Father, loves His creation. He loves all men. Now, we identify some people as bad people. And certainly, many people are, at this point in their lives, wicked, and they are wrong. And a lot of warfare going on around the world, a lot of crime, a lot of difficulties. And yet, the creator loves all men. And his plan of salvation is going to allow all men, all men, to have an opportunity to know the knowledge of the truth. Also, in 2 Peter, these are the verses we've covered here throughout the week. 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 9. We will and all of mankind will have to make a choice. See, all of you are here by choice.

Everyone's being forced to be here. All of you are here willing you. You want to be here. I want to be here. I'm thankful to be here.

And yet, we read here in verse 9, God is not slow about His promises, some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.

God is patient, not wanting any people to perish. He doesn't want people to choose to die, but He wants all to come. The only way they're going to make the right choice is to come to understand the significance of repentance, the significance of repentance. See, that's something you and I should greatly understand. It's an incredibly significant factor in our lives. And it's not just something that we did back when we were baptized, because many of us were baptized decades ago. It's something that we continue to renew. We continue to remain repentant.

So those two verses point out how God wants to include everyone in His divine family. He's bringing many sons and daughters to glory. That's His purpose for us and for all of mankind. And yet, of course, we might say, well, what about the people who died in the flood? God brought the flood on the earth. The people were wicked. Every imaginable thing was going wrong. God allowed them to die. What about all of the people over the millennia that have never heard the name of Jesus? That's something that, in many ways, different congregations of church groupings are trying to do something about, trying to bring the name of Jesus to the world, which very clearly, they all need it. They need the name of Jesus, but they need a little more.

Than just simply the name. They are going to ultimately yield, again, as we heard in the sermonette. And of course, there were a lot of people who lived and died before Jesus ever came. We know, looking back on history, it was only 2,000 years ago that He was here. And so we know of many people, and perhaps even many of our relatives, or even our neighbors, or our friends who have died. And yet we know that they don't know some of the things that we know. They don't know the knowledge of the truth of God, the knowledge of the glory of God.

We heard right before we came to the feast, my wife, Pat, and I live in Kansas City. And we've had a neighbor lives right next to us who's had brain cancer for the last, actually, three years. We came home from the feast three years ago, and we heard about it had an operation for a brain cancer. And yet over the last three years, he struggled along and certainly hadn't been like he would like to be, and of course, continues to get weaker and weaker and less able to be around. And then we heard right before, I guess, after we got here, maybe that he had died. That's sad to me because he's actually a very nice man. His wife's very nice. They are very religious. They have their own view about what's happened now. But see, I'm pretty sure they don't fully know all of the knowledge of the truth that God will bring them to an awareness of. And so we all know people, people that have lived and then died and don't have an awareness of the truth. Now, as we celebrate this glorious festival this eighth day, I know that many of you know the answers to the questions I just posed. What happens to people who have died? And what's going to happen in the future? We know about, because of the word of God, we know about what God's plan is to cause everyone in the grave to rise from that grave. And the reason why all of you know, I am delighted to know so many and talk to so many of you, it's just a joy to me to talk about what is God doing? What is his purpose? What is his desire to see me follow him in? Because we're always going to be in that subjective stage. But it comes from our understanding of John 6, 44. John 6, 44, that's a verse we could write down with the one in Timothy, the one in Peter. John 6, 44 says, Jesus states this, no man can come to me except the Father who has sent me, draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day. See that part, I will raise him up at the last day. See, whether I live or die, that's immaterial. God's going to, I want to be, if I'm alive, changed, if I'm dead, I want to be resurrected. I want to be raised up.

But see, we have been taught, we understand the significance of John 6, 44, where Jesus says, no man can come to me except the Father would draw him. And he even repeats this in verse 65. Chapter 6, verse 65, he says, therefore I say to you that no man can come to me except to be given to him by the Father. And so we recognize that our attendance here at the Feast of Tabernacles, our observance of the holy days throughout the year, our obedience to God in everything that we do, we know, well, all of that is tied in with knowing that God has called us. He has drawn us to Jesus Christ. And we didn't do anything to earn that. He says so. But he's the one who decides. He's the one who is incredibly and remarkably interested in us. And so I want to help all of us be reminded. And this is what we observe and what we teach and what we think about and study on this particular eighth day, a white day, as we can see from our flowers, beautiful flowers, here in decor here in front of me. It's a unique teaching, a unique teaching of the United Church of God that all of us support and that we are very close to because we understand the significance of Christ being the head of the church. And God is actually revealed to his church understanding. None of us have been around for the last 80 or 100 years. I think that would include all of us. We've all come into the truth during that time. But God is revealed to the true church understanding of what his purpose and plan is. And this eighth day has the most unique teaching in religion anywhere, at any place, any time, because God is the one who's revealing what he's doing. Now our understanding of John 644, that the Father must draw us to Jesus, is only one thing that we do. All of you know what the teachings of the church are.

