Good evening. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 449. 449. To God be the glory.
Great things he hath done. ? That He gave us His Son ? Who
yielded His life ? And atonement for sin ? And opened the life
gate ? That all may go in ? Praise the Lord, praise the Lord ? Let
the earth hear his voice ? Praise the Lord, praise the Lord ? Let
the people rejoice ? Come to the Father ? Through Jesus the
Son ? And give him the glory Great things He hath done O perfect
redemption The purchase of blood To every believer ? Silest defender who truly believes
? ? That moment from Jesus a pardon receives ? ? Praise the Lord,
praise the Lord ? ? Let the earth hear his voice ? ? Praise the
Lord ? ? Praise the Lord, let the people rejoice ? ? O come
to the Father and Jesus the Son ? ? And give him the glory, great
things he hath done ? Great things He hath taught us,
great things He hath done, and great are rejoicing through Jesus
Thy Son, but purer and higher ? Under our transport ? In Jesus
we sing ? Praise the Lord, praise the Lord ? Let the earth hear
his voice ? Praise the Lord, praise the Lord ? Let the people
rejoice, O come Be seated. We'll sing hymn number 258. 258. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord, A wonderful Savior to me. He hideth my soul in the left
of the rock, where rivers of pleasure I see. Be kind at night, soul, in the
cleft of the rock that shadows Let my life in the depths of
His love, And covers me there with His hand. And covers me there with His
hand. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord He taketh my burden away He holdeth me up and I shall
not be moved He giveth me strength as my day He giveth me strength
as my day He giveth me strength as my day He giveth me strength
as my day He giveth me strength as my day He giveth me strength
as my day He giveth me strength as my day He giveth me strength
as my day He giveth me strength as my day He giveth me strength
as my day In the depths of His love, And
covers me there with His hand. And covers me there with His
hand. With numberless blessings each
moment He crowns, And filled with His fullness divine. I've seen in my rapture, O Holy
Dear God, as mine. He hideth my soul in
the cleft of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty lake. In the depths of His love, And
covers me there with His hand. And covers me there with His
hand. When clothed in His brightness
transported I rise To meet Him in clouds of the sky His perfect
salvation His wonderful love I'll shout with the millions
on high. Behind thy soul, in the cleft
of the rock, that shall my life in the depths of His
love, and covers me there with His hand. And covers me there with His
hand. If you have your Bibles with
you this evening, let's read together from the book of Psalms. We'll read Psalm 95. Psalm 95. O come, let us sing unto the
Lord. Let us make a joyful noise to
the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence
with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. For
the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods. in his hand
the deep places of the earth, the strength of the hills his
also, the sea his, and he made it, and his hands formed the
dry land. O come, let us worship and bow
down, let us kneel before the Lord our maker, for he is our
God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of
his hand. Today, if you will hear his voice,
harden not your heart, is in the provocation and is in the
day of temptation in the wilderness. When your fathers tempted me,
proved me, and saw my work, 40 years long was I grieved with
this generation and said, it is a people that do err in their
heart and they have not known my ways, unto whom I swear in
my wrath that they should not enter into my rest. Let's bow
together. Our most high and heavenly Father,
Lord God Almighty, we come in your presence once more through
your blessed Son. Lord, we pray that we can truly
come with thanksgiving and joyful hearts, giving you praise and honor and
trying to glorify your name. Lord, thank you for such a wonderful,
rich, and free salvation in Christ. Thank you for mercy's rich, rich
and free, and so full. Lord, we thank you for grace
upon grace and mercy's new each day. We ask that you would be with
us tonight as we try to once more come into your
presence to worship. Lord, we ask that you let us
to not meet in vain, but cause us to truly worship you here
tonight and teach us thy way, Lord. We pray for mercy and grace
for those who are weak and weary among us and those who are unable
to be here. We ask for traveling mercies
for those who are traveling. Lord, we pray that will be done
for Christ's sake. Amen. Hymn number 299. 299. Day by day and with each passing
moment Strength I find to meet my trials here Trusting in my
Father's wise bestowment I've no cause for worry or for fear
He whose heart is done beyond all measure, Gives unto each
dead what he deems best. Lovingly it's part of pain and
pleasure, Mingling tall with peace and rest. Every day the Lord Himself is
near me, With a special mercy for each hour. All my cares He feign with air
and cheer me, He whose name is Counselor and Power. The protection of His trowel
and treasure Is the charge that on Himself He laid As Thy days
Thy strength shall be in measure Is the pledge to me He made in every tribulation so to trust
thy promises O Lord that I lose not faith sweet consolation given
me within thy holy word help me Lord Toil and trouble meeting
Here to take us from our father's hand One by one, the days, the
moments fleeting Till I reach the promised land We're delighted
to have Brother Aaron Greenleaf again this evening. You can come
on up here. Well, good evening, folks. There we go. I hit the red button.
