Good morning, everybody. It's
good to be back with you. If you'd like, turn over to Jonah
chapter 4. Jonah 4. If you recall, last month I was
with you twice. I think it was last month. We
looked at Jonah 1 and Jonah 3. We kind of looked through the
entire book. I want to finish it up this morning in Jonah chapter
4 and see how the story ends. I want to tell you, this is a
very peculiar passage of scripture. It's very interesting, and it's
very mysterious, but it can also be very hard to preach from.
So if you would, pray for me this morning as you're listening.
It will give me some liberty to clearly proclaim Christ from
this passage of scripture. Once you get there in Jonah chapter
4, look down at verse 1. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly,
and he was very angry. What's he mad about? I think
you all remember. I guess the better question to
begin with is, who is he mad at? He's mad at God. And he is
mad at the Lord because he saved Nineveh, every one of those people
in that city. He sent Jonah down there with
an eight-word message. Yet 40 days, and Nineveh will
be overthrown. And Jonah walked the halls of
that city with that eight-word message over and over and over.
And through that message, The Lord brought all those people
to repentance, and they believed God, and he stayed his hand. The wrath did not come. Jonah
didn't want that. The Lord used Jonah. He was a
tool in all this to deliver that message, but it was against his
will. He did not want to go because he did not want to see these
people saved. And that is peculiar. This is
a gospel preacher. I want you to understand who
this man is. This is not an unregenerated man. This is not a goat. This is one of the Lord's sheep.
This man was saved. This man knew God and he was
known of God. He believed on the Lord Jesus
Christ. He had a new man dwelling inside of him, but he did not
want to see this city with probably over a million people in it saved. Why was that? I tell you, I have
read just about every commentary you can come across on this,
and I've listened to just about every message of all the gospel preachers
I trust on this, and everybody says the same thing. He hated
them because they were Gentiles. Nineveh was a city in Assyria.
There were Gentiles. Jews and Gentiles, they just
didn't get along. He hated them because they were Gentiles. He
wanted the Lord only to save the Jews. And that may be the
case. I don't know. And as far as I can tell, the
scripture doesn't tell us why he hated these people so much. But
that seems awful personal to be a simple case of garden variety
ethnic bias, doesn't it? Now, I don't know what happened.
But I suspect that there was something very personal that
happened to Jonah. Perhaps during one of the wars
with the Assyrians, the Assyrian soldiers came through his village
and did horrible atrocities to his family. That could be the
case, and if that's the case, I understand where he's coming
from. It could be that he had buddies that served in the military,
and the Assyrians slaughtered them and tortured them and treated
them very cruelly, and he just couldn't get over it. That might
be the case, and I understand that, if that's the case. But
the point is this. Jonah had a limited capacity
for both mercy and grace and forgiveness. There was a circumstance
under which he would not forgive. And for these people in Nineveh,
if the Lord would have said to him, I'll do whatever you want. I'll
save everybody in there. I'll damn everybody in there. You
tell me what you want. He would say, damn them all. There's a circumstance
under which he would not forgive. And he is no different than you
and me. We're just like Jonah. You take the one of us, ones
of us, They've given the greatest gift of this capacity for great
mercy and great grace and great forgiveness. That comes in measure,
like every other grace. You take that person that has
the greatest capacity for it, they have a limit, they have
a ceiling to their graciousness and their mercy and their capacity
to forgive and end to it. The Lord does not. He has no
limit to his capacity for mercy and for grace and for forgiveness.
With him, listen to this, you cannot be too bad to be saved
by him because his salvation is such that he reaches down
to the bottom of the barrel where the scum is, where the sinners
are. That's the only place he reaches
all the way up to the chiefs of sinners all the way down and
brings them up and makes them pure and clean and white as snow.
And he bestows his grace on them because the reason for his grace
is not found in the object. Not at all. It's found in this
one reason what Christ has done for that object. He made them
white as snow through his blood. You can't be too bad, but you
can be too good. Jonah's going to get into that
in verse two. Look down here. 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. He's saying, I know. I know what? More importantly, I know who?
