The Relenting Grace Of God

Okay, now we will continue our studies from the book of Jonah. We will turn our Bibles to Jonah chapter 3. And the title of today’s sermon is “The Relenting Grace of God.” The idea is that God often relents from the judgments or the disciplines that he pronounces and those judgments which we rightly deserve and that relenting of God from executing his judgments is an act of God’s mercy.

We’ll read Jonah chapter 3, verses 1–10. Let’s read it together. Now the word of Yahweh came to Jonah a second time, saying, “Arise, go to the great city and proclaim to it the message that I will tell you.” Then Jonah arose and went to Nineveh as Yahweh commanded. Now Nineveh was a great city to God, taking three days to cross. When Jonah began to enter the city after a day’s walk, he cried out and said, “Yet 40 more days and Nineveh will be overturned.” And the men of Nineveh believed in God, and they proclaimed a time of fasting, and they put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to

the least of them. When the proclamation reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, removed the robe that he was wearing, covered himself in sackcloth and sat in ashes. Then he made a declaration and it was reported throughout Nineveh by decree of the king and his nobles, saying, “Every man, animal, both cattle and the flock, shall not eat anything, nor shall they graze or drink water. And let them cover themselves with sackcloth, both man and beast, and let them cry out to God forcefully, and let them turn each one from his evil way and from the violence which is in their hands. Who

knows, God may change his mind and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we might not perish.” When God saw their actions, that they turned from their evil way, He relented concerning the disaster which he had said he was going to do to them, and he did not do it.

Last week, we saw Jonah’s prayer in chapter 2. In his desperate situation, he finally cried out to God. And we have seen that his prayer looked much like a psalm. He probably remembered one of the psalms that he had read or memorized. But something, if you have carefully observed the psalm of Jonah, or the cry of Jonah, but something was lacking in Jonah’s prayer. I’d just like to mention that in passing.

Maybe we will dwell on that next week. One thing that was lacking in Jonah’s prayer was confession of his sin. His prayer sounds very right and holy. But what was usual about most of the Psalms that we read is the confession of sin. And Jonah’s prayer lacked specific confession of his sin.

He was in a desperate situation. He was in a helpless situation. And out of desperation, he cried out to God. And Jonah was not actually repentant. We will see that in chapter 4. But what we see in chapter 2 is God’s large-heartedness.

God is gracious. He hears our prayers and responds to the prayers of his people, even when they are self-righteous, even when they don’t see their sins clearly. And our answered prayers in desperate situations are not a sign that God has approved of us. You may be in a desperate situation and in that desperation you may cry out to God and God may actually send you help. But those are not the signs that God is favorable to you or God has approved of you.

God delivered Jonah from imminent death, but he has not yet finished with Jonah. He will teach him the lessons that he has to learn. The main idea for today’s sermon is this. Though God may delay discipline, don’t become complacent. Keep your heart focused on pleasing him.

Ensure your repentance is genuine and foster a sincere relationship with God. So this will be the main idea of today’s sermon. And let’s come back to our text. The first point here is that we see that God, the God who pursues. In verse 1, we see that the word of Yahweh came to Jonah a second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim to it the message that I will tell you.” The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. If you read the prophets or the story of the prophets in the Old Testament, such situations do not take place and they are very rare situations in the Scripture and the prophets actually obeyed God. Many may have felt inadequate of their calling, uh, like Moses, like Gideon, right? But none of them you

Don't see, they openly defied God's commission as Jonah did. But God gives Jonah a second chance, and in this, in the second chance, we see that the destination remains the same, the message remains the same, but unlike his first response, Jonah goes to Nineveh. The text emphasizes that Nineveh was a great city. Nineveh was considered a great city.

As we have seen in the first chapter, that Nineveh was one of the ancient cities. It was founded by Nimrod and gradually grew into a large city. It was one of the major cities in the Assyrian kingdom. And today, Nineveh is an archeological site that lies in the eastern part of Mosul, Iraq, on the River Tigris. And during excavations, archeologists found a shrine dedicated to Jonah. This is that shrine. And earlier, and in the early 11th century, there was an Assyrian church which was built on this site, and after the Islamic conquest in the late 12th and 13th centuries, the church building was demolished and a mosque was built on this site.