Turn to Jonah chapter 4. Jonah chapter 4. We looked at chapter 3 this morning.
Let's look how the story ends for Mr. Jonah. Look down at verse
1 there of Jonah chapter 4. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly,
and he was very angry. What's he so upset about? The
better question is probably this, who's he mad at right now? Let's
answer that question. He's mad at God. Now I think
the key to unlocking Jonah, and especially the key to unlocking
this fourth chapter is keeping this in mind. When this picks
up in chapter one, Jonah is a saved man. This man knows God, God
knows him, he has a new nature, He believes on the Lord Jesus
Christ. They have such a close relationship. He is God's prophet.
The Lord talks to him directly. He talks back. It's not that
this man would be saved later on. No, it's the chapter starts,
the book starts. He is a saved man. And all these
things happen to this saved man. And this man does all these things
up to including disobeying God. being rebellious, being unwilling
to go to Nineveh, and he stays mad at the Lord the entire time.
Now what's he so angry about? He's mad that the Lord saved
everybody in Nineveh. And he did it against his will. And
I guess to add what you call, I guess, an insult to injury,
he used Jonah as a tool in their salvation. He was the messenger
he sent down there with that message. Eight words, yet 40
days and none of us shall be overthrown. And he walked those
halls over and over and over again with that singular eight
word message. And the Lord saved everybody
in that town. And Jonah hates that. He hated those people. Why? That's probably a good question
to ask, right? Why? I've read just about everything
you can possibly read on Jonah from trusted sources, commentaries
and stuff like that. Everybody comes to the same conclusion,
that he hated them because they were Gentiles. Just simple as
that. Jews and Gentiles, they didn't
get along. The Ninevites were, it's the capital of Assyria,
they were the enemies of Israel, and they just hated them because
they were Gentiles. And that may be the case. Certainly that
may be the case. But doesn't this seem awful personal
to be just some sort of regular old, I don't like him because
he's a certain religion, I don't like him because he's a certain
ethnicity, something like that? It seems much more personal to
me than that, because if the Lord went to Jonah and said,
Jonah, these people in Nineveh, all million of them, whatever
it is, I'll do whatever you want with them. If you want me to,
I will save every living last man, woman, and child in that
city. or I will send them all to this awful place of constant
torment for eternity, known as hell." And if he said that to
Jonah, Jonah would have said, damn every one of them. That seems awful personal to
me, doesn't it to you? And I don't know what happened.
The Assyrians were the enemies of Israel long before this story
takes place. And maybe there was a battle
that took place. Maybe some of the Assyrian soldiers
got out of hand and committed atrocities against Jonah's family,
abused them, mistreated them, killed them, tortured them, something
like that. And if that's the case, I understand. Don't condone his merciless attitude,
but I understand it. But the point is this, no matter
what, this man Jonah, he had a limited capacity for mercy
and for grace and for forgiveness. There was a circumstance or circumstances
under which he was unwilling to forgive, and he is no different,
folks, than you and me. Each and every one of us have
a limited capacity for mercy and for grace and for forgiveness. There is a ceiling. You take
the one of us that the Lord's given the greatest capacity,
the greatest capacity for being forgiving, for being merciful.
That person has a ceiling. There is a circumstance under
which they say, I will not, I cannot forgive that. And that, folks,
that unwillingness to forgive, it's a testament to our depravity.
Now Paul said that we see things while we're down here through
a glass darkly. And I think of all the things
that we see through that glass so darkly is this, how wretched
I really am. How wicked this heart, this natural
heart, really is. What it really looks like to
God. Because folks, as much as we probably hate to admit it,
sin just doesn't bother us a whole lot. We have sinful, evil natures. We're born this way. It just
doesn't bother us all that much, but the Lord who is holy and
sinless and righteous, how putrid is my sin to him? And here's
the thing, if we ever did get a glimpse of how bad it really
is, we'd never have a problem forgiving someone else for something
they did to us ever again, because we'd know whatever it is they
did to us, I've done 10 times worse to my master. I just get
over that, I've done way worse. And I'll say this though, if
we did get a real glimpse of what we actually are before God,
this natural self, it would drive us mad and it would lead us to
despair. So I'm thankful that we get just a glimpse, just a
glimpse, just enough to where I've got nowhere to look but
Christ and him crucified alone. And here's another problem with
human forgiveness, why it's so hard for us to forgive. In human
forgiveness, there is no justice. So if I offend against you, right,
I can come and seek your mercy, seek your forgiveness, and I
can come with the appropriate attitude. And what is that appropriate
attitude? You don't have to show me mercy.
