Alright, now let's look back
at Jonah chapter 4. An angry prophet and a lesson
in grace. I laid the foundation for this
message last Sunday evening. But just to put it in a sentence,
it really, it goes something like this, and this is a short
statement, but it's one of those statements that's full of truth. You could stop and explain each
phrase and preach several messages on each one, but here's what
it really is about. This is the lesson that the prophet
Jonah is learning, has had to learn and is learning here in
chapter four. And that's this, if God has truly saved us, any
of us, any of us now, we know He saved us by His pure, free,
sovereign grace and mercy. Had nothing to do with what we
deserved or what we earned. And so if God has truly saved
us, any of us, whoever we are, whatever our background, whatever
social, ethnic background we are, we ought never to fail to
rejoice and be glad over the salvation of any sinner, any
sinner, and every sinner whom God saves. We ought to be so
glad. I know we have our loved ones
and we pray for them, and I'm sure that if you're like me,
you pray for your loved ones harder than you pray for anybody
else. There's a natural thing about that. We know that God
has put our children and our grandchildren and our earthly
families into our trust in certain ways, and we're responsible for
that. But you know, when it all comes out according to God's
purpose and God's plan, We know that He does that which is right,
that which is good, that which is fair, and that which is just,
and He is a God who delights to show mercy in Christ. So,
if God has saved any of us, and I can stand in Jonah's place
in many times, in many ways here, and you know, we look at Jonah
and we say, how could a prophet of God, how could a man of God
act like that, do this, do that? I'll tell you really, if we're
honest with ourselves, we can see a lot of ourselves here in
Jonah and in other centers saved by the grace of God. But if God
has saved any of us, we ought never resent the salvation of
any other center whom God chooses to save. One for whom Christ
lived and died, was buried and rose again the third day. One
for whom He shed His precious blood. to pay for their sins. One upon whom he has clothed
with his righteousness, who has that equal standing. I love that
term in the book of Ephesians that we just read chapter 2,
your fellow citizens. That means you have an equal
place in the kingdom and household of God, you have equal rights
in the kingdom and household of God, an equal heritage and
inheritance, And listen, the Bible calls that, Peter called
that inheritance an incorruptible inheritance. And you know why
it's incorruptible? Because we didn't have anything
to do with it. You didn't have anything to do with it. I didn't
have... Christ did it all. He earned it. You can see in
Jonah's case here that the lessons that we've been talking about
that we're sinners saved by grace and we're preserved by grace.
One thing I know about Jonah, and this I know about myself
too, is that the blessings and the forbearance and the long
suffering that God put up with in Jonah, Jonah didn't deserve
it. And I don't deserve it. And you don't deserve it. So,
let's just look at this. Let's read the first three verses
of Jonah 4 again. He says, but... Now, he's talking
about the repentance that God brought Nineveh to, this great,
evil, wicked enemy of Israel. And it says here, but this displeased
Jonah. God bringing this nation, this
kingdom to repentance, it displeased Jonah exceedingly. Not just a
disagreement here, this displeased him exceedingly. And he was very
angry. The language here is almost like
he was burning with anger. You ever lost your temper to
that point? You just burn with anger. You're
hot with displeasure. That's what it is. You're like
a car with a radiator and the cap's blown off. That's what
this is the picture of. And it says in verse 2, and he
prayed unto the Lord. Now, somebody says, well, I just
can't pray unto the Lord when I get angry. Well, Jonah could.
Well, you know, somebody said, well, if I'm angry, I'm not qualified.
Well, if you're calm, you're not qualified either. The only
thing that qualifies me and you to pray is our great high priest,
our great intercessor. We come to the throne of grace
and mercy. We don't come to the throne that
we deserve to come to because we're calm that day, or we've
had a good day, or we're happy, or everything's gone right that
day. That has nothing to do with our situation now. as sinners
saved by grace. You may have had a terrible day
today, but your worthiness has nothing to do with whether you
have a good day, terrible day, bad day, whatever. It's Christ
and Him crucified and risen again. It's His blood and His righteousness.