It's called as Jami' an-Nabi Yunus, or Mosque of Prophet Jonah. And this site was later destroyed in 2019 by the Islamic State. Jonah travelled to this place and the journey was long. It may have, depending on his, the, on the mode of transportation, it may have taken him two to three months to reach this place. And look at verse 3, that “then Jonah arose and went to Nineveh as Yahweh commanded.” Our English translations — there is an obscurity over there.

NASB translates the second part of verse 3 as, “Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days' walk.” ESV also translates the same. “Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey in breadth.” But the original reading says, is “Nineveh a great city to God.” Nineveh a great city to God. The modern translations have rendered “to God” as a kind of a superlative expression, which actually obscures the meaning. My Hebrew professor translated this as “a great city to the gods.” But you see the original reading, whenever there is Elohim, in the Old Testament the word Elohim was used as a superlative expression as well.

But whenever that Elohim is a direct object in a sentence, it's always, it's not a superlative expression, it is actually talking about God or gods. But in the, even in the early Greek translation, that is a Septuagint, it simply translated the sentence as “Nineveh, Nineveh was a great city to God.” I think even the English translation should have translated, should have been translated this way, because it changes the perspective. It is not only a great city to God.

It's not only a great city, but it is a great city to God. The narrator, for whatever reasons, includes that. Maybe to see the city's magnitude or the enormous task that Jonah had. And then you see here also that God's heart for the nations. This account highlights God's heart for the nations. God promised Abraham that in him nations would be blessed. He called Israel to be a kingdom of priests. If you read the book of Exodus in chapter 19, you see there that Israel was called when God made a covenant with the house of Israel. Israel was called to be a kingdom of priests, to be a witness of God's presence on the earth.

And Jonah, when he had an opportunity to proclaim God's message, he withdrew. He withdrew like Israel. Israel withdrew from being witness to other nations. Jonah withdrew, he became bitter. But in chapter 3, Jonah obeys, and as I mentioned, let's not romanticize his obedience. He does, it does, he does so grudgingly, as it will be evident in chapter 4. He's learned that fleeing from God leads to the belly of the fish, so he fears and he obeys. So his act, or his external obedience, doesn't, internal transformation. So you may have this question: why not use someone else? Why only Jonah? We don't know the answer. God did that sometimes. But why did God not use someone else who is obedient? We'll try to answer that. But let's, this, let this thought sink in: God doesn't give

up. And he will give us many chances even after we fail him. Over time, he is going to deal with us and help us see our sins, leading us onto the path of repentance. He will certainly deal with us if we are stubborn. He will deal with us.

There is one application here. Remember the sins that you have committed. Consider them. Examine the patterns of your sin. There are obviously certain patterns in our lives. Or patterns of sin for which you have not repented. Maybe think of the relationships which you haven't reconciled yet. You may have convinced yourself that over time everything will be well. Over time it will heal without seeking forgiveness. Over time, you may have told yourself that over time people will forget. “Oh, that person smiled at me, maybe he doesn't have anything in his heart.” You may have brushed them aside and convinced

yourself that God has forgotten them because you have maybe prayed a prayer. Remember those patterns. Remember, those patterns will come back if you haven't committed to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you haven't truly repented of them in the presence of the Lord, those patterns will come back. They will be manifested in your relationships, in your marriage, in your relationships with your fellow sisters. They will come back if they're not dealt with. God will bring you into a situation where you will see that sin manifested, will, and because your character has not changed yet, that's there deep in your heart, that's who

you are, and that will come out. We cannot live with a facade for a long time. He will work, because he will work on you and me. Somehow, somewhere we will slip the tongue, that nature will come out. So be careful, brothers and sisters, if you are not committing your weaknesses to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, there won’t be change in us. And the second point that we see here in this passage is that we must believe in God’s Word. Look at verse 4. Jonah enters the city, and after a day’s walk he proclaims God’s message. It was a very brief message

and in the original language it was just five words. “Forty days and Nineveh will be overturned.” Despite its brevity, the message was very effective. Jonah proclaims doom. Nothing more. Maybe Jonah was rejoicing that there will be doom. He was expecting that. That’s the reason in chapter 4 he was disappointed. And if you look at this text or this word here, there is an — there is some kind of ambiguity here concerning the word overturn. It may be a deliberate thing, or the author may have used this word deliberately. The original word hapoc can be used for destruction, as was

used in the context of Sodom and Gomorrah. And it can also be used for, it can also mean overturned or changed, right? And this word rightly fits here. If they don’t repent, God will destroy them. If they repent, it will be overturned. They will be changed. Although Nineveh was not destroyed, he did experience a turnaround.

