All right, if you want to turn
to Jonah chapter 4 in your Bible, please. I've entitled this message,
Doest Thou Well to be Angry? And we're going to see this question,
God asked it of Jonah in chapter 4. But let's just read through
this chapter, beginning at verse 1. It says there, in fact, I
should read the last verse of chapter 3. Chapter 3, verse 10,
and God saw their works and that they turned from their evil way
and God repented of the evil that he had said he would do
to them and he did it not. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly
and he was very angry. And he prayed to 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 repentance Thee of the evil.
Therefore now, O Lord, take I beseech Thee my life from me, for it
is better for me to die than to live. Then said the Lord,
doest thou well to be angry? That's the title of our message.
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. piled up some branches and got
under the branches. And he sat under it in the shadow
till he might see what would become of the city. And the Lord
God 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 rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it
withered. And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, 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 he said, It is 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 the which thou hast
not labored, neither madest it to grow, which came up in a night
and perished in night. And shouldst not I spare Nineveh,
that great city, wherein are more than six score, or a hundred
and twenty thousand persons that cannot discern between their
right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle? Whenever we read or hear God's
word, we should always consider the authority of the one who
speaks and the privilege that he would speak to us and realize
that we cannot understand, we cannot believe or heed or continue
in God's word without his grace. Let us therefore come to God
at all times by the blood of Jesus and ask him to accomplish
his saving work in us by his word. It says in Psalm 119, thinking
along those lines, let thy mercies come also unto me, O Lord, even
thy salvation according to thy word. So shall I have wherewith
to answer him that reproacheth me, for I trust in thy word. And what reproaches us more than
our own sinful heart? The title of this message is,
Doest Thou Well to be Angry? The setting is all that came
before in this little book of Jonah. The immediate context
is Jonah's response to what God did in sparing the entire city
of Nineveh from His judgment against them for their wickedness.
But what God did displeased Jonah exceedingly and he was very angry,
as we read in verse 1 of chapter 4. What did God do that so greatly
displeased Jonah? Why was Jonah so angry with God? It was because God had mercy
on that city of wicked Gentiles of Nineveh. One of the great
lessons of the Book of Jonah is that God is a God of mercy,
that He, in fact, delights to show mercy. The Book of Jonah
records, probably from Jonah's own hand, how God taught Jonah
that He is a God of mercy. And this is the treasure discovered
to us as sinners by the Spirit of God throughout Scripture,
that God is a God of mercy. And God taught Jonah to be merciful. But the lesson God taught him
was hard-taught, because Jonah was hard-headed, as we all are
by nature. For Jonah to write this book
of his own attitudes and his own behavior in opposition to
God's will and God's ways must have been very humbling for him.
Think how humbling it would be to have to write the record of
your own opposition to the goodness of God's own character and His
will and word and works, especially when God's character and will
and word and works were those especially unexpected and necessary
for your own salvation. His grace, his heart of grace,
and his mercy to sinners that moved him in wisdom to hold himself
accountable, to satisfy his own truth and righteousness and justice
on their behalf in the death of his son is that very thing
that Jonah was opposing because he had grace towards these people.
And so, the backdrop for Jonah's anger in chapter 4 is what God
did in the last verse of chapter 3, when He did not bring on Nineveh
the judgment He said that He would. Verse 10, God saw their
works that they turned from their evil way, and God repented of
the evil that He said that He would do to them, and He did
it not. Note that in this place, God
did not withhold his judgment from Nineveh because, he did
not withhold his judgment from Nineveh because of their works.
Rather, their works were because of their faith. And that faith,
which is not of ourselves, but is the gift of God, is what produced
those works. God saw their heart. He saw their
faith. They believed in their hearts.