That's the only right that we as sinners have to come to God
in any capacity for communion, for worship. That's what we're
here to do tonight. What makes us worthy to worship
tonight? Revelation 5 says it, worthy
is the Lamb that was slain. That's our worthiness. I don't
have any other worthiness to stand behind this pulpit and
preach to you or say anything to you. It's I'm preaching Christ
to you. I'm exalting Christ. And that's
what you need, and that's what I need. So Jonah prayed, and
here's what he said. He prayed unto the Lord. He prayed
unto the covenant-keeping God. I get kind of... sometimes the
way false religion is so flippant with some of the terms of the
Bible. But you know, if you want to talk about promise keeper,
right here's the promise keeper. Verse 2, he prayed unto the promise
keeper. That's what Jehovah means. He's
God our salvation. He's the covenant God. He made
a promise. to Abraham and he swore an oath.
He engaged himself behind that promise. Now should men keep,
should we keep our promises? Yes, we should. But we're not
the promise keepers, God is. The Lord is. And he promised
to save sinners by his grace through Christ. I can say without
hesitation, God will save any sinner according to his promise,
and his promise is one of grace. He won't save any sinner based
on their works. He never promised to do that.
So Jonah prayed to the Lord and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was
not this my saying when I was yet in my country? Now, Jonah's
going to reveal something here that is very, very important.
He's going to reveal that he knew the reality of who God is. And this is interesting, you
know, because you hear so many people who don't really understand
the Scriptures, they'll talk about the wrathful God of the
Old Testament, as opposed, they think in their minds, to the
loving God of the New Testament. Well, listen to how Jonah describes
the wrathful God of the Old Testament. Look at it. He says, "...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." You're a merciful God. Slow to anger. God's anger is not like our anger. Our anger is reactionary, our
anger is selfish, our anger is because we want our way. Somebody
wants their way, we want our way. That's our anger. We throw
tantrums, you see. God's anger is not a temper tantrum.
You know what God's anger is? Just like we talked about this
in Romans 9. Justice, that's what God's anger
is. Justice. That's what God's hatred is,
you see. It's God's justice. You see,
when God expresses His anger, it's His just wrath against sin. So He says, I know you were slow
to anger. God doesn't throw temper tantrums.
And men sometimes doubt God's justice because it doesn't come
immediately. You ever heard somebody say,
oh, you ought not say that. The earth will open up and swallow
you. You ought to be afraid. God's slow to anger now. If he
weren't slow to anger, this whole world would have been destroyed
the moment Adam fell. But his anger is his justice.
And then he says, and merciful, that's compassionate, slow to
anger, and of great kindness, that's his loving kindness. When
you see that term loving kindness in Scripture, that's his covenant
kindness. What Jonah is saying here is
he's displaying in his testimony the God of the covenant has been
merciful to Gentiles. That's his problem. In other
words, the mercy that you promised to Israel you've shown to Gentiles. What's going on here? That's
what Jonah is perplexed about. Well, Jonah had to learn the
same thing that all of us by nature have to learn. Who is
God's Israel? Who is the Israel of God? You
can read about that in Galatians chapter 6. And Paul identified
the Israel of God this way in verse 14. He said, they walk
according to this rule. In Galatians 6, 14, he says,
but God forbid that I should glory, boast, or have confidence
in. Anything save the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the finished work of Christ, the blood and
righteousness of Christ. I don't glory or boast in anything
but Christ and Him crucified and risen. And that's the spiritual
Israel of God. So he says, and of great kindness
and repentance thee of the evil, God relented of the evil that
was expressed in the message of Jonah. Now God will punish
sin. He doesn't change His mind now.
We've talked about that. That's not what happened here.
when he relented or repented. It's not like our repentance.