When people respond to God’s offer of grace, when people respond to his word and order their lives according to God’s word, judgment will be replaced with mercy. And we can learn another lesson from this passage, is that the universality of God’s, or the universal reality of God’s wrath.

We must know that every sin is detestable in the sight of God. Every sin attracts God’s holy and just anger. The Bible says in Romans chapter 1, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.”

All humans are born with a sinful nature. All our deeds are sinful in the sight of a holy God because they flow from a sinful heart. Even our best deeds are tainted with sin. God calls everyone to repent, turn around from their sins and look to Christ for forgiveness.

If anyone of us here is not looking to Christ for forgiveness, they are storing up God’s wrath for themselves. That’s the only alternative. Christ. If you have not placed your trust in the person and the work of our Lord Jesus Christ, you are storing up God’s wrath upon yourself.

Hear the word of God from Romans chapter 2 verse 5. “But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” Here’s the good news. Jesus came into this world to deal with our sins. He is the holy one who entered into the sinful world. The eternal one took upon himself a human nature untainted by sin. He lived a sinless life, and he became an offering for our sins. And hear the testimony of John, he says that “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Jesus went to the cross, our sins were laid on him, and suffered for us under God’s holy anger. He hung on the cross with our sins, and those sins attracted God’s holy anger which was against

our sins. And the Bible says, the prophet Isaiah says that it pleased the Father to crush Jesus under his holy anger for our sins. Jesus died in our place to deal with our sins once for all. And he rose again from the dead on the third day victorious.

Paid the full penalty for our sins. And now seated on the throne as a Lord and Savior to save us, to sanctify us. The Bible says, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” The only way that we can be spared from God’s wrath is looking to Jesus Christ. By placing your trust in the person and his work on the cross, on the person of Jesus Christ and his work on the cross, and rightly repenting of your sins and looking to him, the wrath that abides on sinners will be overturned if you believe in this word, if you look

to Christ and repent of your sins. If you do not, the alternate is the wrath of God. And as believers, our hearts must be tuned to the word of God. We must believe all of the word of God. We must trust in the power of God's word. The word is powerful. And when we yield to the teachings of the word and seek God's grace and power, to work in our lives, God will continue to change us. So brothers and sisters, we cannot live however we like. We have to live by the Word of God. That is the reason that we need to come

to the word daily, look into it earnestly and try to understand what the Bible actually says and apply it to our hearts with much prayer, with dependence on His grace. Until we are doing that, brother and sister, change is not happening in us. We are just merely living a superficial Christian life which is weak and ineffective. We keep failing, we keep falling, we keep displeasing God. Thirdly, do not presume upon God's grace. Now there was an immediate response here in this passage. The message of God's judgment pierce the hearts of these inhabitants of Nineveh, and verse 5 says, “And the men of Nineveh believed in

God, and they proclaimed a time of fasting and they put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.” The Ninevites, believing Jonah's God is angry, they fasted and mourn the fact of, they put on sackcloth. And you know, fasting and sackcloth were universal signs of repentance in the ancient Near East.

And also in verse 6 you see there that the message reaches the kings here. And the king of Nineveh, one of the most powerful men on earth, descends from his throne to sit on a heap of ashes. He removes his royal robes, which are the symbols of power and dignity, and covers himself with sackcloth, the garment of mourners and beggars. And that is kind of breathtaking. Ancient Near Eastern kings were considered semi-gods, and they did not humble themselves. Yet this king recognizes that before the God who sent Jonah, all human power is nothing.

And then he passes a royal decree along with his nobles. And the king makes his decree very specific in verses 7 and 8. The king's decree intensifies the fast to an extreme degree. He says, not just no person, he says no person, an animal, flock and cattle may eat or drink anything.