I know you. He's saying, I know you, Lord.
I knew that thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger
and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. He's talking
about what happened in chapter one. He said, you told me to
go and to prophesy. prophesied against Nineveh, and
I wouldn't do it. I refused. I went and I hopped
a ship. I rebelled. I would not do it because I know
you. I knew exactly what you were going to do. You were going
to send me down there with this message, and you were going to cause that
message to be effectual to these people, and you were going to
bring them to repentance. You were going to cause them to believe on you,
and you were going to stay your hand, and you were going to save
all those people, and I didn't want it to happen. But here's
what I find so beautiful about this, and I said this to you
before, a couple of messages ago, but this is wonderful. This man
knew God. This man was God's prophet. The
Lord himself spoke directly to this man. This man spoke directly
to God. He knew the Lord. He knew his character, and he
knew what to expect from him, and this is what he expected
from the Lord. He expected him to show mercy and to show great
grace. This is a God that delights in
showing mercy. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. That is the promise, and this
is the point. If you come to Christ an empty-handed
sinner, with absolutely nothing, no good works, nothing to recommend
you to God in any way, shape, or form, you come to him seeking
his mercy, trusting Christ and him crucified alone, You know,
you'll get exactly what you came for. That is the very promise
of God. That's not wishful thinking.
That's not a, it may be, it may not be. That is the very promise
of God. If a sinner comes to Christ seeking
his mercy, he gets it and he gets it every single time. That
is the certainty of the gospel, the certainty of the promise.
Now, let me make good on that. I want you to turn to two scriptures,
and I want you to grab one and hold it there, and then go to
the other, because I want you to see these back-to-back. The first one is
Psalm 94. Turn over there. Psalm 94, and once you get to
Psalm 94, just put a bookmark there, hold it with your finger,
and after that, turn over to Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews chapter four and look
at verse 14. Seeing then that we, don't miss
that word, we, have a great high priest that is passed into the
heavens. Jesus, the son of God, let us
hold fast our profession or our confession. The writer here addresses
who he is talking to right now. He's talking to the we. There
is a we and there is a them. There are believers and there
are unbelievers. There are sheep and there are goats. There are
sinners and there are not sinners. What body is addressed here?
The we, the very elect of God, those chosen by God before the
foundations of the world unto salvation. That's who this is
addressed to. What is the profession? What
is the confession of those people? Let's find out if your confession
lines up with the we. Go down to 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 our confession, folks.
We're a sinner. We don't have anything to bring to the table.
We can't provide anything that would recommend us to God, but
we have a great high priest, the second person of that blessed
Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he was made a man. God actually
embodied human mortal flesh. He came to this world and here's
what he did. He lived for 33 years and he
was tempted and he was tried just like we are. Huge difference
between what happened with him and what happened with us. He
was without sin. He never sinned. He kept God's
holy law every jot and every tittle every single time. He
never disobeyed his father. He always did his father's will.
He always believed his father. Never was there a time that he
didn't have complete trust and faith in his father, even when
the father sent him to that cross, lifting the sins off of the we,
the elect. and putting them in his son and
him dying and suffering under God's wrath because of those
sins. He never stopped trusting his father. He never stopped
believing him and loving him all the way unto his death. And this is my confession, that
is all of my salvation. Jesus Christ and him crucified,
this man that was in all points tempted just as I am, but without
sin, everything he did, he did as a we. That means when he did
it, I did it too. That's all I've got. Now unto
those people, this body, this we, what are we commanded to
do? Look down here, verse 20. Oh
no, forgive me. 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. Do we, a sinner whose
only hope is in Christ and him crucified alone, come to the
throne of grace? And this is where I want to see
this contrast with Psalm 94. Notice that phrase, the throne
of grace. Who sits on that throne? There's
a Savior who sits on that throne. He's a Savior who is the friend
of sinners. This man receiveth sinners. This
man saves sinners. That's who his salvation is for.
And here's the promise. This is the command, and it's
the promise, that you may find mercy. And I looked that up.
Don't misunderstand that. You may. You may or you may not.