We don't believe in the immortal soul. We know that we're physical and we can die. We don't believe in the Trinity. A lot of people, as a part of the world, believe in a Trinitarian idea. But we don't believe in that. We understand something about heaven and hell that most don't. We observe, obviously, a weekly Sabbath on Saturday, and many do not. We keep the holy days. We understand that when we die, we are waiting in the grave, a resurrection. And we know, because of that, that this is not the only day of salvation. We had read earlier Revelation 20, verse 5, where it talks about the rest of the dead living again. So that's all a part of our, in a sense, our makeup as a group of Christians. And of course, we know Revelation 20 talks about three resurrections, really. We'll briefly go through here in a little while. But I'll tell you, one of the most misunderstood biblical topics of all is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the holy God, the essence of God through whom he does incredible works or deeds of power. And see, he's doing one of those works in your life through the indwelling of the Spirit that helps you know the things of God. That's what God is doing. And of course, we should go back to Revelation 20 here. And I'll quickly just read Revelation 20, describing the white throne judgment period.

Verse 11, I saw a great white throne, and one who sat on it, and the earth and heaven fled from his presence. And no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. And the books were opened. And another book was opened, the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works as recorded in the books. See, that's a focus of our celebration today and of understanding the significance. See, it's interesting to see in verse 12, there's two things mentioned, the books being opened, being an understanding of the books of the Bible, and so understanding the Word of God. And then also another book opened, the Book of Life. That's indicating access to the Holy Spirit. See, the Word of God and the Spirit of God are the most significant things in any one of our lives. And we never want to neglect thanking God for not only the Word and our understanding of the Word, but of the Spirit that actually sets us apart. So I use this only to introduce what I want to cover. I want to remind us, I know that those of you who have attended the church for many decades, you've heard many, many sermons about the last great day, about the white throne judgment. And yet we need to pick up every year more understanding of it. I just want to remind us of three important aspects of God's plan for man. The first of those is that even though you might think, well, how come I understand what I do today and others don't? And how come it seems like that could be a benefit or it could be an advantage? Well, the first point I'm going to follow through on is the incredible fairness, the incredible fairness of God. The second point I'm going to cover a little bit on is the mercy, the mercy that God extends to us so that we can learn to be merciful. And the third point is simply the essential trait of being and remaining repentant. These are very simple things, but they are quite profound. They are quite amazing to think about. This first point will go to the incredible fairness of God. I want to read a section here. I'm not the first one to make that kind of statement. We read back in Romans chapter 9.

Romans chapter 9, actually chapter 9 and 10 and 11 kind of all go together. Paul has a discussion here about his people Israel. Paul was at the house of Benjamin. He was an Israelite. He was a Jewish person. He understood. He was a part of the Sanhedrin. He was well-schooled in the religion of the Hebrew people. And yet he was kind of, and I'm not going to read too much of this because we clearly don't have time, but he was kind of a sad. He was sad, he says, in the first few verses. My people, the people of Israel, not all of them are accepting Jesus the Christ.

They actually hate him. They don't even want to be around him. And so he was in anguish, realizing that not all of Israel, not all of physical Israelites were actually drawn to be spiritual Israelites, which he understood he was. He was a spiritual Israelite. Now, it's quite obvious in Acts 9 that Paul's encounter with Jesus in that chapter was extraordinary. I don't know that any of us would say that we had a calling quite like that. And yet Paul understood that in his own life, and you'd see the transition between what he was doing, killing the church, and proclaiming the good news, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. And Jesus Christ is the king of that kingdom. And yet Paul was even sad to see that, well, a lot of my people don't get it. They are not. And down in verse 14, he said, what should we say then? Romans 9, verse 14, what shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? Is there a lack of fairness on God's part? And he answers that by saying, by no means. Absolutely not. God is entirely, entirely fair. Let's go on to read. He says, for he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who shows mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, I've raised you up for the very purpose of showing my power in you so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. So then he has mercy on whomever he chooses. And he hardens the heart of whomever he chooses.

