We're on. Good evening. Good to see you again. I forgot
to say this morning, but your brethren in Kingsport send their
love and greetings as always. I invite your attention tonight
back to the book of Jonah, this time chapter 4. Jonah chapter
4. This morning we saw A wonderful
miracle that God was pleased to perform in this great city
of Nineveh. We saw wicked sinners, both small
and great, turn and repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I'll tell you, that's the greatest miracle that exists. when a wicked, sinful man like
myself, by God's grace, would hear the Word of God and fall
flat on my face in belief." Faith. It takes a miracle of God for
that to happen. And that's what we saw that God
did through Jonah, His prophet, in Nineveh to the saints there.
Now, this evening I would like to look at the final chapter
of this blessed little book And I'll just go ahead and tell you
that if you just read it, it's very short but it's very confusing.
So bear with me. I pray God's giving me a message. I hope so. I pray He'll give
us something of encouragement. Alright, Jonah chapter 4. Look
with me at verse 1. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly. And he was very angry. God had just had mercy on no
telling how many people. He had just used Jonah to preach
the gospel to them by which God caused them to hear and believe
and be saved. And what was Jonah's reaction?
It displeased him exceedingly. And he was very angry. It displeased
him exceedingly that God spared Nineveh. It displeased him exceedingly
that God destroyed them not. It displeased him, God's prophet,
that God had mercy on the people to whom he preached. Now, you
agree this is kind of confusing? My soul. I've had a few opportunities
to stand and preach from God's Word, and there is no desire
greater in my heart than for those to whom I speak to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. Paul said, this is my heart's
desire and prayer to God for you, that you might be saved. And it's true of every true preacher. So how could Jonah feel this
way? I don't know. I'll speculate
for a minute. Studying this, Jonah was a Jew.
He was a physical child of Abraham, child of Israel. Nineveh was
a Gentile nation. You read all throughout the book,
you got Jews and Gentiles. We know that not everyone that
is of Israel is Israel. There's a physical Israel, some
men that said, Abraham's our father, and our Lord said, you're
of your father the devil. What he's saying is just because
you're a child of Israel doesn't mean you're a spiritual child
of God. There's physical Israel and spiritual
Israel. But physically speaking, perhaps Jonah didn't like them
because their country was the enemy to his country. Could be. Could be. But you know what? Christ died for his enemies.
So that's a pretty foolish reason, ain't it? To hate them. Pretty
foolish reason. Jonah, for whatever reason, he
did not want God to save them. He did not want God to save them.
And I'll, I have no conclusion other than this. He was wrong
for feeling that way. And I thought about myself, is
there anybody that could be sitting here or listening online or that
might one day hear this message that I would not want to believe? Is there anybody you can think
of who's maybe done you wrong, hurt you, that, well, nah, I'd
rather God just not save them? If so, and I'm telling you, I
think to an extent we've all been there. Anytime we truly wish ill on
somebody, Any time we're truly angry at somebody, our Lord says,
you're angry at your brother without a cause, we've killed
him. Well, if that's how we feel about
somebody, that's what I'm talking about here. Wishing ill on them.
Oh, may God help us. May God help us. And just like
I mentioned it earlier in the first message that Jonah had
erred and God was going to correct him. Well, same thing for tonight's
message. And I tell you this is true of
us. If we belong to Him, we sin. It's what we are. This flesh
is still evil and wicked. We're going to keep sinning against
Him. By God's grace, we're going to loathe ourselves all through
it. Until one day He delivers us from the body of this death.
But all along the way, all along this journey, our God will lovingly
correct us. Trials come our way. Well, there
you go. We need them. And Jonah's about
to go through another one. We're to love our enemies. We'll
start right here. Let's love them. Love them. Pray
for them. Let's love him. By God's grace.
Verse 1 again, But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was
very angry. And he prayed unto the Lord,
and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying when I
was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto
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, we didn't look at it this
morning, but if you recall Jonah's prayer in Jonah chapter 2, it
was quite different from this prayer right here. If you can
even call this a prayer. And I can't imagine more than
just a couple days have gone by how quickly things change. Think about yourself for a moment.