You don't have to forgive me. I am the offending party. I'm
not owed anything. That's the right attitude when
seeking forgiveness. I can try to make it right as
best I can. I can do all these things, but here's what I cannot
do. I cannot reverse history and make it to where the offense
did not occur. and as merciful and forgiving
as you may be, and you may say, it's fine, our relationship isn't
gonna change, I forgive you of all this, we're just gonna wipe
it under the carpet, sweep it under the carpet, get rid of
it, and I'm just gonna forget about everything, and we're just
gonna move on, and time is gonna heal all wounds, and that would
be a great thing for you to do for me, for you to forget, and
you will, up to the point to where I offend against you again.
And then you will remember. Because as much as you may be
forgiving, you don't have the power either to remove the offense. And here's the point I'm coming
to. This ceiling we have, this limited ability for mercy, grace,
and forgiveness, the Lord is not like that at all. There is
no limit to his ability for mercy and for grace and forgiveness.
You cannot be too bad. No sin is too great, no sinner
too wretched for him. And here's the reason. When he
extends that hand of mercy and in grace and forgiveness to whom
he will, another hand comes with it. You know what's in this hand?
Justification. It's a handful of blood. And
here's what it does. It takes the offense away. This is what the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ did for his people. It took the sins and
made them to not be. We have a clean ledger in glory,
every believer. The truth of the matter is, for
your history, if you're a believer, you have never done anything
that is wrong. You have always done that which
is right. And experimentally, in this life,
what's the prerequisite for a man receiving mercy from God? He
needs it, and he doesn't deserve it. In reality, what's the prerequisite? There has to be nothing there
for him to forgive me for. My sin has to be put away to
where I have no sin before him. And that is the very power of
the Lord Jesus Christ. No one is beyond his reach. If
he purposes to have mercy on a man, to save a man, he can
do it no matter how bad that man is. And he can do it all
by himself, and it's not even hard for him. There's no ceiling
to his ability in all things. And I believe that. And you believe
that too, if you're a believer. Down to my bones, I believe that.
You know what I struggle with though? Is he willing to save
somebody like me? I know he has the ability. I
know that. Is he willing to save someone
as sinful and as wretched as I am? Jonah's gonna answer that
question because he knows God. Look at verse two. 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 a Tarshish
for I knew. You see this man knows God and
he's going to tell us what he's like and who he is. For I knew
that thou art a gracious God and merciful. slowed anger, and
of great kindness, and repentance thee of the evil." This man who
knows God and knows him very, very well, he's saying this.
He's saying, remember what happened when I hopped that ship to go
to Tarshish? Remember I disobeyed against you? I would not go to
Nineveh. I knew what you were going to do. I knew you were
going to send me down there with this message, and you were going
to make it effectual to those people. You were going to save everybody
in that town, and I didn't want to see it happen. I hate those
folks, but I know your character. I know when you send a prophet
down, it's not to condemn men. It's to save men. I know what
you're like. I knew what to expect from you,
and I expected you to do this, that you would show mercy. This man knew God, and this is
what he rightfully expected he would do, that he would show
mercy. This man, the Lord Jesus Christ, he delights to show mercy. When you delight in something,
you know what it is you're doing? You enjoy doing it. This is the
thing you like to do. You delight in something, that's
the thing I want to do. I'm not being made to do it. I'm not
being forced into it. This is the thing I want to do. He loves
to be merciful to sinners. That's what he enjoys. And here's
the point. This man could count on this,
that he would be merciful. And if you're a sinner in need
of mercy, if you come to the Lord Jesus Christ seeking it,
you write this down, this is a promise from God, you will
have it. Let me read you this. I gave
you this this morning. This is John 6, 37. It says, all that the
Father giveth me shall come to me. That's exactly how God's
sovereignty in his election works. Everybody the Father gave to
Christ in that covenant of grace, they're all gonna be made to
come to Christ, to believe on him. But here's how he ends up.
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. What I want you to
understand is this. That is a promise, and that is
made by God, and he cannot go back on it. If he were to go
back on it, he would cease to be God. That means, this is both
a command and a promise, if you come to the Lord Jesus Christ
seeking mercy, if you want to be saved by him and by him alone,
your work's excluded, come. You will not be cast aside. For
no reason will you be pushed away. Let's make good on that
from some scripture, right? Houston actually read it this
morning. Turn to Hebrews chapter four. Hebrews chapter four, pick up
in verse 14 when you get there. The writer of the Hebrews starts
here, he says in verse 14, seeing then that we, and we need to
stop there for a minute. Seeing then that we, the author
here has an audience. There is a we and there is a
them. There's elect. and those who are left to themselves.
There are believers and there are unbelievers. There are sinners
and those who are not sinners, not in their own imagination,
in their own mind. This is to the we. The writer is speaking
here to the elect of God, believers, the elect. How do they identify?