Therefore, the first thing we must understand about faith is
that it is God's work in us, and the second thing is that
faith is a heart matter. The people of God are His people
in their hearts, not outwardly only. Heart faith is compared
to inward circumcision in Scripture. And true circumcision, by God's
own word, is not outward in our flesh, but it is inward in our
hearts. See Romans chapter 2, verse 28
and 29. For example, when the Lord saved
Lydia in Acts 16, He opened her heart to attend to the things
spoken of by Paul concerning Christ. It says there in verse
14, whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended to the things
which were spoken of Paul. So see in that that God opened
her heart. And note this also about faith
and works. Scripture says that what we talk
about, what we say, our words, reveal what we think and what
we believe. What we say reveals what is going
on on the inside of us. It says in Matthew chapter 12,
out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. Therefore,
all those whom the Lord saves believe in their heart. and they
say so in their communication with God in prayer and with others
in their conversation. Romans chapter 10 verse 9 says
it this way, If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,
and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from
the dead, thou shalt be saved. God's people confess to be true
what God has said in his word concerning Christ and him crucified. They are persuaded of those things
in their mind and in their conscience. They therefore answer with Christ
They answer with Christ, that is, Christ is their answer, when
their conscience is pressed by sin. They know that Christ is
their only answer, and that if he has not and does not answer
every accusation of God's own law and in judgment for them,
then they have no answer. And this is faith in the heart.
With their mouths they therefore confess that this is so. This
is God's work in us. He persuades us that we are sinners,
that we have no answer, but Christ, who is Himself our answer. Because
He answered, God's justice with Himself in righteousness, and
is Himself our answer in conscience and in judgment, the one and
only answer God provided and accepts, and so is His answer. We answer God in full because
Christ is our answer. Our sins are blotted out, and
we are righteous by God's accounting for Christ's righteousness. But
we must go on. Now, in Jonah chapter 3 and verse
10, it says that God saw the works of the Ninevites. The Lord
always sees. He sees everything. But He especially
sees and looks upon His own work, and it is to that that He draws
our attention here. Upon completing creation, if
you remember, it says in Genesis chapter 1, the last verse, that
God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very
good. God is known by His works. We
are known by our works. About God's works, we can say
this, if God did not tell us that He did it, and if He did
not tell us that what He did was very good, then we would
not know His work, and we would not know His goodness by His
work, and we would have no certain basis for knowing that it was
good, because God hadn't told us. He therefore directs us to
His own works, to make Himself known, and to make known to us
what is truly good. Proverbs 20, verse 11 says, Even
a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and
whether it be right. Jesus said this, There is none
good but one, and that is God. Matthew 19, verse 17. After all,
it was God's work that sent Jonah to preach to Nineveh. It was
God that raised Jonah from the depths out of the belly of that
great fish. It was God's work that produced
this faith in the Ninevites and turned them from their idolatry
and their violence to seek mercy from Him only. They even kept
themselves from food and water while they devoted themselves
to this task of seeking God's mercy. It is always God's work
that saves us from the first to the last because as Jonah
said in chapter 2 verse 9, salvation is of the Lord. This is the big
message of Jonah. It is that salvation is entirely
of the Lord and it is all accomplished by Jesus Christ and Him crucified
who died for our sins, was buried, to put sin to death and out of
God's book of accounting he blotted out our sins and he rose again
to prove our justification by his death. That's the gospel. That's the way God works to save
us. Now, there's this phrase in Matthew
chapter 12 that Jesus used when he spoke about this book of Jonah. We can see that this little book
is, we can see what this little book is all about because of
what Jesus said about it. We can see what it is about if
we just consider what Christ said. He concluded that a greater
than Jonah is here. Thus he spoke of himself. When
the Pharisees in Matthew chapter 12 took issue with Christ because
he allowed his disciples to go into the field and pluck and
eat the grain on the Sabbath day, Jesus taught those Pharisees
that he was greater than that day, that Sabbath day. And he
reminded them how David and his men ate the showbread that was
given by God only for the priest to eat. Jesus said that David
and his men did not sin in eating that bread. Jesus also reminded
the Pharisees how the priests in the Old Testament were commanded
by God to offer up two lambs every Sabbath day, and so he
used those examples from scripture to draw the great conclusion
of the book of Jonah. He said these things to silence
the accusation of the Pharisees against himself and his disciples. In Matthew 12, verse 6, Jesus
said, I say to you that in this place there is one greater than
the temple. This is the ultimate lesson of
scripture. When we read the book of God, we must look for Christ
in it. When we find Him to be the message,
then we have heard. Christ must have the preeminence
in all things. Jesus said in Matthew 12, verse
41, the men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation
and shall condemn it because they repented at the preaching
