If I was going to try and give a title to this lesson,
it would be being mad at the Lord. And let's look at this
passage of scripture. Let's begin in verse 10 of chapter
3 and read the entire chapter. And God saw their works that
they turned from their evil way. And God repented of the evil
that he had said that he would do unto them. And he did it not. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly. And he was very angry. And he prayed unto the Lord and
said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying when I was
yet in my country? Therefore, I fled before into
Tarsus, for I knew that thou art a gracious God and merciful,
slow to anger and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.
I knew you were going to do this. Therefore, now, Lord, take I
beseech thee my life from me, for it's better for me to die
than to live.' Then said the Lord, Doest thou
well to be angry? So Jonah went out of the city
and sat on the east side of the city and there made him a booth
and sat under it and the shadow till he might see what would
become of the city. I guess he was hoping the Lord would change
his mind and destroy the city anyway. That's what he was hoping
for. Verse six, and the Lord prepared
a gourd and made it to come up over Jonah that it might be a
shadow over his head to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah
was exceeding glad of the gourd. But God prepared a worm when
the morning arose the next day and it smoked the gourd that
it withered. And it came to pass when the sun did rise that God
prepared a vehement east wind and the sun beat upon the head
of Jonah that he fainted and wished in himself to die and
said, it's better for me to die than to live. And God said to
Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said,
I do well to be angry, even unto death. Then said the Lord, thou
hast had pity on the gourd for that which thou hast not labored,
neither made it to grow, which came up in a night and perish
in a night. And should not I spare Nineveh, the great city wherein
are more than 120,000 persons that cannot discern between their
right hand and their left? and also much cattle. Let's pray. Lord, we come into your presence with thanksgiving that you're God and that beside
thee is none else. And Lord, we're thankful that
whatever you do is right. We're so thankful for the salvation
that's in your son. We're thankful for the forgiveness
of sins. And Lord, we ask that you would
take this passage of scripture and teach us. Teach us your gospel. Teach us what you would have
us to know. Give us grace to love you more
and love one another more. Bless us for Christ's sake. In
his name we pray, amen. Now you will remember that Jonah
did not want to go to Nineveh. Nineveh was the capital city
of Assyria. Assyria, that was Israel's enemy. And during Jonah's time, he had
seen Syria attack Israel and attack Samaria. And as a matter
of fact, when you read about the Samaritans in the New Testament
times, these were people who were Assyrians, that the Assyrians
planted in Samaria to take the place of the Israelites. And
that's where, that's why the Jews hated the Samaritans so
much. They looked down upon them because they were not true Jews. And Jonah hated the Assyrians. I mean, he didn't want God to
have mercy on him. He didn't want him to be spared. He had
seen them invade Israel, and maybe he had relatives or family
members that had been killed by the Assyrians. I don't know,
but whatever his attitude was that of hatred, he did not want
to see them shown mercy. So when God says, you go to Nineveh,
the capital city, and preach there, he left. He went the different
direction, and he went and got on a boat, and the Lord sent
that storm, and the men saw that unless they cast him overboard,
they weren't going to have any mercy. So they cast him overboard,
the fish swallowed him, he was in the fish's belly for three
days, three nights. We read about the prayer that
he prayed in the second chapter. And then the fish spit him out,
and he went to Nineveh, Again, as the Lord told him and he preached
and a mighty work of grace took place. Everybody from the least
to the greatest repented and put on sackcloth and ashes saying,
who can tell maybe the Lord will have mercy. And he was upset. He was angry that the Lord had
had mercy. And so we read beginning in verse
one, but it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very
angry. Have you ever been mad at the
Lord? Have you ever been mad at the
Lord? Well, I have, I have. And how
stupid it is to be mad at the Lord. Whatever he does is right. When I am mad at the Lord, all
of a sudden I become the Lord's judge, and I'm judging Him as
if I have the ability to do anything like that. But I've been guilty
of that. I dare say, everybody in this
room, even if you don't know it, you've been that way before.
When things haven't gone your way, you've been upset, and you
have got mad at the Lord. Why did He let this take place?