Sinners. And here's what he says to them,
seeing that we have a great high priest. is passed into the heavens,
Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession," or
our confession. You see all the we have the same
profession, and they have the same confession. What is the
confession of the we? Look down the next verse, verse
15. For we have not an high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted, like as we are, yet without sin."
This is the confession of the we. We have a great high priest. The second person of the Blessed
Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ. And here's what he did. He became
a man. He took on flesh. just like you
and I have right here. And he lived a solid 33 years
on this planet. And there's a huge difference
between my life and his life and your life and his life. His
was without sin. He kept God's holy law, every
jot and every tittle, all the way through his entire time on
this earth, and he never stopped believing God. And he never stopped
being faithful to his Father, even when the sins were taken
off the wheat, the elect, and put in Christ, and the wrath
of God was coming down on him for those sins. He never stopped
believing his Father. He never stopped trusting him.
This is the man who did right his entire life. And everything
he did, he did as a we, that we were in him. That means the
we has his righteousness. That means the we are sinless
in him. That means as he makes entrance
to his father having full acceptance, we have that as well in him. That's my hope of salvation,
folks. That's everything in one verse right there. That's my
confession. We have that high priest and
I will be saved because of that high priest in him alone. Is
that your confession? You're a we. Now, what's the
we supposed to do? Look at the next verse, verse
16. Let us, therefore, come boldly unto the throne of grace, that
we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. For the we, this is your command,
you come boldly. Don't be sheepish about this.
I don't wait, not one second. There is nothing holding you
off. You come to the throne of grace. You know who sits on that
throne? Lord Jesus Christ sits on that
throne. And this man is the friend of sinners. He delights to show
mercy to sinners. And here is the promise. This
is both a command and a promise that you may obtain mercy. And
don't read that as if you may or you may not, we just don't
know. I looked at that, that phrase that we may obtain, it's
one word. You know what that word means? To take. Take it. Take mercy. Take grace. It's
yours. If you're a we, you're a sinner
in need of mercy, you can't come up with the goods before God,
Christ is for you. Come to that throne of grace
and take it. Obtain that mercy and find grace
to help in time of need. This is a promise from God. Not
just a commandment, but a promise. And if he were to go back on
this, he would cease to be God. come to Christ, believe on Him,
we have the very promise of God. Now, let me show you an interesting
contrast. Turn over to Psalm 94. The writer of the Hebrews told
us to flee boldly to the throne of grace. Look what this psalmist
writes. Psalm 94 and look at verse 20. Verse 20, shall the
throne of iniquity, another throne being spoken of here, shall the
throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief
by a law. What's iniquity? Those are the good things I think
I do. Those are all the good things that a man thinks that
God would be pleased with. Why do this? I do that. I volunteer
at a soup kitchen. I read my Bible. Those are all
good things. God will be pleased with that.
That's what the scripture refers to as iniquity. It's just sin
that has to be atoned for. This is the way of salvation
by works. Coming to this throne of iniquity, and here's the promise
here. Just as much as what's in Hebrews is a promise, this
is a promise too. There is no savior that sits
on that throne. You know who sits on that throne? The law. Which frameth mischief by a law. If you come to Christ, or you
come to God on the grounds of your own obedience in any way,
shape, or form, you're coming to the throne of iniquity. And
who sits on that throne is the law, and this is what the law
does. It will frame your mischief, your sin. What do you do when
you frame something in your house? You put it on display for everybody
to see. And if you come to God on the basis of the law in any
way, shape, or form, I've done this, therefore, I should be
shown mercy. All the law is going to do is frame your mischief.
It's going to put your guilt on display before God and say,
he must be punished. That's the only thing the law
does, folks. All it does is frame our mischief. All it does is
say he is guilty. He must be punished. Don't go
to that throne of iniquity. Flee to that throne of grace.
Because that throne of iniquity will not have any fellowship
with you, but Christ will. He loves to have fellowship with
sinners. He loves to save sinners. He's a gracious God. Now go back
to your text. Look at verse three. Jonah 4 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. Then said the Lord, Doest thou
well to be angry? Now he wants to die, right? He
was angry before because the Lord saved Nineveh, but he's
angry about something else now, and he wants the Lord to kill
him over it. Lord sent him with this message, yet 40 days and
Nineveh shall be overthrown. But what happened? Nineveh didn't
get overthrown. The Lord had mercy. So now he's
worried he's going to be viewed as a false prophet. Oh, woe is
me. The Lord saved Nineveh. I didn't
want any of those people to be saved. And now I'm being looked at as
a false prophet. Just kill me. Get this over with.
No faith whatsoever. Just get this over with and take
me out of this world. And the Lord asked this question.
He said, Jonah, do us that will to be angry. Which really is
to say, Jonah, how's this working out for you? This you being mad
at me. You think about it, and this
is absolutely the truth. Folks, God is either sovereign,
he's either the very first cause behind all things at all times,
or he's not. It's one of the two, right? I'll tell you what
it is, he is. And that means that guy who cut
you off in traffic, and that circumstance that's got you mad
and things like that, That guy is nothing, that circumstance
is nothing. The Lord is the first cause behind all those things.