This, again, is a part of what we read here in the Bible. It tells us how it is that God is entirely fair. He's entirely justified in however he chooses to deal with men. But his plan does, as we've already covered, it does include and involve all of creation, past, present, and future. He goes on to say in verse 19, you will say to me then, why then does he still find fault? For who can resist the will of God? But who indeed are you, old man, to argue with God? Will what is molded say to the one who molds it? Why have you made me like this?

Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one object for special use and another for ordinary use? What if God, and I'm reading out of the new revised standard version so it could be a little different than yours, what if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath that are made for destruction, and what if he has done so in order to make known the riches of his glory for the objects of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory, including us, whom he has called not from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles? See, what does Paul say here?

He says, those of us who are called today, who enjoy a knowledge of the truth, who desire to obey God, who desire to submit to God, who desire to choose to do that, we're the objects of God's mercy. We are being given incredible mercy from God. And so this clearly points out that God is entirely fair. I want us to also go to Matthew chapter 20. And I've used this parable before, but this parable is amazing to me. It's amazing to me because it points out how the God is entirely fair. He's entirely just, he is the one who is growing a divine family. Matthew chapter 20, the first parable here, verse 1 down to verse 15, is a parable of the laborers in the vineyard. And as I imagine you've read that before, and you're familiar with the process, he's hiring workers throughout the day. Some of them start working at the beginning of the day, and then some at noon, and some at three, and some at five, and some just barely get in there to do anything at the end. But what I want to talk about or what we need to see, in this particular parable, each of them were given the same payment, whether they worked all day, whether they were part day or late comers who came in, snuck in right at the very end, all of them were given the same payment.

And in verse 11, whenever it came time, well, let me back up a little bit. In verse 8 it says, call the laborers, give them their pay. And each of them were to receive the usual daily wage, the denarius that they would all be given. Now, when the first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received the same daily payment. And when they received it, verse 11, they complained, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, these last only worked an hour, and you've made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day in the scorching heat.

But he replied to one of them, friend, I'm doing you no wrong. Do you not agree with me? Or did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? What I want you to do is to take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to the last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I'm so incredibly generous? See, now, that parable may have to do with many of us being called into the church, as some of you many, many decades ago.

Some of you have been around and been obeying God and serving God and doing the work for 50, 60 years. Some of you for 30 or some for 20. Some of our younger people, you're not near that old, but all your life, you've been doing it. And that doesn't really matter. God holds out before to all of us the gift of eternal life, the gift of eternal life. Sometimes I've seen people who have been drawn into the church and only after a few years or months even at times that they die.

Is God able to manage this plan? Well, surely he is. And of course, it says in verse 14 that I choose to give the same pay to all. I am totally fair. I am totally just. I hired them at different times, but I did it for my purposes. And when I choose to offer salvation, it's entirely up to me if we apply this to the Father. Because the fact is, God is growing a divine family. He is bringing that family into existence.

And as the Father, He is the one who engenders the children. He is the one who engenders or generates, He brings into existence through the Spirit of God, His children. And of course, we know that process that we read about that Jesus spoke about is being born from above, being born again or born of the Spirit. And see, we all started that process when God started that in us. And then we want to be called and chosen and faithful.

That's what we are desiring to do to fulfill. And so I think it, when I think about that, it's just amazing to realize that God is engendering a family. He generates that through the gift of His Spirit. We have to grow. We have to abide in the vine, as it says in John 15.

We have to abide in the vine. We have to abide in His love. We have to abide in His words. We have to follow His perfect example, the vine being the representation of Jesus Christ. He set the perfect example. And He wants us all to be growing and to be developing and to be changing. And ultimately, He says you're going to be a different creation transformed into the sons of God that you are going to be born. And all of us can look forward to that, dead or alive, be born into the family of God. To be a glorified child of God and actually have eternal life. See, our temporary existence, in many ways, I think limits our understanding of eternal life.

I think eternal life is the abundant life that Jesus said I'm here to give. Eternal life is abundant life in so many ways that we could only imagine or ask God to help us to imagine what that gift is. But see, as it is the Heavenly Father who is controlling the timing of our calling, He's the one who brings us to that awareness.