You might find mercy or you might not. You know what that actually
means? You know what the direct translation is? To take. that
you may take, it's yours. Are you a sinner and Christ is
all your hope? Come take it, it's yours. This salvation is
for you. You may find mercy and find grace
to help in time of need. You will get it every single
time. That is a promise from God himself. Now I want to contrast that with
Psalm 94. Look over there and look at verse
20. We're commanded to come to the
throne of grace, but look at this other throne he speaks of. Verse
20, Psalm 94. Shall the throne of iniquity,
separate throne here, different throne. Shall the throne of iniquity
have fellowship with thee? Which frameth mischief by law. What is the throne of iniquity? Your best work, my best work,
the best thing we think we've ever done. What is that before
God? It's iniquity. It's sin. It's filth. It's vile
before him coming to the throne of iniquity. This is talking
about salvation by works. There's only two approaches. There's
only two religions. There's only two approaches. There's only
two views. There's salvation by grace condition, 100% based
on what Jesus Christ has done for a man. And there is works
and there is no blending of the two go to the throne of grace,
but we're warned here of this throne of iniquity, this throne
of works because folks, there is no savior sitting on that
throne. There is no friend of sinners sitting on that throne.
You know who sits on that throne? The law, which frameth mischief
by law. What happens when you frame something?
What do you do? If you woe in our house, you'll
find pictures that Jamie's framed and they're up on the wall. They're
up for everybody to see. They're on display. And if you
go to this throne of iniquity, if you come based on your own
works, Lord save me because I, and you fill in that blanket,
anything that comes from you, you have come to the throne of
iniquity and you're facing the law. And here's what the law
does. It frames your mischief. It will expose your sin. That's the only thing the law
does. The law can't save anybody. Nothing wrong with the law. Problems
with us. We can't keep it. It has one purpose in the kingdom
of God, to declare guilt. It will frame your mischief by
law. And there's no middle ground.
There is no going to the throne of grace for some and going to
the throne of works for another. There's not. There's absolutely
no middle ground. If you will go to the throne of grace, you
will be saved 100%. by Christ and him crucified alone,
and that means he's going to get all the glory in that salvation. And if you come based on your
works in any way, shape or form, you have come to the law, that
throne of iniquity, and you are a debtor to do the whole law,
every jot and every tittle, every time. Don't go to that throne. Flee to that throne of grace. Now, go back to your text, Jonah
chapter four, and look at verse three. Let's move on. 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? Why does he want to die? Jonah
says, Lord, just kill me right now. Why does he want to die?
Well, the short answer is this. He thinks he's going to be looked
at as a false prophet now. He went down to Nineveh and he
said, You have 40 days and Nineveh is going to be overthrown. And
it didn't happen. The Lord stayed his hand. He repented of the
evil. Now Jonah says, it didn't happen.
I'm going to be looked at as a false prophet. He's mad at
the Lord for saving Nineveh. Now he's mad because he's going
to be looked at as a false prophet. He says, Lord, just kill me.
Just kill me. And the Lord said this to him. Jonah, doest thou
well to be angry? That's a good question, isn't
it? You think about what anger is. Anger is the manifestation
of an intention to do harm. That's what it is. So when you
get angry at someone, you are manifesting a desire to do that
person harm. Whether you act on it or not
is irrelevant. It's manifesting the desire to do so. Jonah is
mad. He is mad at God. And the Lord
says this, Jonah, is this doing you any good? Do you think that you being mad
at me somehow or another harms me and elevates you in any way,
shape, or form? Jonah, I can't lose. Understand
this, folks. God is sovereign. He is absolutely
sovereign over the activities of men. He controls everything.
He controls the very thoughts that are running through your
mind and my mind even right now. All sovereign through salvation
and everything else and everything that happens is according to
his will and he cannot lose. He cannot suffer loss. It is
impossible for him to do that. He says, Jonah, who are you hurting
here? Does this do you well? No, Joni,
you're only hurting one person, you're hurting yourself. And
if you think about it, bring it down to our level right now.
Every time something happens, right, we call them happenings.