Well, Jonah was mad. He thought this was wrong of
the Lord to have mercy on this city. He thought they ought to
all be sent to hell, and he was upset over the Lord's mercy. And the Lord's going to teach
him something in this. Verse 2, and he prayed unto the Lord and
said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying when I was
yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish,
for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger,
and of great kindness, and repentant of the evil." He's finding fault
with God for this. He's upset. I guess he was thinking,
you know, this place is worse than Sodom. You didn't spare
Sodom, but you're sparing them. This does not seem right. I knew
you. He said, I knew this is what
would happen because I know you. You're gracious. You're merciful. You're long-suffering. You're
kind. And I knew you would end up doing
this, and that's why I'm upset." Now, I love this description,
and he's not praising God for this. And remember, Jonah wrote
this. And Jonah's letting us know what
a bad attitude he had in writing this. That's his purpose in recording
his badness, because he was a bad dude. I mean, you look at the
way he responded to people and wanted them to perish, didn't
want the Lord to save them. He was upset. He said, I knew
that thou art a gracious God. Grace. That's God giving you
what you positively do not deserve. Don't you want that? I want God
to give me what I don't deserve. Salvation is my grace. God is
gracious. He delights in mercy. He says,
I knew you're a merciful God. Mercy is God not giving you what
you do deserve. Turn with me, hold your finger
there, and turn with me to Psalm 103. If you want to know what
mercy is, here it is. Verse 10, For he hath not dealt with us
after our sins, Psalm 103, verse 10, he hath not dealt with us
after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy
toward them that fear him." Oh, his mercy. He's slow to anger
and of great kindness and repentance of evil. He doesn't give us what
we deserve. Now that's who God is. And he's
finding fault with him. He thought if anybody ever deserved
to be judged by God, these people did, and he's demonstrating this
sordid, narrow-souled, unforgiving attitude. Now, verse three. Therefore now, O Lord, take I
beseech thee my life from me, for it's better for me to die
than to live. Just go ahead and kill me. I
can't bear this. Then said the Lord, verse four, Doest thou well to be angry?
Is this right for you to be mad at me? Jonah was his prophet. He loved Jonah. And he's gonna
teach Jonah a lesson. Is this right for you to be so
angry at me for showing mercy to this city? Verse five. So Jonah went out of the city
and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth,
and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would
become of the city." Now, I think he thought, maybe since I've
acted this way, the Lord will change his mind and go ahead and kill
him. Maybe he's seeing things as they ought to be seen. Maybe
I've influenced him, and I'm gonna go and see, maybe he's
gonna go ahead and destroy this city anyway. Hope he does. So
he goes up there and just sits to wait to see what's gonna happen
to this big, huge city. Now the Lord's going to teach
him, verse six, and the Lord prepared a gourd, a plant, and
made it to come up over Jonah. Then it might be a shadow over
his head to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding
glad of the gourd. Really unusual language. I mean,
I'm happy for a shadow, you know, if I'm somebody, it doesn't just
say he says he was exceeding glad. He was rejoicing in this
gourd. Oh, I'm so thankful for this
gourd and the stuff it does for me. But verse seven, God prepared
a worm when the morning rose the next day. And it smote the
gourd that it withered. Now, remember this. I want to
remember this. I want you to remember this. Everything that
happens to me, God's prepared it for me, for my good and for
his glory. God prepared that gourd. Aren't
you thankful for that? God prepared that gourd. Verse eight. And it came to pass when the sun
did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind that's gonna
bring in hot air. And the sun beat upon the head
of Jonah that he fainted. And he wished in himself to die
and said, it's better for me to die than to live. Same thing
he said to the Lord. He's now mad at the weather.
Look at this weather the Lord's bringing my way. I'd just as
soon die. I mean, Jonah was a peevish,
bad attitude person. He was God's prophet. And I think
it's interesting that the Lord used him for the greatest outpouring
of grace we see in the scripture, like the city of Nineveh. The
Lord used him for that rather than somebody else. This man
who, wow, he had such a bad attitude. But the Lord's hand was upon
him in mercy and grace. But the fellow says, it's better
for me to die than to live. And then God said to Jonah, doest
thou well to be angry for the gourd. And he said, I do well
to be angry even unto death. I mean, he's speaking in my opinion,
that's speaking disrespectfully of the Lord. You know, yes, I
got a reason to be angry. Look what you brought this way.