And of course, He explains that I'm doing that in a certain order. We read in 1 Corinthians 15, talking about Jesus being raised from the dead. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 20, Jesus has been raised. He is the very first of the first fruits. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 23. But He says each is going to be brought to an awareness of their part in the family of God in their own order.

Christ the first fruits, that is coming, those who belong to Christ, those who have died, and those who are alive. And then comes the rule of Christ on earth. This is a description that He gives about that plan and purpose. So let's go back to Revelation 20 again, because this is really the basis for what we want to know about how it is that Jesus is the one who we are following. Revelation 20, you see the orders described with three different resurrections.

Here in Revelation 20, John and Vision is given an understanding or a thing to write down. He's given the words to write down, describing an order of three resurrections. First of all, in verse 4, I saw thrones and seated on them were given authority to judge. I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus. They had not worshiped the beast, not worshiped the image of the beast, had not received the mark. They came to life and reigned with Christ 1,000 years. This is the first resurrection. And blessed and holy are those who share in this first resurrection, because over these, the second death has no power. But they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with Him for 1,000 years. We realize that that's talking about a period of judgment where our judgment is that we are recipients of eternal life. This is what we learned about throughout the past week about being appointed to rule with Christ during the millennial rule of Christ on Earth. But it involved a period of judgment. Yes, there is kind of a conclusion at a given point. If I die before Christ returns, I want that conclusion to be I get resurrected. I'm able to rise in a resurrection and be a part of that eternal life that God is offering. But it involved a period of judgment. And when was that period of judgment? Well, on me, it's been the last 55 years. 55, and then however many more years, between now and Christ returns, or I die. But that was a period of judgment. I have come to a knowledge of the truth. I recognize the value of the Spirit of God. And I look forward to the gift that He says He will give. In verse 5, I skipped over part of that.

It's in parentheses, the rest of the dead didn't come to life until the 1,000 years were ended. And that's what we see is talked about more so in verse 11 with the great white throne judgment. He says in verse 12, I saw the dead small and great standing before the throne. The books were opened. And another book was opened. The book of life and the dead were judged according to works as he recorded in the books. Now, this is describing those who are rising in a physical existence. I'm not going to take time to go through Ezekiel 37. I know we've got wonderful messages later this afternoon. And I certainly encourage everyone to be here in our afternoon service because they're going to go over some amazing things. But here in verse 11 and 12, it's talking about those rising in a physical resurrection, those who are in the grave who will rise and who will be educated in the books of the Bible. They will come to repentance. They will receive the gift of the Spirit. And they live a period of judgment in order to be written in the book of life. They will have to accept that at that time if they're going to be in that book of life. But again, you see the word of God and the Spirit of God are the two factors that God extends to us. How much should we be studying the Bible? Well, we all know it's good to study the Bible every day. It's good to study the Bible throughout the year. And even as all of us have been the last month or so, we've been studying the book of Deuteronomy. We've kind of all gone through it together. That was a good exercise for all of us to study that. And yet, how much do we get up looking forward to doing that, to studying the word of God? It is an understanding of the books of the Bible that enable us to have a closeness to God. And with the help of the Spirit of God, that's what these people are going to do. And of course, you see clearly verses written where Jesus said that his disciples were with him and they were listening to him and they understood him to be the teacher. He was the one who, they sometimes stumbled along at times and couldn't comprehend what he was doing, didn't know what he'd do next. But they still recognize, this is the Messiah.

This is the word or the Lord of the Old Testament that was predicted to come. He's the one we have got to be following.

And so, we see here a first resurrection at Christ's return, a second resurrection at the end of the thousand years. And then finally in verse 13 to 15, you see a description of a resurrection that appears only to be thrown into the lake of fire.

So one resurrection to have salvation, one to be physically raised and then growing in understanding salvation, but one reserved for those who would not repent, who would not, who would reject God. And the importance of this, and actually I go back to verse six, because when talking about those who will be changed at the coming of the Lord, it says over these, the second death has no power and they will be priests of God in Christ and they will reign with him a thousand years.

See that's, we wanna be a part of that, but it talks about that second death. And this second death is described here in verse 14, death and Hades are thrown in the lake of fire. And this is second death. Anyone whose name is not found written in the book of life was thrown into this lake of fire.

See that points out, as we again mentioned in the sermonette, as I point out to you, we have to choose, choose to resist the influences of this world, the deceptions of the prince of the power of the air. And we have to choose to be repentant before God and choose to do that on a daily basis.