If you're angry over that, there's only one person you're mad at,
it's God, right? Do us that well to be angry?
And what he's saying to Jonah is, Jonah, you're mad at me.
And you think about what anger is, it's a manifestation of an
intent or a desire to do harm. Jonah, you're mad, do you think
that you being angry at me is somehow or another deflates my
position and elevates your position? You think somehow or another
this is gonna hurt me along the way? I'm the Lord, Jonah, I can't
lose. I cannot fail, I cannot lose, it's impossible. Who are
you hurting right now? And you think the Lord said the
same thing to Paul, remember? He said, you're kicking against
the pricks. Paul, you're out there, you're persecuting my
church, you're putting my people in prison, you're doing all these
things, and you think you're harming me, and all you're doing
is harming yourself. You're like a barefoot man kicking
against a briar bush. You're just blooding yourself,
you're just harming yourself. Don't be mad at God, just trust
him, that's it. But here's what I do think is interesting about
all this. The Lord manufactured this entire scene, this saving
of Nineveh, this great revival in a way to where it is completely
unmistakable that only one person gets any glory in this at all,
and that is God Himself. I'd ask you this, these Ninevites,
right, these Gentiles, do they get any glory in their salvation
whatsoever from what we see? These people hated Jehovah. He
was the God of their sworn enemy. They had their idols. They were
happy with their idols. They were happy with the way
they were living. They were happy with the direction they were
going. They never once asked the Lord to send them to profit.
They never once started seeking Jehovah. Maybe we can get him
to look down here and do something for us. Absolutely nothing like
this. These people were about as far
away from God as you could possibly get and having no interest. And if the Lord just would have
left them to themselves and not intervened at all, they would
have all went to hell. But God, That's grace, but God. But he loved them before the
foundations of the world were ever built. But he purposed to
save everybody in that town before the foundations of the world
were ever built. But God, they weren't seeking him, he sought
them. And he sent them a preacher. And he made the message effectual
to them. And he caused them to believe God and caused them to
repent. And he had mercy on them. The only person who gets any
glory in that arrangement right there is God himself, that's it. Say,
what about Jonah? He's the messenger, right, doesn't
he? At least he gets some credit in all this. Jonah didn't even
want to be there. If Jonah had his scruples, nobody
would have been sent down to Nineveh, because he didn't want
to see those people saved. And now he's mad about the whole thing.
You imagine the Lord using you to save the largest number of
people in one location at one given time, and then you being
mad about it after he did it. Wouldn't that be insane? This whole thing was manufactured
this way. There's no mistaking who's gonna get all the glory
and the salvation of these people, and it's God alone, that's it.
And that's the same with every sinner. Every single sinner he
saves, it is unmistakable. He sought them. He saved them. He loved them. And then everything
else happened after that. Now, look at verse four. Plow
some new ground here. Or verse five, rather. 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. So essentially Jonah takes his
ball and he goes home. He doesn't answer the Lord. The Lord says,
do us that well to be angry? How's this working out for you?
And he storms away, right? He's upset. Where he's at, nowadays
it's like northern Iraq, southern Syria, right? And that heat from
that sun, it is completely and utterly unbearable. That sun,
it's unlike anything we've got here. It hits you and it just
zaps all your energy. It's like someone's hand is on
you, pushing you down the entire time. And so he's gonna see what
the Lord's gonna do with the city, but he decides to make
himself a booth. It's how you make a booth, you
take twigs and branches and stuff like that and you interweave
them and you make yourself a sunshade, you make yourself a shelter.
And he says, I've got this sun beating down on me, it's uncomfortable,
I'm miserable, I'm going to make my own shelter, I'm going to
make my own shape. And so he does just that. But
here's the problem, it's an insufficient shelter. We're going to find
out in the next verse, he's still miserable. That son, that wrathful
son is still coming down on him because what he built could not
protect him from that wrathful son. But look what the Lord does.
Look at verse six. 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." Here we have Jonah. He's mad at God. He's disobedient. He's rebellious.
He won't ask the Lord for anything. He's not seeking him at this
time. He's just on top of his head. This son, he's weaving
his branches together. I'm going to make this shelter
for me. I'm going to block this son. He hasn't asked the Lord
for the thing. Hasn't asked him to intervene in any way. And
the Lord says, but I love him. But my purpose is upon him. And
so Jonah didn't plant any seeds. He didn't tend any vines. The
Lord just supernaturally gives this gourd. And what that is
is these huge branches that come up and these huge leaves that
come off the branches. And they come up and they make
a shelter over top of Jonah, a shelter that God provided.