of Jonah and behold, a greater than Jonah is here. The Queen
of the South shall rise up in the judgment with this generation,
and shall condemn it, for she came from the uttermost parts
of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold, a greater
than Solomon is here. That is the message of Scripture,
the One who is greater than all, because He is God's only begotten
Son, the Christ of God, the Savior, who is the Lord, who saves His
people from their sins. Now here we have Jonah's anger
in chapter four of Jonah, verse two. It says there that, I'm
sorry, chapter four, verse one, it displeased Jonah exceedingly
and he was very angry. It's a striking thing. There
are several things to observe in this final chapter. First,
we see what God does. Second, what we know of God by
his work and by Jonah's own confession of who God is. And third, we
see Jonah's reaction to the Lord's works and His ways. And fourth,
how, that is what matter, God stoops to speak to Jonah and
to us. And fifth, how God graciously
brings circumstances to comfort and instruct and correct His
servants and us. Because He did so with Jonah
with the gourd and the worm and the east wind and so on. First,
consider God's work is evident throughout this book. First,
God's work is evident throughout this book. He sent Jonah to preach
to these wicked Gentiles in chapter one, verse one and two. Jonah
rebelled and would not go. He fled from the presence of
the Lord by taking his ship at Joppa to go to Tarshish. The
Lord sent a great storm on the sea. The ship was near to break
in apart. Jonah slept when he was disobedient
while he ran from the presence of the Lord. That's amazing.
The captains and the mariners on the ship had to wake him out
of his sleep. They questioned him. Under examination,
he told them. whose he was and why the Lord
had sent the storm, for his own disobedience. And Jonah instructed
them that to be saved from perishing, they must throw him overboard
into the sea, into the flood of God's judgment. They resisted,
but finally relented in submission and pleaded that the Lord would
not hold them guilty for Jonah's death when they cast him into
the sea. They knew it was the Lord who required Jonah to die
for them. And God prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. He spent
three days and nights in the fish's belly. It was while Jonah
was in the depths, inside the belly of that fish, that he cried
to the Lord. In his prayer, he spoke of God's
affliction upon his own soul under the flood of God's wrath.
And while under God's judgment, Jonah confessed his own trust
in God. Think of that. expressing in
judgment his trust in God. That's exactly what the Lord
Jesus Christ did on the cross. He trusted God while he was under
God's judgment. While under God's judgment, he
looked again towards God's holy temple. And under the hand of
God's affliction, Jonah remembered the Lord. In his prayer, Jonah
told how God had heard and therefore answered his prayer when he was
made to remember, I'm sorry, when he was made to remember
and God caused him to cry to the Lord. Jonah denounced all
confidence in the false and imagined gods in which men put their trust
and he pledged thanksgiving to the Lord and pledged to fulfill
his vows to the Lord in his prayer. Jonah concluded his prayer by
stating the lesson he learned in those depths. the lesson of
all of scripture and that lesson that we must learn that salvation
is of the Lord. Now having taught Jonah of his
saving grace and having given the one sign by which God saves
sinners, the Lord then spoke to the fish to vomit Jonah out
onto the dry land. Then God sent his word to Jonah
again the second time in chapter 3 in verse 1. And then, as one
who was dead, buried, and raised from death to life again, Jonah
went to Nineveh to preach what God had told him to preach. The
people of Nineveh heard the message, they believed the Lord, they
clothed themselves in sackcloth, they did not eat or drink anything,
and they turned from the violence of their ways and cried mightily
to God and cast themselves on the mercy of God to save them
from the destruction they knew they deserved. Now this is the
context. How did God act when they believed
and turned? He turned himself from the evil
he said that he would do to them, and that is what angered Jonah. I'll read it again in Jonah 4,
verse 1. It displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very
angry. And he prayed to 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 to Tarshish,
for I knew that thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger,
and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. Now understand
this, considering what Jonah said, be very concerned with
yourself if you are displeased exceedingly with God's ways and
God's works, because He only does wondrous things. In Psalm
72 it says, Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only
doeth wondrous things. The Lord is righteous in all
His ways, and holy in all His works. Therefore we must be very
concerned if, like Jonah, we are exceedingly displeased and
very angry at God and His works. Jesus thanked His Father, if
you remember, in Matthew chapter 11, for hiding the gospel from
the wise and prudent, those who were wise and prudent in their
own eyes, And he prayed that God would not reveal the gospel
to them, but he would reveal it to babes, the sinful and foolish,
in their own eyes, because it seemed good in the Father's sight. You see, it is only because it
seems good to the Lord that he sent his Son to reconcile us
to himself in the death of his Son and to give us all things
with him. Now if that's what is what seemed
good to the Lord, isn't the Lord gracious and merciful and slow
to anger and great in kindness and turns from the evil he said
he would do? So to oppose God is to oppose
righteousness and justice and holiness. To oppose God's salvation
in Christ is to oppose our own mercies and our own salvation.