How hot we can be one moment, just on fire for the gospel,
and so cold the next. I don't want to go through this
looking down on Jonah. Just like Peter, they're our
brethren. And I hope we can see ourselves in them. I'm not looking
down on them with self-righteous eyes. But see ourselves in them
and pray what God did for him that he'd do for us. Nonetheless,
Jonah utters this sad, sad prayer, murmuring against God. And notice
he's defending himself. He said, this is the reason I
fled to Tarsus. This right here is why. You told
me to go here and preach to him. I knew you were going to save
him. I knew you were. You'd think that made him want
to go, wouldn't you? Oh my. He thought God shouldn't save
him. Here's the first lesson for us.
We don't know better than God. We don't know better than God.
And here's another one. I am no more deserving of God's
mercy than anybody. Now I know we can all immediately
think of some people right now, first name and last, who we think,
well, God ought to just leave them alone. We despise them. There's nobody less deserving
of God's mercy than me. I pray we truly feel that way. Now how did Jonah know? How did
he know God's gracious? How did Jonah know God's merciful?
How did he know He slowed to anger of great kindness and repented
sin of the evil? How did Jonah know that? Well,
he experienced it. And yet he didn't want God to
do that for them. Amazing. Amazing. I tell you
this, God's going to correct him. He's going to change that
attitude real quick. He sure is. And look with me
here, verse 3. Therefore now, O Lord, take,
I beseech thee, my life from me, for it is better for me to
die than to live. Now honestly, when I read that,
I kind of want to laugh, thinking, Jonah, come on. You're being
so silly, Jonah. Honestly, this is so hard to
understand. This is one of those things you
read and it just doesn't make any sense. How could he be mad? This is a child of God. This
is a prophet of God. And here he is, mad at God and
wishing to die. Now again, in reading the context
here, it was a serious matter to be considered a false prophet.
And I think that may have been one of Jonah's concerns is that,
well, you sent me to preach 40 days and you're going to destroy
this place and you didn't. Well, they're going to kill me.
They're going to stone me. They're going to accuse me of
being a false prophet. Let me ask you this. Do you think any
of those people God saved through Him would accuse Him of being
a false prophet? Oh no. Now again, I realize this
is speculation. I'm just trying to find something. Whatever the reason, Jonah felt
this way. It was inexcusable. Inexcusable. And I tell you this, sometimes
we'll think or sometimes we'll foolishly say, well, the child
of God would never do that. Well, he's a pastor, he wouldn't
do that. Let me tell you something. Think again. Think again. There's something that I, the
chief of sinners, would not do. Are you kidding me? But for the constraining love
and grace of God Almighty, there is nothing, no thing I would
not do. Nothing. Nothing. Verse 4, Then said the Lord,
Doest thou well to be angry? Jonah, are you right to be angry
at me? Let's ask ourselves that question.
Are we right to be angry at God? At God who is on His throne? At God who is in control of all
things and does all things well? Are we right to be angry at Him?
Let me ask you this. Is God angry at you? Then what right do we have to
be angry at him? Jonah needed to be asked this
question. There's times when we need to
be asking things. Just like in Jonah chapter 1
when he's down here sleeping in the ship and these men come
up and they're casting lots trying to figure out who's responsible
for this mess we're in. And they start questioning Jonah.
He needed to be asked those questions. He needed to own up to who he
is and what he's done. Jacob, what's your name? Adam,
where are you? These are important questions.
Jonah, are you right to be angry right now? Are you right to be
angry with me? As believers, we know this. Everything
God does is right. Perfect! Let me show you a verse.
Turn over to Psalm 145. Love this verse. Psalm 145, verse 17. Psalm 145, 17 says, The Lord
is righteous in all His ways, and holy, and my center margin
here says merciful or bountiful, in all His ways. Now what are we going to complain
about? We're back at our text. Verse 4, Then said the Lord, Doest thou
well to be angry? So Jonah went out of the city,
and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth,
and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would
become of the city. Did you notice something missing
there? What did Jonah say in response?