And that son beat down against what God provided, against that
gourd, and it blocked those rays. And Jonah was safe from that
son because of what the Lord provided for him. And he's very
happy now. He's very happy. He got this
thing, this gourd, that he didn't ask for and he wasn't seeking.
He's saying, man, things are getting better. Things are looking
up, right? My days are getting a little
bit better. For a moment, look down at verse seven. But God prepared a worm when
the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it
withered. He had that gourd for just a
little amount of time, and then the Lord prepared a worm to smite
that gourd, and it died. And so Jonah's happy. He's got
the gourd covering him. He's safe there. He's protected,
and all of a sudden, the gourd dies, and that son is back to
beating on him, and he's just as miserable as he was before.
And he's thinking, probably thinking, well, at least things can't get
any worse, right? They can. Look at verse eight. 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 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. And you can almost hear the rebellion
in his voice when he says that. The Lord says, do us that well
to be angry for the gourd? I do well to be angry, even unto death.
And what he's saying is, just kill me. Just get it over with.
Just kill me and get this over with. I don't want to be here
anymore. And you know what? The Lord does
not grant the request. You know what he's been doing
this entire time? From chapter one, all the way
to chapter four, all the way through, he's been teaching Jonah.
And these are hard lessons to learn. Some of us learn harder
than others. But through this entire chapter, chapter four,
he's gonna teach Jonah something. And he's gonna learn it in the
very next verse. Look over here at verse 10. Then said the Lord, thou hast
had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not labored,
neither made us to grow, which came up in a night and perished
in a night. And should not I spare Nineveh,
that great city wherein are more than six score thousand persons,
120,000, that cannot discern between their right hand and
their left hand, and also much cattle." Now, here's what he's
saying. Jonah, here's the lesson, the
lesson you desperately need to learn. Jonah, what do you love? You love the gourd. What do you
desire? You desire the gourd. What do
you want me to bring back? The gourd. All your affection,
all your desire, all your love, all your pity is to this gourd. And here's the reason that all
your affection and your pity and your desire is to this gourd,
because that gourd is useful to you. because it is profitable
to you, because that gourd can do something for you. And that's
your view of grace, Jonah, being kind, being gracious to that
which can be useful to you and can be profitable to you. But
here's where you and I differ, Jonah, that's not how my grace
works. My grace is not for the profitable. It's not for the
useful. It's not for the righteous. And
it's not for the deserving. It's for the unprofitable. It's
for those who don't deserve it. It's for the unrighteous. Those
that God doesn't owe a thing. That's who it's for and that's
what this lesson is all about. People just like them in Nineveh,
Jonah. Don't ever forget this Jonah.
People just like you. No difference between them and
you. You were both found the same way. You're both saved the
same way by my grace alone. That's it. And that's the lesson,
folks. That's what he's teaching, gentlemen,
this entire time. Who is the grace of God for?
Because his grace is always saving and is always free to those to
whom he gives it. Who has this free and saving
grace? Because if you have this, you
have immortality. You have Christ. You have everything.
You have righteousness. You will never see a bad day.
Who has this? Sinners have it. people who can't
come up with the goods. This is not a religion for good
guys this is a religion for the bad guys and the salvation that's
exactly who it's for. Let's read a commentary on that,
turn over to Luke chapter 6. Luke 6, pick up in verse 27.
And before we read this, I want to say this. This is the Lord
Jesus Christ speaking and commanding. I desperately want to do everything
that he commands right here. But I never have. And in this
flesh, I never will. What this is chronicling right
there is everything that Christ has done. Look at verse 27. But I say unto you which hear,
love your enemies, do good to them which hate you. What were we by nature, born
in this world, made ourselves the enemy of God by wicked works?
hating God for who he is. That's how we're all born into
this world. He loved his enemies. He blessed
them that cursed him. Go on reading here, verse 28.
Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully
use you. And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek, offer
also the other. And him that taketh away thy
cloak, forbid not to take thy coat also. Give to every man
that ask of thee, and of him that taketh away thy goods, ask
them not again. This is the man who, if you ask
of him, He'll give you anything. You want His righteousness? You
have it. You want His sinlessness? You
have it. You want sonship with the Father? You have it. Just
ask Him, and He doesn't ask anything in return. He don't want anything
from you. He gives freely to everyone who
asks of Him. Go on reading, verse 31. And
as you would that men should do to you, do you also to them
likewise. For if you love them which love
you, what thank have ye? For sinners also love those that
love them. And if you do good to them which do good to you,
what thank have ye? For sinners also do even the
same. And if you lend to them of whom you hope to receive,
what thank have ye? For sinners also lend to sinners
to receive as much again. But love ye your enemies, and
do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again. And your reward
shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the highest.
For he is kind unto," who? The unthankful and the evil. That's who salvation is for.