And that is clear from Jonah chapter 4 and so many other places
in scripture. So let us bow before God, who
alone can and does do good in saving those
sinners perishing for their sins, and he does so for Christ's sake,
according to his will and to his word. It is the Father's
will to bless all of his people for Christ's sake, because that
honors his Son. And the Father honors His Son.
And the Son honors His Father. And the Father and the Son honor
God's Word and the Holy Spirit. We sinners honor God in believing
His Word and we believe His Word concerning Christ and consider
Him alone in all of our salvation, to be all-sufficient. And so
be very concerned if we oppose God in our heart because our
salvation is from Him. And second, we know by what is
said in chapter four of God, we know these things of God by
his work and by Jonah's confession. Notice here in chapter four in
verse two, he prayed to the Lord and he said, I pray thee, O Lord,
was not this my saying when I was yet in my country? Therefore
I fled before Tartarus for I knew that, here's the confession,
thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness
and repentest thee of the evil. Even the confession of an angry
prophet glorifies God. Isn't it amazing that from the
lips of this disobedient prophet, this man who was so exceedingly
displeased with the Lord and very angry because he spared
Nineveh, that even from this man's lips he justified God for
his glorious goodness because he saved these sinful people. Though Jonah is angry with God,
he speaks of God's glory. God acted according to his character. He is a gracious God. He is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and of great kindness, and he turns himself from the
evil he said he would bring on sinners. Can you think of another
time when God turned himself? Remember the greatest time of
all? God's word to Adam was this, in the day that you eat, you
shall surely die. And yet, listen to what Jesus
spoke in a great reversal. He said, I am the resurrection
and the life. He that believeth on me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. That's the greatest reversal,
isn't it? Is this not a complete reversal? But it is a reversal
at the cost of God's dear Son. God said that because we sinned,
we would die. But now we believe and have His
promise that we shall never die. It is all of God's doing. and
it was His eternal purpose. It is all because of Christ's
redeeming work, and it is all made known to us in the preaching
of the gospel by the Spirit of God. This is the reversal of
grace, arising only from the heart of God, all by His wisdom
alone, and according to His perfect righteousness, when He bore the
full cost of our redemption at the price of the obedience of
His Son in blood. That's what we know of God's
work, and that's what we know by Jonah's confession. Third,
Jonah's reaction to the Lord's works and his ways. Scripture
shows us both the character of God and the character of man.
Some claim that when Paul spoke in Romans chapter 7, he spoke
of his experience before his conversion. Remember, Romans
chapter 7 is all about how the apostle Paul said, The good that
I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do.
I know that in me, that is in my flesh, there is no good thing."