All must wear sackcloth, including animals. Everyone must cry out to God forcefully. Everyone must turn from his evil way and from the violence which is in their hands. The decree may sound ridiculous, absurd. Humans and animals were supposed to wear cloth, animals, right? Yet their intense intent was very clear here. The intent was to appease the wrath or the anger of a holy God. Essentially, the king commands the Ninevites to cease living wickedly and to stop engaging in violence. The king cannot know God's intentions, but he remains hopeful that God will somehow show mercy. Look at verse 9, he says, “Who knows?” He was hopeful, he was optimistic. “God may change his mind and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”

This expression, “who knows,” reflects a healthy fear of God combined with hope in God's character. He doesn't presume upon God's grace but hopes that sincere repentance may move God towards mercy. What does it mean to presume upon God's grace? To presume means to believe something is true even when one is not sure or lacks proof.

To presume upon God's grace means to take his grace for granted. It is to convince yourself that God won't deal with you harshly. Because now in Christ, there is only mercy, grace, love, warmth. You have convinced yourself to believe that. And as God's people, we take a lot of things for granted.

told yourself that meditating, a regular meditating upon God's word, or praying earnestly, is, it's okay to avoid, it's okay, it's not that really important. You have convinced yourself. You may not say that, but you told in your heart, sitting upon the word is not that important. But sitting before a Netflix show, though you don't say that, but you have time for that. You have time for your friends. You have all things, but not to sit before the word. You read a small devotion and you pat on yourself and on your back and said, “Okay, I did something today. I prayed to God.”

You told yourself that you can continue your Christian life by listening to some podcast while driving to your office. Because those bad to podcast impart knowledge, you're thinking that you're growing in the Lord. You told yourself you could, you could continue in the pattern of sin as forgiveness and repeat cycle, that cycle. You convinced yourself that is the way to live, because God is not—God is merciful God after all, right? And you told yourself that church meetings are not that important, you can skip them or go late, that's fine. The reasons that you have for yourself are more powerful than to be at a church meeting on time. You have told yourself that other things are more important than church.

I can tolerate my sickness for other meetings. I can tolerate my sickness when there is a job. I have to go to my office on time. I can tolerate that sickness, my sickness and be at my office, be at an important engagement, but church, it’s okay. God will understand.

You told yourself that your relationships in the church can be superficial, just give a smile, just ask how are you, how you, how you’ve been doing, fine. You told yourself that superficial apologies are fine without true repentance and true reconciliation. You burn with bitterness and resentment towards their brother and sister and you tell yourself that’s fine, God will, after all I’m a human being. And the list can go on and on. Brother and sister, whatever you are doing, you’re presuming upon God’s grace. You’re not acting according to the word. Your life is not directed by the word of God.

You are not living under the control of the Spirit of God. Because the works of the flesh are not being put to death in your life. You are governed by your fleshly desires. Brother, sister, whatever the word says about anything is true and it’s serious.

We must obey. No matter what. We must obey all of the word with all of our heart. Do not take it for granted. Then we see the relenting grace of God. Finally Yahweh responds. “When God saw their actions that they turned from their evil way, he relented concerning the disaster which he had said he was going to do to them. And he did not do it.”

The Ninevites, you know, they turn to God. Their actions capture God’s attention. What was attractive to God was not sackcloth, not sitting on ashes, not their cries, but they, what moved God was they genuinely turn away from their wickedness. Okay, you may ask a question, does God change his mind?

This verse raises important theological questions. Does God change his mind? Is he not omniscient? If he already knew that Ninevites would repent, then why should he send a message of judgment and then relent later? We know that God does not change in his being, in his character, or in his purposes.

Yet, scripture repeatedly describes God as relenting. How can we reconcile these two things? There are several observations. Number one, anthropomorphic language. Scripture often describes God in human terms so we can understand him. When God relents, it means his actions toward humans change in response to their changed behavior.

While his character remains constant. Secondly, conditional promises or conditional prophecies. Many divine pronouncements of judgment are implicitly conditional. For example, Jeremiah 18 verses 7 to 10 makes this explicit. “If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it.” These are conditional prophecies. Thirdly, God’s revealed will versus decretive will.