Something doesn't happen, the Lord's will comes about. That's
what happens every single time. And when it crosses our will,
what happens? We get mad. And we may direct that at a person
or a circumstance or something like that, but at the end of
the day, who are we mad at? We're mad at the Lord. We got an axe
to grind because His will crossed ours. Instead of just trusting
what He said, everything He's doing is necessary and it's for
His glory and for our good. Do us that will to be angry?
No. You just hurt yourself. That's
what He said to Paul. Remember He said, Paul, you're
coming, you're trying to persecute me, you're putting my people
in jail, trying to persecute my church. You think you're doing
me any harm? It's hard for you to kick against
the pricks, Paul. You're like a barefoot man who's
kicking into a thorn bush. You're just bloodying yourself.
You're just doing yourself damage. Now look at this. Look at verse
4. I'm sorry, verse 5. 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 become
of the city." So Jonah doesn't answer the Lord, he decides he's
going to take his ball and leave, and he goes to Powell. And notice
he goes eastward. Who else went east? Remember
Adam, when he got kicked out of the garden? Which direction
did he go? He went east. He goes east, and he goes up
and he makes a booth. Now, he's up in Nineveh, where
this is modern day, is northern Iraq, southern Syria, the area.
If you've ever been out there, the sun out there is unlike anything
you've ever felt before. It is this hot, oppressive heat
that just beats down on you, and it feels like someone is
just crushing you with that heat. So Jonah builds a booth. A booth
is very interesting. I had to look it up. You take
tree branches and you interlace them, and you build this canopy,
this shade. He built himself his own shelter.
to block from these harmful rays that were coming down on top
of him. When Adam sinned against God,
what did he do? He tried to hide his shame, so he sewed those
fig leaves together to make himself a covering before God, a covering
that did not hide his shame. And Jonah's doing the exact same
thing. He made this booth, but he's still miserable. It cannot
block those harmful rays that are coming down from that hot,
oppressive sun. Now, look down at 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. He made himself his own shelter.
And it was a shelter that could not shelter him. It could not
provide him protection. And he's mad at God. He's rebelling
right now. He's sitting there pouting. And
the Lord looks upon him in pity. and in love. He's not asking
the Lord for anything. He's not praying to him. He's just sitting
there stilling and mad, but this is one of the Lord's people.
And so he sends the gourd. And I don't know what you think
of when you see that word gourd. I used to think it was a big pumpkin,
to be honest, like a Halloween gourd, something like that. I
used to think, why would the Lord send a gourd to provide shade? That
seems the most strangest thing in the world. That's not what
it is. And I think you all know that. It's actually a large stalk.
these huge plants that would come up with these huge leaves.
Supernaturally, overnight, these huge leaves grew up over top
of Jonah and covered him. And his shelter, it wasn't sufficient.
But the shelter that the Lord provided, it was sufficient.
It blocked those harmful rays. And Jonah's happy. Oh, he's delighted
over this gore. He's like, things are looking
up. Not so bad. I like this. For now. Look down
at verse 7. But God prepared a worm when
the morning rose the next day and it smoked the gourd that
it withered." Notice God prepared this worm. The Lord gave that
gourd, those big leaves, that shelter for a little while and
then the Lord took it away. As soon as Jonah thought, man,
things are looking great, things are really looking up, now he's
back and he's exposed and those rays are beating on him again
and things have gotten worse and they're not going to stop
getting worse. Look down at verse 8. And it came to pass, when
the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind, and a 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.
You can almost hear the defiance in his voice, can't you? I do
well to be angry. Even unto death. This is a rebellious,
disobedient man, just like me and you. He's no different. Don't
think he's any different at all. He's just like me and you. But
he asked the Lord to do this. Just kill me. Second time he
asked, just kill me. Take me out of this life. I'm
absolutely so miserable. You know what the Lord doesn't,
because he is not done teaching Jonah. There's a lesson he must
learn. All this was necessary for Jonah. This whole thing is him teaching
Jonah something. And here's what he's teaching
him. Look down at verse 8. Or verse nine, verse 10, try
that. Then said the Lord, thou hast
had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not labored need
a maize 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 or a thousand persons
that cannot discern between the right hand and the left hand?
and almost much cattle. That's 6,000 to 4,000 people
who can't tell if they're left-handed or right-handed. It's probably
toddlers and babies. 120,000. He's talking about how
big none of it is. There's 120,000 babies alone
in that city. That means the population is
probably over a million. And here's the lesson, though.