Remember that? So some people say, well that
was Paul speaking of his experience before his conversion. But note
here in Jonah, in this place, in chapter 4, that Jonah thought
and acted against God's will after he confessed salvation
is of the Lord. This confirms to us that believers
have both a sinful nature and a holy nature. Therefore, we
ought to watch and pray always that we enter not into temptation. As Jesus said to his disciples
in Matthew 26, 41, watch and pray that you enter not into
temptation. The spirit indeed is willing,
but the flesh is weak. Never presume that you will not
deny Christ like Peter, or commit some grievous sin like David,
or doubt like Thomas. Remember Psalm 94? It says in
verse 17, Unless the Lord had been my help, my soul had almost
dwelt in silence. When I said, My foot slippeth,
thy mercy, O Lord, held me up. In the multitude of my thoughts
within me, thy comforts delight my soul. And so he writes, the
apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 to the Corinthians,
he said, let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he
fall. And he also wrote in Galatians
6.1, if a man be overtaken in a fault, you which are spiritual,
restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself,
lest thou also be tempted. And so Jonah's sin, and Paul's
confession, and Peter's denial, and David's sin, and Thomas'
doubt all give us no excuse for presumption to sin against light. When we sin, we sin against greater
light than even they had. Here is a principle I have seen
in myself. See if you find it to be in yourself. It is easier for me to call and
trust God to save me after I sin than when I am tempted before
I sin. It is harder to trust and call
on Christ to deliver us before we sin than it is to call on
Him to forgive us after we sin. Our flesh will make every excuse
why we can commit sin, but our guilty conscience will quickly
seek forgiveness by the weight of that sin that has freshly
come upon us. Let us ever pray, therefore,
and watch and cry to our Savior that He would keep us from falling,
to present us faultless in the presence of His glory with exceeding
joy. And so we have, in those few
thoughts there, what I was trying to say about Jonah's reaction
here. And the other thing we want to
see here is that God's will is always done. God's will is to
save his people from their sins. Do you doubt it? John 10, chapter
10, verse 17 and 18, Jesus said God's, the Father's commandment
to him was to lay down his life for the sheep. In Hebrews chapter
10 and so many other places, the will of God was for Christ
to offer himself for our sins. Though Jonah refused, though
he ran away, though the mariners rode hard against the storm,
though Nineveh would bring God's judgments upon themselves, though
Jonah wanted God to judge Nineveh, and though he waited for God's
judgments to fall upon Nineveh, yet The Lord sent the storm. The Lord required Jonah to be
thrown overboard. The Lord sent the great fish.
The Lord drew those words from Jonah and gave him those words
in the belly of the fish to pray. And the Lord preached to Nineveh
by Jonah, and the Lord turned the people of Nineveh, and the
Lord withheld his judgments. You see, God's will is always
done, even against the sinful desires of wicked men and believing
men. The other thing we learn here
is that our obedience is because God sends his word to us. In
chapter 3, verse 1, it says this, the word of the Lord came to
Jonah the second time. All of our obedience is because
the word of the Lord comes to us the second time and the first
time. And every time we turn and believe
and obey, it is because the Lord sent His word. The word of the
Lord came to Jonah the second time. And here's something else
we see in this book. We cry when the Lord saves us. When the Lord saves us and turns
us to himself, then we cry. Our cry is God's turning, God's
enabling, and all because of God-given faith. The Ninevites
cried mightily to God because they knew the certainty of His
word, and they knew their condemnation was deserved and fair and certain,
and they knew also that only the Lord could save them, just
as those mariners were made to know on that storm-tossed sea,
that only the Lord can save them from drowning in that sea. They
knew they had sinned against the God of creation and the God
of glory, and they knew that only He who is our Judge can
be our Savior. And therefore, in Psalm 34, 17,
it says, the righteous cry. God does that. God causes us
to cry. When Jonah went his own way,
he did not call on the Lord. He did not call when he fled
to Tarshish. He slept while he was going his
own way. He did not call on the Lord when
the storm threatened his life and the lives of the mariners.
But when the Lord sent the fish to swallow him, then he cried
mightily. And so only when God turns us
to himself do we cry. And so it was with the Ninevites.
They cried when they were persuaded of God's judgment against them,
and they were given this hope to trust the Lord of creation
and salvation, the One who made me must save me. Now I want to
consider, last of all, this thought when Jonah is asked by God this
question, Doest thou well to be angry? In verse 3 of Jonah
chapter 4. God asks him, doest thou well
to be angry? He asked him twice, remember?