He didn't change his mind, but that's expressed that God will
punish sin. Listen, God is holy and he must
punish sin. But the Bible also says God justifies
the ungodly. Now Jonah did not expect what
happened in Nineveh. He didn't expect that at all.
He was certain that the Lord was going to destroy this evil
nation. He wanted them to be destroyed.
Why? Because they're Gentiles. They
were enemies of Israel. And think about this now. Jonah
knew that Nineveh deserved the wrath of God. And you know what?
He was right. They did deserve the wrath of
God. But what about Israel? Consider Israel and their idolatry. They were God's people under
the Old Covenant, but they were rebellious, they were unrepentant,
and here God gives Nineveh repentance. Maybe Jonah's attitude was the
same as the elder brother in the parable of the prodigal son.
Somebody said, well, can believers act like that? Can believers
think like that? Oh, yes, we can. With all of
our selfishness and remaining flesh Self-righteousness is a
sin that we'll have to fight all our days here on this earth.
It will not improve or it will not... You can't improve it,
you can't reform it. You can't do it. And not only
had Israel rejected the Lord, but Nineveh repented. Reminds
me of that passage in Luke chapter 13 when the Lord invoke the historical reference
to some infamous sinners that all Israel knew deserved the
wrath of God. And he turned to his generation
of Jews, religious Jews, and he said, except you repent, you
will likewise perish. What do they have to repent of?
Their religion, their self-righteousness. What Romans chapter 10 say, they
were zealous in religion, they had a zeal but not according
to knowledge, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness,
going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God, for Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness, to everyone that believe it.
The Israelites were certain that the Ninevites deserved God's
wrath. Listen, let me say this. How about us? Is there anybody you know that
deserves God's wrath? Well, everybody without Christ
deserves God's wrath. Isn't that right? But even we,
in ourselves deserve God's wrath. That's why we never want to be
found by ourselves. Isn't that right? Oh, that I
may be found in Him. What does the psalmist say in
Psalm 130? If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, Lord, who would
stand? I'm the recipient of a righteousness
I didn't produce. of blessings I didn't earn, of
salvation I don't deserve. That's me. I'm identified by
my Savior, not by myself. But now Jonah knew the character
of God. Somebody asked one time, how do you think Jonah knew the
character of God? Well, he was an Israelite. He was a prophet
of God. His prophecy is sandwiched in
between the Old Covenant in which the Lord gave it to Israel through
Moses, and told them that He is the Lord God, merciful and
gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, keeping
mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and
sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty. You ever read
that? That's in Exodus chapter 34.
God says He will by no means clear the guilty. What does that
mean? Because aren't we all by nature guilty? Yes. What does
that mean? That means this, in order for
any of us to be cleared, the guilt has to be removed. Well,
how's that guilt going to be removed? Well, everything Jonas
says here, listen to it, he says, I knew you're a gracious God,
merciful, slow to anger, great kindness, loving kindness, and
you relented, repented thee of the evil. You didn't bring wrath
down on Nineveh." That's what he's saying. That was God's purpose
from the very beginning, even though Jonah didn't know it,
and the Ninevites didn't know it. The Ninevites prayed up there
in verse 9 of chapter 3. Who can tell if God will turn
and repent and turn away from His fierce anger that we perish
not? They didn't know. What's God teaching here? He's
teaching this. He is a merciful God, but not
without justice. He is a gracious God, but not
without righteousness. Hold on to that thought. He says
in Jeremiah chapter 9 and verse 23, listen to this as I read
it. Thus saith the Lord, let not the wise man glory in his
wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might. Let not
the rich man glory in his riches, but let him that glorieth glory
in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the
Lord, which exercise loving kindness, covenant kindness, and judgment,
and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight,
saith the Lord." Look at verse 3, Jonah says, Therefore now,
O Lord, take I beseech thee my life from me, for it is better
for me to die than to live. Jonah, listen, Jonah was more
concerned with and passionate about his own reputation and
pride than the souls of men. He didn't want to go back to
Israel and say, I went and preached to some Ninevites and God brought
them to repentance. God's grace and love is manifested
even in our failures and our shortcomings, isn't it? We ought
to take comfort in this that if God loves His children, and
He does, He'll save them and He'll seek them out. Remember,
I read that last week in the book of Ezekiel, chapter 34.