Otherwise, the outcome is quite bleak because obviously God is not going to perpetuate a number of Lucifer's forever. He can manage and handle Lucifer and the angels. He can handle that just fine. He's going to do that. But as far as people, these created models that are disposable, we're disposable, we can just burn up and not be returning. But that's why we say that clearly, there is a series and an order to what God is actually doing. Well, let me go on. And I think we can understand this as the God is incredibly fair. How about the mercy? The mercy that God extends to us.

Do we really understand that that's what God has done? Let's look at 1 Peter, 1 Peter chapter two.

1 Peter chapter two.

This is Peter talking to the church in general. He's actually pointing out the significance of their calling and the significance of them knowing. Those who were a part of the spiritual Israelites at the time, those who would become a part of that in God's great order throughout the next couple of millennia and coming down to us today. What did he say in verse nine? He says, you are a chosen race. You are a royal priesthood. You're a holy nation. You're God's own people.

In order that you may proclaim the mighty works, the mighty acts of God who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

See, this is a description of what God says that we are to be as Christians during our lifetime and in this day and age, a day and age, that is drifting more into the evil and adulterous and ridiculous, almost crazy societies that we see were destroyed even like during the time of the flood.

But in description, Peter mentions, he points out in verse 10, once you were not the people of God, but now you are God's people.

Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received the mercy of God.

See, that's amazing that he points out two things. It takes God's calling and it takes his mercy to be extended to us in order for us. So we really don't have anything to brag about. You know, we read 1 Corinthians 2 the other day, or one, I guess it is, where it talks about God is not called the wise and noble and able of the world, but he has called some for a very special purpose to produce the work that he wants done in this age.

And yet we want to understand that the description that we see in verse 10 is that being called by God is what enables or allows us to be a part of the church of God today and see all of us have different backgrounds. Many of you are from the states that are around here. Some of you are from further away, but all of us have a different background, a different makeup, and God drew us together. He caused us to be one people by his calling and by extending mercy to us.

We see that Jesus clearly was incredibly merciful whenever people were brought to him, people who were blind or people who were needing healing. He was incredibly gracious to them. He was compassionate upon them. He extended mercy, even if you read through, and we won't take time to do so, John chapter eight, a woman was brought to Jesus that the Pharisees said was a sinner and that she was caught in adultery. And yet, what did Jesus later say?

Well, he would say in John eight, in verse 10, after he pretty well dismissed all of those who were accusing her of sin, after he had told them, well, those of you who don't have any sin, you need to be starting to throw rocks. None of them could do that. All of them had to realize they were sinners. But he says in verse 10, woman, where are those who accuse you? Has anyone condemned you? And of course, she said, no one, sir. And Jesus says, well, neither do I condemn you, but I want you to go your way in sin no more. Turn from sin. I am incredibly merciful. And I want you to be recovering.

And I will just mention Matthew five, verse seven, and the attitude that would tie together with the mercy of God, because we're told Matthew five, verse seven, and this is directly connected to what we see at the great white throne judgment. Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

See, not only is God merciful, He wants us to be, and He wants others to be. Those who will be a part of His glorified family, He wants them to be merciful.

So the last point that I want to mention, is this simply the essential trait of remaining repentant?

Remaining repentant.

You know, in Matthew 11, you see Jesus talking about the people of Tyre and Zayden.

You see in chapter 12, He talks about the people of Nineveh.

In both of these examples, and they tie together with an understanding of the period of judgment that is yet to be, which is going to be the great white throne judgment. It will be at a time when people are resurrected to physical life and are given knowledge and given the spirit.

But He says in verse 21 of Matthew 11, woe to you, but say it, if Tyre and Zayden had been the works, had seen the works that I'm doing before you, they would have repented long ago.

See, He points out the significance, and I'm not going into the detail of the different timeframes of when these people would have lived, but they all would rise in the future. Those of the past, those of the days of Jesus rising in the future, it says they would have repented long ago. And in Matthew 12, Matthew 12, the people of Nineveh in verse 41 would rise at a time of judgment with this generation and condemn it.

Because what happened to Nineveh? We might jump back here into the book of Jonah.

Fascinating book, only a few pages in your Bible.

I don't even know if it's him, mine.