When the Bible distinguishes between God’s revealed will, what he commands, and decretive will, what he ordains to happen. And this decretive will was decreed in the eternity past. The revealed will may include our repentance with warnings of judgment and discipline. The decretive will includes both human responses and divine reactions, all foreordained from eternity.

Fourthly, the consistency of God’s character. God relenting from judgment is consistent with his nature as merciful and gracious. He declared to Moses in Exodus that he is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. And when people repent, God’s mercy triumphs over judgment.

This is who he has always been. Therefore God foreknew the Ninevites would repent and always plan to show their mercy. The conditional warning was the means by which he brought about their repentance. This challenges superficial Christianity that claims faith while continuing in sin. The Ninevites, with far less light than we have, understood that repentance means heart change, behavioral change.

They understood that they cannot presume upon but many Christians take God’s grace for granted. We are so short-sighted. How much more should those who have the full revelation of Scripture and the indwelling of the Spirit of God demonstrate true repentance and transform lives?

There are a few observations here. Let’s examine Nineveh’s repentance. There is no evidence that the Ninevites believed in Yahweh and had renounced other gods. The king’s word here also shows that he is looking for a relenting of judgment, not spiritual salvation. He hopes God will turn from his anger and relent concerning judgment. And nothing in these verses indicate that Ninevites are seeking a relationship with Yahweh or become worshippers of Yahweh. And when God is described as relenting in the Old Testament, when this is not the same thing as forgiveness.

That they sometimes go together, but it’s not always together. Instead, such relenting is a foregoing of a particular judgment, though sometimes that judgment is only delayed. We see that in the life of King Ahab as well. And Nineveh’s repentance did not last long.

After a few years, they returned to their wickedness and violence. And slowly it became a powerful nation. And a hundred years later, Nineveh destroyed Israel, the Northern Kingdom. Israel was divided into two kingdoms, Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom. The Northern Kingdom is called as Israel, the Southern Kingdom is called as Judah.

Assyria destroyed Israel altogether. Years later, a prophet rose in the southern kingdom of Judah. His name was Nahum. He prophesied against Assyria. Nearly 150 years after Jonah’s ministry, Nineveh was destroyed, marking the end of the Assyrian kingdom. Today, that great city which was recorded in the book of Genesis itself is now an archaeological site. That great city to God, as we see in this text, the great city to God is now no longer a city. It is in ruins. How do we respond to God’s word? The Ninevites know practically nothing about God, the God of the Bible, but they took his message very seriously and they

acted on it. The king not only them to take the message seriously but also to respond in an extreme way. Jesus compares the religious leaders of his time, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the scribes of his time who failed to respond to the Son of God standing before them, to the Ninevites who knew little but responded well. In Matthew chapter 12, verse 41, the Lord said, “The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And behold, something greater than Jonah is here.”

“And the men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it,” it says. “Because they repented at the word of Jonah.” But they did not repent. The people of Jesus’ time did not repent at the words of someone who is greater than Jonah.

Sometimes we become so accustomed to hearing God’s word. That we become so complacent in how we respond. We have much to learn from the Ninevites. How much more should we act upon God’s word than a pagan nation that knew only that God was mad at them?

We know God’s mercy is God’s grace. We know our Lord Jesus Christ and his sacrifice, his suffering because of our sins. In spite of all that, how do we respond to God’s word daily? Brother, sister, if we do not have a regular, consistent time of coming before God and seriously examine our deceitful hearts, brother, we will be deceived and think that we are living good lives. How is your repentance? Suppose you often yell at — so you often yell at your spouse, you let your kids when you’re upset, and then feel guilty and apologize. Is that true repentance? Let’s say I yelled at my wife, after some time I feel bad about it and I go, “Sorry, darling.” Do you think that is true repentance?

What if, how would I respond the next time? I yell again at my wife and my kids, say sorry, and again I am upset, I yell again. That’s how our relationship is with our God. Does that cycle continue? This applies to any wrong that we commit. If we know that is wrong, that is sin in the sight of God, how do we respond? Do we just say merely sorry of having offended you?

Saying sorry is not true repentance. True repentance involves doing what the scriptures instruct. True repentance begins by learning what God thinks about it, how God looks at it, what the word says about it. And then make changes in your life according to the word by his grace.