Verse 3, it says, therefore now, O Lord, take my life from me,
for it is better for me to die than live. Then said the Lord,
doest thou well to be angry? And in verse nine also, and God
said to Jonah, doest thou well to be angry? He was an angry
man. Now to understand Jonah here,
I want to consider Elijah when he was in a similar state of
self-pity. Let's look at 1 Kings chapter
19. 1 Kings chapter 19. The setting there is that Elijah
had just offered on that altar, remember, he had piled up the
stones, he had laid the wood on the altar, he had laid the
sacrifice on the wood, he had dug a trench around the altar,
he had filled, I think, seven barrels of water and poured it
out on the sacrifice and on the wood and on the stones and it
was running in the ditch. And God answered by fire. And
the people said, the Lord, he is God. And now we're in the
next chapter, the very next chapter, 1 Kings chapter 19. And Ahab
told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and with all how he
had slain all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel, this
wicked woman, sent a messenger unto Elijah saying, so let the
gods do to me and more also if I make not thy life as the life
of one of them by tomorrow about this time. So she threatened
to kill Elijah just like he had slain the prophets of Baal. Verse
three. And when he saw that, when Elijah
saw that, he arose and he went for his life. And he came to
Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there.
But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came
and sat down under a juniper tree. And he requested, notice
the similarity to Jonah, he requested for himself that he might die.
And he said, it is enough. Now, O Lord, take away my life,
for I am not better than my father's. And as he lay and slept under
a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him and said
to him, Arise and eat. And he looked, and behold, there
was a cake baking on the coals, and a cruise of water at his
head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again. And
the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched
him, and said, Arise and eat, because the journey is too great
for thee. And he arose, and did eat and drink, and he went in
the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb,
the mount of God. And he came thither to a cave,
and lodged there. And behold, the word of the Lord
came to him, and said to him, Listen, what doest thou hear,
Elijah? He said, I have been very jealous
for the Lord God of hosts. For the children of Israel have
forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain
thy prophets with the sword. And I, even I, only am left,
and they seek my life to take it away. And he said, go forth
and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And behold, the Lord
passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains and break
in pieces the rocks before the Lord. But the Lord was not in
the wind, and after the wind, an earthquake. But the Lord was
not in the earthquake, and after the earthquake, a fire. But the
Lord was not in the fire, and after the fire, a still small
voice. And it was so, when Elijah heard
it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and he went out
and stood in the entering of the cave. And, behold, there
came a voice to him and said, What doest thou hear, Elijah? And he said, I have been very
jealous for the Lord God of hosts, because the children of Israel
have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain
thy prophets with the sword. And I, even I only, am left,
and they seek my life to take it away. And the Lord said to
him, go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus, and
when thou comest, anoint Hazael to be king of Syria. Now, I want
you to look down at verse 18. The Lord said this. And yet I have left me seven
thousand in Israel, all the knees of which have not bowed unto
Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him." Now look at
Romans chapter 11. The explanation is given in Romans
11 of the meaning of these words, and it's given in the context
of the nation of Israel again. In Romans 11, verse 1, the Apostle
Paul says, I say then, hath God cast away his people, meaning
the nation of Israel? God forbid, no, for I also am
an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God
hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. You see, God
hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. What ye not,
or don't you know, what the scriptures sayeth of Elijah, how he maketh
intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed
thy prophets, and dig down thine altars, and I am left alone,
and they seek my life. But what saith the answer of
God to him? I have reserved to myself 7,000
men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal." Verse
5, here's the lesson. Even so then, at this present
time also, there is a remnant according to the election of
grace. And if by grace, then is it no
more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be
of works, then it is no more grace, otherwise work is no more
work. Now, considering the explanation
of Elijah in this conclusion of Romans chapter 11 drawn by
the Apostle Paul, these prophets, Elijah there and Jonah here in
Jonah chapter 4, both made intercession to God against a sinful people. Elijah made intercession to God
against Israel. Jonah made intercession to God
against Nineveh. But God returns an answer of
His own purpose in both cases. His purpose is to save his own. those he foreknew by his eternal
purpose of grace, that it would not be of works, a purpose that