I believe it was brought to my attention that I said chapter
33 and began to read in chapter 34, I apologize. But God's going to seek his sheep
out, even in Nineveh. Christ said, I'm going to seek
my sheep out. He said, other sheep I have that
are not of this fold. Remember, he had to go through
Samaria because he had a sheep there. God's plan has always
been to save His people from their sins. And salvation is
of the Lord by God's grace through Jesus Christ. Look at verse 4
now. Now, God poses a question to Jonah. He says, Then said
the Lord, Doest thou well to be angry? Are you right? Do you
have any right to be angry, Jonah? Jonah was angry. You have to
deal with that. Do you have any right to be angry?
Jonah complained against God's nature, he complained against
God's sovereignty, even God's justice and mercy. Jonah really
couldn't answer him. Look at verse 5, he says, So
Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city.
And there he made him a booth, a little tent, probably made
of some kind of twigs, holes all over it. And he sat under
it in the shadow till he might see what would become of the
city. What was the problem? Didn't he believe God? It's almost like he was still
wanting God's wrath to fall upon that city. But he couldn't answer
the question. Do you do well to be angry? So he runs away and he seeks
his own comfort instead of dealing with the issues raging within
himself. You know, What are these issues that he's
having to deal with? I'll tell you, it's what we all
have to deal with in our warfare of the flesh and the spirit.
We have to fight self-love and self-righteousness, personal
prejudices, personal preferences, lack of love, lack of forgiveness,
lack of forbearance. That's all within us now, isn't
it? So here he is out here in a little
makeshift lean-to tent sort of thing, booth sort of thing, looking
down, waiting to see what's going to happen in this city. Not rejoicing
over the repentance. Look at verse 6. It says, "...and
the Lord God prepared a gourd." Now, as I told you last week,
that gourd is like a big, wide leaf, like a palm leaf. They
call it a palm crest here in the King James Version in your
concordance. But it's enough to shade a person from the sun.
And it says, "...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." The Lord God prepared. Now here
God teaches Jonah a real lesson in grace. The Lord God prepared
the shade, the plant. Oh, the preparations of the Lord. The Lord God prepared a great
fish to swallow Jonah. The Lord God prepared Jonah.
The Lord God prepared the people of Nineveh to repent. The wise
man wrote in Proverbs chapter 16 and verse 1, he said, the
preparations of the heart in man and the answer of the tongue
is from the Lord. Jonah couldn't answer the question.
And you know why? Because he was trying to find
the answer within himself. He wasn't seeking the Lord. Think
about this. Think about the great questions of eternal life and
salvation. The questions that were asked
and answered in the Old Testament. If a man dies, shall he live
again? How are you going to know if a man dies that he's going
to live again? How are you going to know that?
Well, I know they say that people die and come back to life. I
don't believe that. I believe that the Lord resurrects them
like He did Lazarus. But people die and they see the
light. Don't go into the light. Don't
go into the light. That's foolishness. People talk
about seeing ghosts walking around. That's foolishness. You're not
going to know if a man dies if he's going to live again from
that stuff, from movies and fiction and all that. You know how you're
going to know if a man dies if he's going to live again? By
the Word of the Lord. What does God say? What is man? How can a man born
of woman be clean? Now, who among us could answer
that question? What would be our answers naturally
without turning to the Word of God? We'd say, well, he better
get religion. He better get baptized. I heard
a song the other day on radio talking about getting baptized
in the Jordan and washing my sins away. Let me tell you something.