Nothing. Silence. Yes, I'm right to be
angry. That's what he's saying. And
he just goes out of the city all sad and pitiful, finds him
a spot, makes him a little booth, and he sits there to pout. You know, actions speak louder
than words, don't they? What he did speaks volumes. And it's
a sad testimony to how we are in this sinful flesh, even as
believers. Perhaps especially as believers.
Jonah, after the wonderful works God had done on the ship, in
the whale's belly, and in Nineveh, after all that he had just done
for Jonah, through Jonah, with Jonah, he should have been praising
God. Right? Anything else would have
been reasonable for him to do than praise God? Oh my, that's
all he should have been doing. And yet that was not what he
was doing. Nowhere on his mind was, you know what, I think I'm
going to praise the Lord for this. The exact opposite. And consider our life. How often do we do what he's
doing? Now I realize we may not go up
on a hill and make a booth and sit there and watch and wish
ill on folks, but every single day, when I'm not praising God,
when I'm finding fault with God through anything that upsets
me, that I think should be done differently, we ought to praise God. Whatever
my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, It is well. Jonah was angry at God. Not only that, he wished to die.
Honestly, he said, I wish to die. I think he says it three
times in this chapter. Two or three. And you know what? He wanted nothing to do with
those people of Nineveh who were his brethren. With like precious
faith. They had all things in common
and he wants nothing to do with them. You know, it may as well
say he fled from the presence of the Lord again. Honestly,
might as well. Here he sits hoping God will
destroy them after all. He who knows God is true, he
changes not. He knew God saw their works,
that they were real, that God really saved them, and yet he's
hoping God will change his mind. Oh my. God's about to correct him. Now
watch this with me, and I pray God, I truly pray He'll bless
this to us, alright? I really do. And look with me
at verse 6 here, Jonah 4 verse 6. 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. God prepared a plant, a giant
plant, to come up over him. to comfort him. You think, well why would God
do that after what Jonah just did? I'm telling you, He's about
to teach him something. He's about to teach him something.
I pray He'll teach us something here. Now this gourd represents
God's grace. Did Jonah deserve it? Did God
freely give it? I love how it says God prepared
this gourd and He had it come up over Him. You know, we sing
a psalm, marvelous grace of our loving Lord, grace that exceeds
our sin and our guilt. Grace that is greater than our
sin. He covers us with that grace.
Completely covered us with it. And it said that gourd delivered
Him from His grief. I'll tell you what, when we're
grieved, there's one thing we need, and that's God's grace. When Paul was grieved with that
thorn in the flesh and he prayed three times for God to take it
away, finally God gave him peace with it and he said, my grace
is sufficient for you. And Paul said, alright, I'm going
to glory in my affirmatives that the power of Christ may rest
upon me. Thank you, Lord, for this thorn. Thank you. Thank
you. God's grace, I tell you, there's
nothing like it. Nothing like it. There's a lot
of things we think we need in this life. As long as we have
His grace, all is well. There's a verse in the hymn that
says, He giveth more grace, though the burdens grow greater. He
giveth, He giveth, He giveth more grace. And it says, Jonah
was exceeding glad of the gourd. He rejoiced greatly over that
gourd. Now, the problem here, and we'll
see this in a second, the problem here, I'm telling you this is
a picture of God's grace. Now Jonah was rejoicing in that
gourd, not in God's grace. But God's going to teach him
to rejoice in His grace. Look at verse 7. But God prepared
a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the
gourd that it withered. I told you this was going to
be a teaching moment for him. You think God's just going to let
him go? It's kind of like God let him go. He let him get on that
ship. Let him get fast asleep. Well, who was going to have his
way with him? God was. Here he goes. He accomplishes
God's will in Nineveh. And here he turns right around
thinking he's going to do his own thing again. Rebel against
God and have his way. God gives him that plant. He
thinks, alright, I've done it again. Oh my. That gore lasted one day. One
day. And God took it away. It's made me think of the manna
that the Lord sent from heaven. There were some people that gathered
a lot of manna. We're going to get some extra manna. What happened
to it? It rotted. You know what that tells us?