That's who it was accomplished for. That's who the grace of
God is for, the unthankful and the evil. And if you fit that
description, you're one of those people. Now, I'm gonna leave you with
a parting thought on Jonah chapter four. When I read Jonah chapter four,
the question I always come away with is this. Where's Jonah chapter 5? Because this chapter just ends. The story just ends. It hangs
on a question. The Lord said, shouldn't I save
Nineveh? And we get no chronicle here as to whether Jonah answered
at all, if he answered what he said. And the whole thing, seemingly,
is very discouraging. Because he starts this book,
a disobedient man, who's warring against God, who's angry at God.
And you know what? He ends a disobedient man, angry
at God, warring at God, a saved man at that. But it doesn't appear
that there is any difference between his end and his beginning. And that's exactly the point. If you and I were to write this
story, how would we have finished it? We would have said, well,
Jonah repented of all his anger at the Lord and all the things
he was upset about. And the Lord forgave him. And
then he fell in love with those people in Nineveh. And he pastored
a big church down there. And everything was just hunky-dory
from then on. And he was a model believer and never had a cross
word or cross thought about the Lord ever again. And that's how
we'd write that story. That's how we'd like to hear
it end. And I'll tell you what, if we did, we would rob ourselves
from a blessing. Because how much of a comfort
is that really to you and me? That's no comfort to me at all, because
I'm still dealing with his flesh. This ending right here, though,
where his end in the flesh, no different than his beginning,
that gives me a lot of comfort. Let me show you here what this
chapter is actually doing. This is actually chronicling
the life of every believer. Look at verse 5. So Jonah went
out of the city. and sat on the east side of the
city. That's very important. And there made him a booth and
sat under it in the shadow till he might see what would become
of the city. What is he doing there? He is
following in his father's footsteps. His father is Adam, all our fathers. When Adam disobeyed God, which
way did he flee out of the garden? East. Lord put the angel with
the flaming sword on the east side of the garden to keep him
out. When Adam fell and he saw his shame, he saw his nakedness,
what did he do? He made a fig leaf apron. He
took fig leaves and he either wove them together to make a
covering, a covering he made, his works. trying to hide his
shame from God, and it did not work. And Jonah's doing the exact
same thing. He's got that wrathful son beating
down on him, and he's gonna make him a booth. He's gonna make
himself a shelter. He's gonna make him a structure,
and it's a structure that cannot stand. And you know what, folks? We're all born the exact same
way, following the footsteps of our first father, Adam, with
that fallen, sinful, evil nature, and we all do the exact same
thing. We try to cover our shame with our works. Intuitively,
everybody who is born knows this, God is going to reward the righteous
and punish the evil. Everybody knows that. The question
is, how do we go about that? Well, this is the natural man's
approach. I've got to get to work. I got to get my best works
and I got to put them on, make up for everything. And as long
as I'm, I guess, you know, 51% good and 49% bad, I guess I get
a pass and everything's going to be just fine. And that's not
the way God works. Not at all. He is following in
his father's footsteps. And if there's no intervention,
he would have stayed there. But there was. Verse six. And the
Lord God prepared a gourd and made it to come 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. He never once
asked the Lord for a thing. He wasn't seeking God. He was
mad at God. He was disobedient. He was angry.
He was happy with his shelter, even though he was still miserable,
but God. because the Lord loved him, because
he purposed to be merciful to him, he gave him the gourd. He
gave him Christ. That's what that symbolizes right
there. And that gourd came up over top of Jonah, and it actually
protected him from that sun. The rays of that wrathful sun
came down and beat down on the gourd, and the gourd took it,
and they never reached Jonah. Jonah was safe in that gourd. But for Christ to be the effectual
covering for his people, that shelter, Here's what had to happen.
Look at verse eight. I'm sorry, verse seven. But God prepared a worm when
the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it
withered. For Christ to be that sufficient
shelter, to block us from the wrath of God so the wrath of
God would never touch us, what had to happen? He had to be smitten. He had to die under the wrath
of God for those sins. That's the only way he could
be our shelter. And I think this is really interesting.
The scripture is so deep and so beautiful, but if you have
any wondering whether I'm interpreting this correctly, that word worm
that's in there, you know what that word actually means? It
means scarlet, the color of blood. Talking about a particular worm
that when you crush it, you smash it, it leaves this unmistakable
red stain that will not go away. And for Christ to be the sufficient
shelter for his people against the wrath of God, he had to be
smitten, he had to bleed, and he had to die for our sins, putting
them away. And look at what happened next.