sets forth the unspeakable riches of Christ in the gospel and all
to the glory of God, so that we who believe by grace, as it
says in Acts 18.27, must fall on our faces and confess this,
it is all of grace from first to last and salvation is of the
Lord. It is because he is merciful
and gracious and slow to anger and exceeding great kindness
to us in Christ. This is the lesson of scripture
and history. And that is the lesson, don't
you know, of our own lives in particular. how we must learn,
as Elijah and Jonah and Paul did, that we owe our eternal
salvation in body and soul to Christ and to Him crucified. This is the truth of God. This
is all of our salvation. And this should be all of our
confidence and hope. This should be not only all of
our confidence, but all of our worship and our only message. It is Christ and Him crucified. Remember the Lord asked Adam,
where art thou? In Genesis 3, 9. And he asked
Elijah, what doest thou hear, Elijah? And here he asked Jonah,
doest thou well to be angry? Where are you, Adam? Where are
you? Why are you here, Elijah? Do
you well to be angry, Jonah? It was in a still, small voice. And God asks each one of us,
in our conscience, to answer his questions, so that in our
answer we might act in faith, considering our own wrong, just
like Jonah's attitude, and considering his right, considering also only
Christ, God's doing, for our acceptance and favor, and then
live in the light and in the submission to God's good way
and all by his word. 1 John 1 says this, If we say
that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we
lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light,
as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all
sin. He's not only talking about cleansing
us before God in heaven, He's talking about in our conscience.
When we walk in the light, the light of the gospel, the light
of God's word to us, spoken from his word in our conscience concerning
Christ and concerning ourselves. If we say, Excuse me, in 1 John
1, verse 8, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves
and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. This is a dynamic of walking
by faith. God speaks to us in the small
voice of his word applied to our conscience. Questions are
a powerful way to check our conscience. We might ask our children, what
are you doing my son? Are you doing well to think this
way? Are you doing well to hold that motive? Are you doing well
to speak so? Are you doing well to do this
thing? Consider God's condescension
that He would come to you and me at the very moment of our
temptation, and even as Jonah After we sin, when he said that
he was very angry, for example, and God greatly condescends in
grace and mercy to arrest us with his still, small voice in
our conscience by bringing his word of truth into our darkness,
in our willfulness, in the pursuit of our own way, and he speaks
not by the wind that ripped the rocks apart, not in the earthquake
and not in the fire, but God speaks with his still, small
voice in our conscience by the application of the truth of his
word in our circumstances of our life. We are made in the
image of God, therefore we have a conscience, and it is a voice
of right and wrong. It is to act against our conscience
is sin. In Romans 14, verse 22, it says
this. Notice how God's interest is
in our personal interaction with Him in our heart. The Apostle
Paul asked this question. Hast thou faith? Have it to thyself
before God. Don't go about parading yourself
as a Christian before others. Do you have faith? Have it to
yourself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not
himself in that thing which he alloweth. In other words, if
you don't condemn yourself in the thing that you allow, that
means your conscience is not speaking against it. And he goes
on in Romans chapter 14 verse 23, and he that doubteth is damned
if he eats. In other words, if he does something,
doubting it. Because he eateth not of faith for whatsoever is
not of faith is sin. And so. To live and walk with
God, we live with his word continually applied to our conscience. Walking
by faith is living in the awareness that we are in the presence of
God. Are you right in your attitude?
Are you right to think so highly of yourself? Are you right to
do this? Is your self-serving motive right?
Do you believe you can eat what was offered to idols? Are you
right to do so if it causes your brother to wound his conscience
by following your example? Think of doing things that would
not hurt you, but would cause someone, for example, like your
children to sin. You wouldn't do it, would you?
God is in the room of your conscience. His voice is our conscience with
His word, and it must be our guide. Therefore, let us confess
that we did, like Jonah, hold the very attitude or motive that
he asked us in that question of our conscience. Why are you
angry? Confess that we do not do right in our attitude, and
ask him for grace to turn us again to the Lord our God, confessing
our sin and coming again to him, knowing he can only receive us
for Christ's sake. And therefore, come ourselves,
considering only Christ, and not bringing our works, coming
to Christ by His precious blood and by His perfect obedience,
to God, expecting full acceptance because of Christ and not for
our own selves. Trusting our Lord Jesus Christ
in all of our coming, let us ask for grace to think in desire
and speak and act as Christ in everything. Consider how God
applies the blood of Jesus to our conscience to cleanse us
from our sins, as we just read in 1 John 1. It is in our conscience that
we have faith and walk with God, and it is by faith in Christ.