I've got a good reason to be angry. Verse 10, then said the
Lord, you had pity on the gourd. Oh, you were upset about it dying. For that which thou hast not
labored, neither made it to grow, which came up in a night and
perished in a night. But, oh, you had such pity on that gourd,
and you were so exceeding glad about that gourd, and you're
so upset at this temporary thing. Verse 11, and should not I spare
Nineveh, the great city, that great city, where there are more
than 6,000 persons that cannot discern between their right and
their left hand, and also much Now, the Lord is not saying Nineveh
deserves mercy, because they didn't. He's not saying they
have grace coming to them, because they don't. But what the Lord
is saying is, I'm gracious. I'm merciful. That's who I am. I think of what I thought of
was the parable of the workers in the vineyard. The ones who
worked 12 hours They've worked all day, and they were worn out,
and it had been very difficult for them. And then the workers
who had worked only one hour, they got the exact same thing
the 12-hour workers got, and they said, this is not fair.
I worked more than they did. I did more than them. This is
not fair. And if that was me and you, we
would have been saying the same thing. If somebody else worked
only one hour, and I worked 12 hours, and they're given the
same thing as me, something's wrong with this picture. And
I love the Lord's reply to him. He said, is it not lawful for
me to do what I will with my own? Is thine eye evil because
I'm good? I'm merciful. I'm gracious. You're
going to find fault with that. I'm giving this fellow one hour's
work, that only worked one hour, the same thing as you, because
I'm gracious. I'm merciful. I delight in mercy. And that's
what Jonah's doing. He's finding fault with the Lord.
He's angry with the Lord for being gracious, for being merciful. He's finding fault. Now this
thing of being angry with the Lord. How many people hear the
gospel? They hear how God has elected
a people and Christ died for the elect and God the Holy Spirit
gives them life. He doesn't save everybody. He
saves only the elect. That's not fair. That's not right. And no one seems to get a hold
of the fact that what mercy, what grace, what kindness that
he saves, who he saves. What a gracious God, what a merciful
God. Glass half empty or half full,
but people get mad. The Lord, why didn't he save
more people? You know, I've thought that.
I don't know how many times I've thought hell seems so severe,
an eternal hell that seems so severe that I don't even like
to think about it. It kills me to listen to hellfire
and brimstone preachers, almost like they're enjoying what they're
talking about. I don't even like that. I mean,
you know, Paul, the Apostle Paul never mentioned the word hell.
The Lord did a lot. The Lord did, he warned of hell
a lot, but Paul thought the word too terrible to even use. It's
not brought out in one of his epistles. He's talked about destruction
and condemnation, but he didn't even use the word hell, and we
use it so glibly. But finding fault with God, that's
what I want to talk about, finding fault with God. I've done it,
you've done it. Finding fault with God. Finding fault with his providence.
Finding fault with who he saves, who he passes by. Finding fault.
Now, I want to remind you of some things. Number one, when
we find in fault with God, we're in essence sitting in judgment
on God. Well, that's a place me and you
ought not feel any qualifications to do, to sit in judgment on
God. That is absolutely wrong. And
then when we find fault with how he saves or who he saves
or how many he saves, what we're saying in essence is I'm more
merciful than he is. No, you're not. No, you're not. As a matter of fact, if salvation
was left in my hands or your hands, If salvation left in my
hands, I'd end up being the only one saved. You'd cross me at some point
and make me mad and I'd say, that's it, no mercy for them. That's the way Jonah was. I don't wanna sit in judgment
on God. I don't have enough sense to,
you know what I'm saying. And think about this. I love
what Abraham said, shall not the judge of the earth do right? Whatever he does, he's so glorious
that whatever he does is right. And he doesn't do anything because
it's right. It's right because he does it.
He doesn't have some law over his head that he's trying to
live up to. He's God. Shall not the judge of the earth
do right? Can you just rest in that? Whatever
he does is right. And here's the second thing I
want to remind myself and you of. The Lord is good. He's good all the time. There's no time when he is not
good. He's good. Whatever he does is
good. Now, I might be too stupid to
understand it, And probably I am too stupid to understand it.
