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THE K I N G ’S B U S I N E S S
punishm ent which was due him ; then he cast him self upon God to he dealt w ith as God willed, asking for forgive ness and salvation. T h at was tru e repentance. Has your sorrow for sin carried you all th e way th rough to God as Jo n a h ’s did? God’s will is not changed by disobedience and He is always w illing to give a sinner a second chance so He commands Jon ah a sec ond tim e to go to Nineveh. If you have been runn ing away from some ta sk God has given you, hoping He m ight change H is m ind, will you not come hack today in tru e repentance and und ertak e th e work God has for you to do? God has a work for you which no one else can do and th e re are doubt less schils who will never be won for th e Lord unless you let God use you. W h at of Nineveh if Jon ah had never gone th ere? W hat of your field of In our tex t from Luke 13:1-5 we read “Unless ye repent, ye shall all like wise perish .” Christ had been speak ing of punishm ent and its necessity, and some of His h earers had told Him Of th e slaugh ter of some Galileans by P ilate th e Roman Governor as. an ex ample of sinners being punished for th e ir sins. Christ was ind ign an t because of th is superstition and tu rn ed it severely on H is hearers, “Unless ye repent, ye shall all likew ise perish.” They had sins enough to w a rra n t God’s destroying them for Jesu s Christ never excused sin. He came to call sinners, no t the righteous to repentance. I t is no t th e w ill of God th a t any should perish h u t th a t all should come to repentance, b u t God will not force any one to rep en t— th a t is a volun tary act. The people of Nineveh repented a t th e preaching of Jonah and were saved. W ill you do less in view of God’s righteous judgm ent, which though it seems far away is su re to come? Woe to us if we are no t ready for it. Repent ance is necessary for every soul. labor if you refuse to go? The Necessity of Repentance.
dealing is in condescension to human conceptions represented as a change in God (Cf. Ex. 3 2 :1 4 ), who in His essen tia l righteousness and mercy changes n o t (Num. 23 :19 ; 1 Sam. 15:29; Mai. 3 :6 ; Jas. 1 :1 7 ).— Jam ieson. All God’s prom ises and th reaten ing s are condi tional. God th reaten s, precisely in o rd er th a t He may no t have to perform H is threatenings. He changes H is deal ings ;with us according to our relation to Him.— Maclaren. The sto ry of Jonah is one of th e most in teresting found in th e Bible. I t gives us a splendid illu stratio n of repentance both in an individual and w ith a mass of people. Jo n a h was MY CLASS a p rophet who re- OF GIRLS ceived a c o m m a n d C lara Silliman from God to go to th e g reatest city in the. world, Nineveh, and rebuke it for its te rrib le wickedness. But Jon ah was a Jew and p referred to disobey God ra th e r th a n m in ister to a heath en peo ple, so he ra n away from God and took ship for Tarshish— as far from Nineveh and his duty as he could go. There is no place in th e universe where God is not, so Jonah did no t escape Him, and th e tem pest by which th e ship was n early destroyed was recognized by th e conscience stricken prophet as sent from God. The N atu re of Repentance. Mere sorrow for sin is no t repen t ance, though it is an elem ent in it. T rue repentance is such a sorrow for sin, such an extrem e h atre d of sin and such a change of m ind abou t sin as to cause the sinner to tu rn away from it w ith all his h eart, and to tu rn to God to tru s t and serve Him. Note th e char acteristics of Jo n a h ’s repentance. Con demned by his conscience, his remorse was aroused for he saw others were suffering th rough his disobedience, th en he confessed his sin, took th e
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