If you get baptized in the Jordan, you're not going to wash your
sins away. All you're going to do is get muddy. That's right. You can get baptized
in every creek in Kentucky and Ohio and West Virginia. You're
not going to wash your sins away. The only thing that's going to
wash sins away is the blood of Christ on the cross. That's it. He was made sin. So how can a man born of woman,
born in sin, as we read it in Ephesians chapter 2, born dead
and trespasses in sin, how can such a person be clean in God's
sight now, not in man's sight? What's God's standard of cleanness,
holiness, righteousness? Christ. How about this one, Job? In the book of Job, it's posed
two or three times. How can God, how can a man be
just with God? How can God be just and justify
a sinner? How is that possible? Well, my
friend, no man can answer that question. The answer there has
to come from God. That's a preparation from God. And the only answer is by His
free and sovereign grace in and by the person and finished work
of Christ. How can God forgive me and have mercy upon me? and be gracious towards me and
still be a just God and a righteous God. How can he be both a righteous
judge and do what's right according to his nature as a holy God and
still show mercy to a sinner like me who justly deserves damnation? How can he be both just, a just
and righteous father, a judge and a merciful father? How can
he be both? There's not but one way. And
the Bible gives the answer from Genesis to Revelation in the
preaching of the gospel, the very righteousness of God, the
shed blood and imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Man
didn't come up with that. You can study all the religions
of man and there'll be no answer to that except that which comes
from God alone, the preparations of the Lord. Think about it. Here's an angry prophet, but
he's still a servant of a merciful and gracious God. And here this
plant was prepared by God for the comfort of his servant Jonah. As we see the hand of God in
grace, let's see the hand of God in all our daily comforts
of life. You know, you can apply that
that way. Every good thing we enjoy in
this world, no matter how great or how small it is, it comes
from the hand of God. And it's clear Jonah didn't deserve
even this meager comfort. Well, my friend, it's just as
true, we're not deserving of the least of God's blessings.
But notice there in verse 6, at the end of the verse, it says,
"...so Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd." You know, that's
the only time in the four chapters of the book of Jonah that he's
happy. And you know why he's happy?
because of his own personal comfort. Sounds like us. I believe. But what is God teaching? You
think about that, you know. I mean, we complain and we complain,
but now we have a good time, a little personal comfort, and
we think, ain't God good? You know. That's the way we are
by nature. Only time is man's happy. I don't
know how many people lived in Nineveh, but some say up to a
million, some say 600,000, I don't know, but let's just say 600,000.
Here, God brought 600,000 people to repentance, and he's angry,
and then he gets a little shade over his head, and he's exceedingly
glad. Now, you talk about messed up
priorities, that's man by nature, and I tell you this, listen,
that's what we have to guard against. And what does God do? Now look at verse 7. He says,
But God prepared a worm. Here's another preparation. He
prepared a worm. That's a maggot. When the morning
rose the next day, and it smote the gourd, that plant, that it
withered. The worm destroyed the plant,
the shade. What's the Lord teaching him?
All our earthly comforts that we think so highly of and put
our passions into gaining and reaching for in our time and
our money and our thoughts and our heart, they're just temporary. Here today, gone tomorrow. Tonight you're comfortable. Wait
till tomorrow. So don't get too attached to
it. And as we see the hand of God
in all our comforts, let's also see the hand of God in all our
sorrows and losses. Job, he had a lot to say about
this. He said, "...naked came I out
of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return hither. The Lord
gave, the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord."
Look at verse 8. He says, "...and it came to pass,
when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east
wind..." That's a hot 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." It's the
second time he preached that message. Better for me to die
than to live. Think about it. You know, that's
speaking of our trials that we go through. Trials come in many
forms, degrees, and many ways, come from ourselves, come from
other persons. Some seem to be light afflictions,
just like Jonah's discomfort, but some seem to be devastating. He thought this one was devastating.
You know, if you ever come to a point in your life you say,
it's better for me to die than to live, you see it as pretty serious,
don't you? And here it comes, here it goes,
one day we're on the mountain, another day we're in the valley,
like that song you sang, James. And we're helpless to figure
it all out, but God's in control. He knows what's best for us.