Simply saying sorry will not honor God. God is not pleased. Let’s say someone hurts you. What do you do? You may not want to confront that pain genuinely in the presence of God, and then address it with the person who offended you. You have a pattern. What is it? You have a pattern. What is it? You want to brood over it because you love brooding over it. Because you love that self-pity.

You want to brood over it for days, for months together, feel bitter towards that person, talk to someone about it, malign that person, somehow seek vengeance, create an impression about that person in other people’s heart. And this is a vicious cycle you fall into whenever you are hurt.

When someone points out your wrongdoing, in order to appear good to others you say sorry or offer a word of prayer or say that, oh, please pray for me, brother. But you’re not repenting of that root problem of self, sin in us, and the desire to hurt others in some way. You’re not repenting of that sin of not forgiving others. You’re not turning to the scriptures, learn how you must behave when you’re hurt. You’re not informing yourself with the truths of God’s Word. You’re not letting the truths of God’s word sink into your heart so that change happens, so you begin to see those changes

in your life. You don’t want to do that because your ego is strong. Our egos are strong. Our will is strong. We are determined to do this way. We are, we are trained for years to live in this manner. We get some kind of self-satisfaction by doing that.

We need to speak about people to others. We need others let know. We should let others know how people treated us. Somehow we want to pass that information. Then we are satisfied. Oh, if someone confronts you, brother. I was hurting. You don’t know my hurt.

Brothers and sisters, this applies to every area of our lives. We must consistently learn and inform ourselves what the scripture says about different aspects. How to deal with any sin and every sin. Only then our lives are pleasing to the Lord. And we do this. There is a cycle and we forget about it, thinking that God has forgotten about it, with thinking that relationships are healed, superficial smiles, superficial concerns, you know, think that everything is settled. No. When dealing with sin, address it at the heart level by identifying your motivations and underlying desires. You recognize patterns and bring before the Lord to seek his grace. True repentance involves not only recognizing sin, but also reaching a point where you no longer want to repeat that cycle.

Until then, you haven’t repented. You may be weak, you may struggle, but you persevere in that path of repentance. You seek God’s grace, you seek forgiveness from your fellow brother and sister. You persist in the path of superficial repentance, remember the Lord will discipline us. There will come a time, the Lord will not leave us nor forsake us, he will discipline us like a loving father. Have you stopped sinning and started to seek God and his ways?

That is true repentance. Make sure your repentance is true. As believers, we must always marvel at God's mercy towards us. What do we learn from here? about Christ from the book of Jonah. Jonah went reluctantly. Jesus came willingly. Jonah proclaimed judgment without compassion.

Jesus was moved with compassion. Jonah resented the salvation of sinners. Jesus rejoiced at it. He said in one of the parables, “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.” Jonah loved himself and hated his enemies. Jesus loved his enemies and died for them.

And we should imitate Jesus, not Jonah. Jesus explicitly identifies himself as someone greater than Jonah. We must bow before our Lord Jesus Christ. Jonah brought temporal deliverance to Nineveh through the message. Our Lord Jesus brings eternal, lasting salvation to all who believe. He will supply grace to all of us.

His work is efficient and is sufficient to save us, to deal with any sin that you are struggling with no sin is greater powerful than the grace of our lord jesus christ his notion is beyond god's help anything can be dealt by the grace of our lord jesus christ because his work is efficient is sufficient to deal with any and every sin and he will bring salvation and healing to our souls. He will bring deliverance, lasting deliverance, true deliverance in our lives.

He will put us on the pathway of growth and sanctification. Our lives will be pleasing to Him if we will consistently rely upon Him. We will bring glory and honor to Him. Though it is weak, we will grow. path. We will make efforts to walk in that path.

Apart from His grace, we can do nothing. We are nothing. So do not presume upon grace of God. Pursue genuine repentance, genuine relationship with God, genuine relationship with God's people. Ask God compassionate heart towards those who are perishing. Those who are sinning. See them as weak people. Even those who are consistently sinning against you. Don't develop bitterness towards them. Ask God for a compassionate heart. See them as people who are in need of grace and consistently pray for them and extend grace to such people. May God give us such grace. Let's pray. Thank you.