We need God's grace every day. I've experienced a lot of grace
today, but if the Lord allows me to wake up tomorrow, I'm going
to need grace tomorrow. I need grace for today. I love
what Jeremiah said about his compassions failing not, his
mercies being new every morning. We need it, don't we? What good would it do me for
God to have mercy and grace on me every day for 80 years, but
then the next day it's gone? I'm telling you, this gourd's
a picture of God's grace. Now when He gives His grace,
He doesn't remove it. He gives it in abundance. He doesn't take
it away. God prepared the gourd, and He
prepared the worm. God prepares the storm, and He
prepares the calm. I, the Lord, do all these things. Sometimes He lets us wander.
But if we belong to Him, He's never going to let us go. Never. Jonah needed that gourd, and
he needed that worm. He sure did. He needed to be
reminded. When we go off and sin like this,
aren't you glad God doesn't just leave us there? He'll painfully
remind us and teach us and bring us back to Himself. And we're
glad every time, aren't we? As painful as it is, we know
we need it. Not in the moment, but afterwards.
Hindsight's great, ain't it? You look back on the trial and
can truly be thankful. All these trials that He employs
for us are to draw us nearer to our Savior. To His feet like
Mary. That's where we need to be. Look
with me here, 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 said, It is better for me to die than
to live. Jonah's a hard case, isn't he?
Warm wasn't enough. He needed the wind and the scathing
heat. Here's what's taking place. God
is bringing His child to the point of despair, just like He
did a few days ago in the whale's belly. And I don't think any
of us here are going to endure trials that compare to these
that we're reading about. But whatever we endure, may we
remember it's for our good. We belong to Christ, it's for
our benefit. Here Jonah is, fainting and wishing
to die again. But I am so glad God wouldn't
let him. Because had he, then there's
no hope for me. Doesn't matter how many times
Jonah might have wished to die, I'm sure there's some that we
don't read about. God wouldn't let him. How many times did he
observe lying vanities and forsake God's mercy? I don't know. But
what about me? Has God forsaken me? He's not going to forsake
His people whom He foreknew, whom He chose, whom it pleased
Him to make His people. He won't. He won't. Well, here in verse 9, God asks
him another question. And God said to Jonah, Doest
thou well to be angry for the gourd? Asked him again, and he
said, I do well to be angry, even unto death. I don't want to make light of
what he's going through here. I really don't. I believe he truly was grieved,
truly was troubled. But he was in the wrong. We need
to acknowledge that. And we need to acknowledge that
for ourselves when we're being a Jonah. God asked him again,
are you right to be angry? He made sure Jonah knew what
he was angry at. God. God's mercy. God's grace. God's will. Jonah knew better. He knew better. Doest thou well to be angry?
And notice this time he did utter some words in response. Look
at it again. He said, I do well to be angry
even unto death. Now I don't want to harp anymore
on Jonah. I just want to say may God teach us something here. God still saved Jonah. He wasn't going to say, alright
Jonah, that's enough. I'm done with you. You know, we say that
to each other, don't we? I'm done with you. Get out of
here. Now you think about what we deserve. You think about our
thoughts. I think it was just read. He
knows our thoughts. And you mean to tell me if He
chose me in Christ and Christ died for me and He's loved me
with an everlasting love, He'll never let me go no matter how
foolish I act like Jonah? Oh, what a comfort. What a comfort. May we learn from this. Look
at verse 10 here. Now look at this. And should I not spare Nineveh? that great city wherein are more
than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their
right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle." Now I want to close this message
by giving you four lessons from the Gourd. Now here's the first
one. Jonah, don't pity yourself. Don't pity yourself. He said,
Jonah, here you are pitying this plant that you didn't labor for. You didn't make it grow. I gave
it to you. I took it away. It came up in
the night. It perished in the night. And here you are so sorry
for yourself over this plant. And he said, there's over 120,000
babies in that city and you don't have the slightest pity for them. And you have pity over this plant."