These are trials of our faith. And Jonah's trial revealed his
anger. But look at verse 9. God said to Jonah, Doest thou
well to be angry for the gourd? He asked him the question again.
Well, Jonah had an answer then. He said, I do well to be angry
even unto death. It's almost like Jonah's saying,
well, if you had to go through what I'd go through, if you had
to put up with what I had to put up with, well, look at verse
10. Then said the Lord, thou hast
had pity on the gourd, on that plant, because of the shade.
For the which thou hast not labored, neither madest it to grow, which
came up in a night, and perished in a night." Joni, you had pity
on that gourd. You didn't plant, labor, and
work to make it grow. You had pity on that gourd, a
worthless thing, a temporary thing, a perishable
thing that you thought so highly of. Verse 11, "...and should
not I spare Nineveh?" That great city where in are more than six
score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand
and their left hand, and also much cattle? You had pity on Gord. You got
all out of kilter and out of whack over that plant. Over your
own little personal discomfort. Shouldn't I, the God of this
universe, the God of all grace, have pity on all these people? There's some controversy over
who these persons are that cannot discern between their right hand
and their left. Some say it's just talking about dead sinners. Sinners who are yet to be saved
and brought to repentance because by nature we don't know spiritually
our right from our left. We don't know right from wrong
spiritually until God teaches us in the gospel and shows us
the standard of righteousness in Christ. We don't know what
it takes to please God, and we don't know what it takes to put
away sin until God reveals it, and that could be it, but I tend
to believe that he's talking about children, infants, who have not yet reached an age
where they can tell the right from the wrong. I'm not talking
about an age of accountability, but I'm talking about a condition
of it. God had pity on Jonah, and Jonah
knew that Nineveh deserved God's wrath, but what about Jonah himself?
Well, here's the issue. God justifies the ungodly. And by the grace of God, I am
what I am. We're recipients of salvation,
just like this gourd. He said, you didn't labor for
it. Well, we're recipients of salvation. We didn't labor for
it, and we don't make it grow. Salvation is of the Lord. Right
back to the theme of Jonah. We have forgiveness of our sins
by the blood of Christ. We're justified before God by
His righteousness imputed to us. We have spiritual life, faith,
and repentance, all which are gifts from God, not according
to our works or our power or our goodness or even our will,
but according to His will and His mercy and His grace in Christ. And what about Nineveh? Are they
any more deserving of wrath than we are? That's what God's teaching
Jonah here. Are they any more deserving of
God's grace than we are? No. Think of how many people
in that city, and here Joan is all upset and bent out of shape
over a plant. I don't have my shade. Well, we all by nature put value
on things that are nothing and really mean nothing, and put
no value on things of God's glory and the things that work to the
salvation of sinners. Think of the glory of God in
the repentance of the Ninevites. We read this last week. Let me
read it to you again. Luke 15, 7. He said, I say in
you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that
repenteth more than over ninety and nine just persons which need
no repentance. My friend, never forget that
we're all sinners continually in need of a salvation and a
preservation and blessings that we never deserve and never earn. I've said this before, maybe
you get sick of me hearing it, but I've been preaching this
gospel for 30 years now, and right now as I stand before you,
I didn't deserve salvation when God first gave it to me, I didn't
earn it, and today I don't deserve it and cannot earn it. Tomorrow
will be the same thing, and when I get to glory, it'll be that
same way. Did you know that? What is the
song of the... What robe will we wear in glory? We'll wear the white robe of
the righteousness of Christ. What will our song from our heart
be? It'll be, worthy is the Lamb
that was slain. And you know what? You say, well,
Jonah, he's a prophet of God. He should have known that. He
did. And we do, but that's a lesson that we'll never stop learning.
That's a school of grace that we'll never stop attending and
graduate from. That's a lifelong and eternity
long school, isn't it, for God's people. All right.