Only in Christ may we freely confess our sins. That is why
we must avail ourselves constantly of His Word. We must know His
mind from His Word, and we can only know ourselves in light
of His Word, and most importantly, We must continually live upon
Christ as our cleansing and covering in His presence. This is an activity
going on in our mind and conscience. Christ is God's own provision
for us and God's own acceptance of us, and we therefore fully
embrace Him and by Him know our God to be gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, of great kindness, and who turns from the evil His
law has pronounced upon us. And so walking by faith is walking
in the light of God's thoughts from His Word, shining upon our
own thoughts and our own motives. Remember Hebrews chapter 4, the
Word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and
of the joints and marrow, and it is a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart. Walking by faith is walking in
the light of God shining his light from his word upon Christ
as all of our salvation from the just consequences of our
sin and as our satisfaction to God's justice and as our righteousness
before God. We wouldn't know that if God
didn't make his work known and didn't tell us that he did it
and that it was very good. Faith is an inward action of
the mind. In believing, we hold communion
with God. In believing, the application
of His word in our conscience humbles us. And while we are
so humbled, it lifts us up again, causing us to flee to Christ,
to hide in Christ, and rest in Christ, and find God's own comfort
to us in Christ. And this walk of faith is living
in sweet accord with God as we consider only Christ in all of
our coming, wondering in ourselves how God can accept and bless
me for his sake that God would be so gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, great in kindness, and turning himself from the
evil his own law pronounces by expending fully the wrath of
his justice on the Lord Jesus Christ. Here are some concluding
thoughts. Jonah knew before he fled from
the Lord to go to Tarshish that God would find a way to be consistent
to his name and to his ways and to his glory, the glory of his
grace to those who heard his word concerning Christ. And ought
not we ourselves expect to find mercy and grace and exceeding
great kindness from God because these blessings are in Christ
for sinners? Jonah knew that before. Shouldn't
we know it? If we come to God by Christ's
precious blood, according to His word, then He will receive
us. We have His own word on it, and
therefore, may, we, even we must, expect, in honor of His faithfulness
and justice, He will deliver us from our sins. Ought not we
also to bear this blessed news to perishing sinners, expecting
that God, according to His word, His character, and His ways,
His own person, will for Christ's sake save those that hear of
Christ, and see in His word, and work, and His glory, in doing
so that He did it for His Son's sake? There's many lessons we
can learn from Jonah here. Doest thou well to be angry?
Don't you find God's still small voice in your conscience to be
that arresting word and that comforting word all in one? It's
amazing how God's word both opens and heals us, isn't it? We'll try to conclude Jonah chapter
four next time. Let's pray. Father, thank you
for your word and your operations in our heart by your spirit through
your word, especially as you direct us to the Lord Jesus Christ. And though it be painful to discover
our own corruptions, our own opposition to your holy character
and name and your law and all that you are and your goodness,
that your law even serves to show the exceeding sinfulness
of our sin, and our conscience bears witness to it. Yet you
have, by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, from your word
the gospel sprinkled our conscience, and we are clean, so that we
now by faith can see in your wisdom By your justice, according
to your righteousness and truth, you have in grace completely
obliterated our sin in your sight and made us holy by the Lord
Jesus Christ, by his one offering for us. his offering of himself
to God for our sins. And so we trust, Lord, that you
will accept us for his sake. In fact, we expect that you will
accept us for his sake. Therefore, we have hope. Therefore,
we have this assurance, this expectation of faith that you
will give to us, not for our sakes, nor according as our sins
deserve, though we do deserve them, But Lord, according to
the grace that's in your heart, fulfilled in righteousness in
the Lord Jesus Christ, our only hope, our Savior. In Jesus' name
we pray. Amen.