Verse 8. 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 somebody says, what is that? Jonah's sitting
there, he is miserable, and he wants to die. What is this vehement
east wind? That's the Holy Spirit. The blowing
wind of the Holy Spirit upon a man, the Lord giving him life,
because Christ was our surety, because he bled and because he
died, it opens the door at God's appointed time for the Holy Spirit
to come and actually breathe spiritual life into every one
of his people. And somebody says, well, hold
on a second. Jonah is miserable here. How does that fit in? What are the first signs of spiritual
life? Misery. You have a new man in
you. You have a holy man residing
in you now. And you know what he does? He
stands there as a mirror, and he points out that old man, that
old, wicked, sinful nature. And he actually owns the sins
of that old man. And the flesh and the spirit
go to war. Time to fight. And inside you, there is this
misery. What you want to do, you cannot
do. What you are, you hate. And you have this war going inside
of you. And this is not things you can talk about at a work
dinner party with other people. They're not going to understand.
It's only you and I can talk about these things, other believers.
This misery that is inside of you, what do you want? What do
you long for for the rest of your days? Just give me the gourd. Just give me Christ. If I just
have him, I'll be satisfied. Just give me him. But here's the point, folks.
As much as that new man is there, there is something there now
that was not there before. A new man, a holy man, a man
who actually believes God, who trusts the Lord Jesus Christ,
that old man, that old man of sin, he is still there. And he does not change. Nothing
changes him. The way he's born is the way
he's gonna die. He rebels against God, he's disobedient,
he gets angry. I'm gonna be a sinner to the
very day that I die, and that's not going to change, because
that old man does not change. And here's the scripture I thought
of. You remember 2 Samuel chapter nine. It's that story of David
and Mephibosheth. You recall, David is the most
powerful man on the face of the earth. And some time ago, you
remember Jonathan. He made a promise to Jonathan.
Jonathan said, David, one day you're going to be king. You're
going to be the most powerful man on the face of the earth. And when
you do, I just want this one thing, just show mercy to my
house. If there's any left of my posterity,
just show mercy. David said, I will, I'll do that.
So David is the most powerful man on the face of the earth
and he says this, is there any yet left of the house of Saul
that I might show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? Because
I made a promise for Jonathan's sake. And one of his servants
piped up and he said, yeah, King, there's one. His name's Mephibosheth. It means a shameful thing. And
here's what you need to know about him, King. He's lame on
both his feet. And what that means is this.
He can't do anything for you. If you're looking for somebody
to be useful to you, he ain't gonna do it. He's lame on both
his feet. He can't do anything for himself. If you take him
on, you're going to have to provide everything for him. He can't
do anything for himself. Here's the thinking. You can command
him all you want to come to your court. If you want him, you've
got to go down there to Lodebar, and you've got to throw him over
your shoulder and drag him back, because he can't even come to
you. And David said, go fetch him, all for Jonathan's sake. And he brings him in. And as
soon as he brings Mephibosheth to that point where he's sure
David is going to execute him, he says this. He says, I'm going
to restore you everything you lost. It's all coming back to
you. And all the fields you have and
things like that, all that's going to be worked for you. You're
not going to have to do a thing. Everything is going to be provided
for you. You won't lack anything. Everything's
going to be provided. And you see that table over there?
That's my table. We eat good at my table. You're
going to eat bread at my table every single day, freely at my
table. And here's the kicker. You're
going to be my son. I'm adopting you. This is what David did for
this man, for Jonathan's sake. But here's how the story ends.
I love this ending. So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem,
for he did eat continually at the king's table and was lame
on both his feet. In the flesh, his end wasn't
any different than his beginning. Folks, his flesh isn't going
to get any better. So what's a hope for a man like Jonah and
a man like Mephibosheth? Lame on his feet, still sinful,
still disobedient, still all these things. The gourd. For Jonathan's sake. What hope
does a sinner have when he finds himself in these circumstances?
Christ died for sinners. And if you have him, you have
everything. We'll stop there. Thank you brother, what a blessing.
Let's all stand together and sing Amazing Grace, hymn number
236. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, I once was lost but now am found
Was blind but now I see ? That taught my heart to fear
? ? And grace my fears relieved ? ? How precious did that grace
appear ? The hour I first believed Through
many dangers, toils, and snares I have already come His grace
at last will lead me home. In their ten thousand years Bright
shining as the sun Leave no less tears to see It's by our heads. Our most high and
heavenly Father, Lord God Almighty, thank you for this blessed day.
Thank you for the wonderful messages that you've given to us today. Lord, we pray that you would
keep them on our hearts. Lord, they're such blessings
to us, such comfort. Lord, let us not so easily forget
it when we leave here. Keep us through this week until
we meet again. Be merciful and gracious and
pitiful to us as you always are, Lord. We pray for traveling mercies
as Brother Aaron and his family go back home tomorrow. Lord,
we also pray for our pastor and Sister Shirley is there. continue
in their travels, that you'd see them safely. Lord, keep us
or we won't be kept. And I will be done for Christ's
sake. Amen. We'll meet again next Sunday,
Lord willing. You're dismissed.