Not probably, I am too stupid to understand it. But that doesn't
take away from the fact that God is good. Everything he does
is good. The Lord is good. When Moses
said, show me thy glory, he said, I'll make all my goodness to
pass before thee. Whatever he does is good. And I don't have to understand
it. He's good all the time. Now, listen to this scripture.
John chapter three, verse 16. God so loved the world. God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten son. that whosoever, oh thank God
for that word, whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. Now I realize that that scripture
is abused by religion to prove that God loves everybody, Christ
died for everybody, wants everybody to be saved, but it doesn't even
say that. Doesn't even say that. It says, God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever, I don't care
who you are, if you believe the gospel, you'll be saved. Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. I had someone
not that long ago say to me, how can you call upon men to
believe and repent if you believe that only the elect will be saved
and Christ died for only the elect? I'm thinking, easy, easy. If you come to Christ, you'll
be received. That's the promise. I can say that to everybody alive. If you come to Christ, you'll
be received. If you call on his name, you'll
be saved. If you believe on him, you'll
be shown mercy. Now, that's not contradictory.
And God, so listen to this scripture. Christ Jesus came into the world.
to save sinners, of whom I am the chief." Now, what's to get
mad at about that? You mean to get angry with? Christ Jesus,
the Son of God, the uncreated, only begotten Son of God, came
into this world, this evil world, for this purpose, to save sinners. I'm one of them. And Paul said,
of whom I am the chief. And let me remind you of this. The Lord always brings good out
of evil. Always. Always. And the great proof of that is
the cross. The most evil thing to ever take place, men murdering
the Son of God, is the most glorious, look at the good the Lord brought
out of that. And I love thinking about this,
the Lord, the God we worship, He's too wise to err, and He's
too kind to be cruel. He'd never be cruel. Whatever
He does is right, and He brings good out of evil. You're upset
with me for showing mercy. You had mercy on a gourd. Is
there some reason why I shouldn't be merciful to this great city? It's not because they deserve
it or merit, but because of who I am. I'm gracious. You know,
when, turn to Exodus 34. Verse 4, he ewed two tables of
stone like unto the first. If you remember, he'd come down
and seen the children of Israel dancing around a golden calf
and he was so angry he threw the Ten Commandments down and
broke the stones in anger at the children of Israel. And he
ewed two tables of stone like unto the first. And Moses rose
up early in the morning and went up into the mount Sinai, as the
Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of
stone. And the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him
there and proclaimed the name of the Lord." Now, before we
go on reading, Verse 18 of chapter 33, he said, I beseech thee,
show me thy glory. And he said, I'll make all my
goodness pass before thee. I'll proclaim the name of the
Lord before thee. And I'll be gracious to whom
I will be gracious and will show mercy to whom I will show mercy.
Now he's in the process of proclaiming the name of the Lord. Verse six,
the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed the Lord the Lord
God merciful and gracious, long suffering and abundant in goodness
and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity
and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the
guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children
and upon the children's children unto the third and fourth generation. And the only way you can understand
that is the gospel. He forgives iniquity and transgression. and
yet he'll by no means clear the guilty. That is understood only
in the light of how he can be just and justify the ungodly
through what his son accomplished on the cross. Oh, what a glorious
God. He's absolutely just. Not one
sin will ever go unpunished, yet he's rich in mercy, grace. Both of these seemingly contradictory
things are realized in the gospel. And I love what Moses did in
verse eight. And Moses made haste, bowed his
head toward the earth and worshiped and said, if now I found grace
in thy sight, O Lord, that's what I want. I want to find grace
in his sight. That's what I want more than
anything else, is to find grace, to find unmerited favor in his
sight. And now, if I found grace in
thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us. Let
us have your presence. for it's a stiff-necked people,
and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance. And that's our prayer this morning,
isn't it? That the Lord would do this for us. Jonah, you're kind of a bad person,
Jonah. I'm right there with you. Thank
God the Lord's not. He's gracious and merciful. He delights in mercy. So we're
going to pick back up in Kings. I just wanted to go through Jonah. We're going to pick back up in
2 Kings 15 next week, Lord willing.