Jonah, Mike and Nate, Jonah, okay. There's one. It's only two pages or four chapters, but all of us know the story of Jonah, even our young people, I'm sure our kids know the story of Jonah and the great fish. You know how it was that Jonah kind of shirked his responsibilities and laughed and ran off and got brought back into the work. None of us want to go away and not do the work of God. We want to be involved in doing the work of God. But even the whole point of chapter three and chapter four is that Jonah was sent to the people of Nineveh who were his enemy. He didn't like them. He hated them. He didn't want to tell them anything. He suspected that God would be fair. He would be merciful. He would forgive them if they changed. And of course, as we read verse five of chapter three of Jonah, the people of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed a fast to everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth. They all repented. There's a funny part down here. Mr. New was going over this the other day in church.

What's it say here? No human being, no animal, no herd or flock was to taste anything. They shall not feed. They shall not drink water. Humans and animals shall be covered with sackcloth. What kind of sackcloth does a jackass wear?

I mean, they surely had donkeys and other animals, cattle. How do you get those animals to appear in sack? I don't know that that really is a point here. But nonetheless, what the story is showing is that all of them in verse eight, all of them turn from their evil ways and from the violence that was in their hands. Who knows in verse nine, God will relent and change his mind. He may turn from his anger so that we may not perish.

And when God saw in verse 10 what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them, he didn't do it. See, Jonah knew what God was like. He knew that God was merciful. He probably knew because he was still alive that God is very merciful. God will. But see, what brought about that mercy? Well, the people were repentant. Now, chapter four, Jonah continues to complain about his job. And I'll just finish this story because God talks to Jonah about his bad attitude. And in verse 11, he points out to Jonah, in verse 10, you're concerned about your own problems.

And in verse 11, shouldn't I be concerned about Nineveh, this great city in which there are more 120,000 people who do not know their right hand from the left and also many animals? They're the ones who repented. They turned to God. They sought that God would help them. And see, that's an incredibly important trait that we've got to continually keep in mind for ourselves. This is what people in the future are going to do, is if they surrender to God, if they bow the knee, they're going to be in a repentant frame of mind.

And see, every one of us have to be mindful of that throughout our lives, throughout our time of judgment. That's going to be the case for others in the future. But that applies to us today. Maybe we could go back to one other verse here, Deuteronomy chapter 4. I know all of you just read this in the past month.

But see, in Deuteronomy chapter 4, God fully understands human beings. He understood Israel. He understood what they were inclined to do. And here in Deuteronomy chapter 4, he told them, well, whenever you go into the land and everything is great and you get a lot of benefit from being there, Deuteronomy 4, verse 30, if you don't obey God and things go bad, they go south, you're in distress, in your distress.

In verse 30, when all these things have happened to you in time to come, you will repent. You will turn. You will return to the Lord your God and heed Him because He is a merciful God and He will neither abandon nor destroy you. He will not forget the covenant with your ancestors that He swore to them.

See, God's mercy has extended. His calling has extended. His mercy has extended. But a response to that is repentant and remaining repentant. And that's not only applicable to us. It's applicable to others who will rise in a physical resurrecting. They're going to have to be repentant if they're going to accept what God has to offer. And so that is amazing to realize that we have choice. And yet He wants us to remain in a repentant frame of mind.

We'll conclude with just thinking about the fact that God is incredibly fair, incredibly fair, incredibly merciful. And He certainly wants His family to accept the gift that He offers of eternal life. But that's going to involve being repentant, having a broken spirit and a contrite heart. And that, of course, we studied that. It's not unfamiliar to any of you. But we have to be reminded of that. We can get off track.

We can make a lot of mistakes. We can sin. But God can clean us up if we're repentant, if we will bend our knees before the wonderful, merciful creator God. We'll close here with Titus. I guess two verses here. Titus chapter 3. Titus is another book that Paul wrote to a young minister and telling him what he needed to know and how he needed to deal with others and how he could give them a right understanding. Titus chapter 3. He talks about bad behavior here in verse 2 and 3. But in verse 4, when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our Savior, appeared, talking to them as all of us would be talked to whenever God entered our life, whenever he drew us to Jesus Christ.

When the goodness and loving kindness of God appeared, he saved us not because of any works of righteousness that we have done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. This Spirit, he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, so that having been justified by grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. God's working out an incredibly wonderful plan, a plan that he's going to offer to everyone, but as we accept it, then we are truly the humble and repentant people that he is going to crown with incredible glory as he sends Christ back to the earth, gives him the knot, come back and rescue my people from this world, and we can be a part of that divine family as others will also be able to choose that in the future.