What he's saying is, stop feeling sorry for yourself, Jonah. Stop
feeling sorry for yourself, Cody. He was more concerned with himself,
his desires, his wishes, his feelings, his reputation, than
the salvation of that city. Paul told us, he said, think
not on your own things, but on the things of others. Why? Look what Christ did. He humbled
Himself. He came to redeem you. Stop being
so concerned with you. Oh, that God might teach me that.
Me, me, me. The second lesson here, We don't save ourselves and we
can't keep ourselves. God doesn't start it and then
I finish it or vice versa. I start it and God finishes it.
From start to finish, Jonah told us, salvation is of the Lord.
Now Jonah knew this, but how soon he forgot. God told him,
Jonah, this gourd right here, He used that gourd to teach him
these things. This gourd, I gave it to you. You didn't labor for
it. You didn't earn it. You didn't
work for it. It was a free gift. Free gift. And I took it away. What's he saying here? Concerning
this gourd, which represents God's grace and salvation, what's
he saying? This was my work alone. It had
nothing to do with you. I gave it to you, you didn't
deserve it, and now you're mad at me for taking it away. I prepared the gourd for you.
I prepared the worm for you. I prepared that wind for you. Now he told him all these things
to remind him of this. I prepared a place in heaven
for you. I prepared a perfect salvation
for you. And look at you. Oh, does this crush us? How about this? I'm running this
whole world for you. The psalmist said he performeth
all things for me. And I'm going to sit here and
act like this? What a slap in his face. For me to be so sinful,
so full of myself. May we look to Him. May we trust
Him and praise Him. Salvations of the Lord. We need
to be reminded of this. Now the third lesson here, he
asked Jonah a question. He said, should not I spare Nineveh?
That's the title of my message. That's my focus here. Should
not I spare Nineveh? What he's saying is, I save whomsoever
I will. And you don't need to have a
problem with it. You should be thankful. Be thankful for it. Jonah, in
light of what I've done for you, should I not spare Nineveh? What makes you any better than
them? Who made you to differ, Jonah?
What do you have that you haven't received, Jonah? I pray this will really sink
into us. We're nothing. We have nothing that God has
not freely given us. Nothing. Especially our salvation. We don't deserve it. Now, I already read it, but if
the end of this chapter puzzles you, and I've got to be honest
with you, it puzzles me too. I think this will make some sense
to you. What happened after this? Well,
he was God's child. He's God's prophet. God's correcting
him, and his corrections are effectual. Remember what happened
after the whale's belly? Well, that was effectual, wasn't
it? That was effectual. We don't read what happens next,
but we know something that happened next. Who do you think penned
the book of Jonah? God the Holy Spirit, I don't
know when, at some point, moved upon him to sit down and record
these things. I can't imagine how humiliating
and humbling that must have been. And you know, I can see God's
goodness in it, because He's given this to us, and we can
see ourselves in Jonah, sinful, foolish rebels. Even after experiencing
God's grace, I have nothing to commend me to God but the blood
of Christ. I have no hope but the mercy of God in Christ. He
said there's one sign that's going to be given, it's the sign
of the prophet Jonah. The Lord Jesus Christ was cast
out in my place. He died in my place. And He fully
satisfied the justice and judgment of God. Aren't you thankful for
Jonah? Oh my, I'll leave you with this.
The last lesson here, and this is the lesson from the Gord,
lesson from the book of Jonah, lesson from the Word of God.
God's mercy endureth forever. I think it's Psalm 136, reading,
"...His mercy endureth forever and ever and ever." Our sin can
never undo God's mercy to us. How many times we got to read
something foolish Jonah did, and then God turns right around
and meets his sin with His mercy. Every time. I don't know how
many more years I have left, but by God's grace that will
be true of me too, and of you. That doesn't make me want to
sin. That makes me want to fall down at His feet and worship
Him. Praise His holy name. His mercy
is saving mercy. His mercy is my only hope and
His mercy endureth forever. Should not I spare Nineveh? If
we could read his response, I want to tell you what I think he would
say. Spare Nineveh and spare me. Oh God have mercy on me, forgive
me for Christ's sake. Amen. It's been good to be with
you today. God bless you. Yeah.