Here's the lesson that he's been teaching Jonah the whole time. He's going
to learn it right now. Jonah, you were mad at me. You
were rebellious. You were disobedient. And you
sat out there, and you tried to make your own shelter. You
tried to make your own covering. And you were miserable under
that covering. It could not protect you. But I loved you with an
everlasting love. So I took care of you. I gave
you grace. I sent that gourd. And it grew
up over top of you. And it covered you. And you didn't
have anything to do with that gourd. You didn't ask me for
it. You didn't plant it. You didn't help it grow. Not
in any way, shape, or form. I provided the gourd. I did everything. Despite you. Not because of you.
And that gourd grew up. And then according to my will,
I removed the gourd. I took it away. And you pitied
the gourd. You loved that gourd. You wanted
that gourd back. All your affection was to that
gourd. You were merciful and gracious
and kind to the gourd. And you know why you were that
way, General? Because the Lord could do something for you. Edward
was profitable to you. It provided you shade. It could
do something for you. And here's where you straight.
Here's where you're wrong. My grace is not for the profitable. And the righteous and the deserving. That's not who my grace is for.
My grace is for the unprofitable. It is for the unrighteous and
it is for the undeserving. just like you, Jenna, and just
like that big city over there that I just saved. That's the
lesson. Who is the grace of God for?
This is the question. Because if he's been gracious
to you and me, that means we have been saved. This is saving
grace. This is grace that is always
saving in every which way, shape, and form. Who is that for? Is it mine that I may take that
grace? It's free. May I have it? If you are unprofitable, if you
are undeserving, and in and of yourself, you are unrighteous,
His grace is for you. It's just for you. Now let's
read a scripture here. Turn over to Luke chapter 6.
I think this sums everything up. I'm going to give you a disclaimer
here. Everything the Lord commands in this, I want to do. I really
do. I want to do it in this life.
But I never have. And I never will. Not perfectly.
What this is talking about, what we're about to read here, is
everything Christ has done. That's what we're talking about
here. Now, Luke chapter 6, and look at verse 27. But I say unto you, which hear,
love your enemies, Do good to them which hate you. Now, once
again, let me set the stage. This is talking about what Christ
has done. This is Colossians 1, 21. And
you that were sometime alienated in enemies, you made yourself
enemies in your own mind by wicked works. Yet now hath he reconciled
in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and
unblameable and unapprovable in his sight. Christ is the one
who loved his enemies, those who alienated themselves from
him because of their sin. Now go on reading, verse 28.
Bless them that curse you. That's what Christ did. 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 asketh of thee. And of him that taketh away thy
goods, ask them not again. And as you would that men should
do unto you, do you also to them likewise. For if you love them
which love you, what thank have you? For sinners also love those
that love them. And if you do good to them which
do good to you, what thank have you? For sinners also do even
the same. And if you lend to them of whom you hope to receive,
what thank have you? 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.
This is the point. For he is kind, gracious, merciful,
forgiving unto thee. unthankful and to the evil. That's who God's grace is for,
the unthankful and the evil. And if you fit that description,
his grace is for you. Now I'm going to give you a final
thought on Jonah 5. It's an expanded thought. Hear
me out on this. When I read Jonah chapter 4 and
I get to the end, My immediate question is this, where is Jonah
chapter 5? Because the story ends very abruptly,
right? Jonah's mad at God, rebellious. He's out there. The Lord leaves
him with this question, should not I save Nineveh? And we don't
give an account of how Jonah answered that or if he answered
it at all. The story just stopped, and almost
in a discouraging way. Here's Jonah. No different than
when he began. He began a rebellious man, a
disobedient man. His story ends with him being
a rebellious man, a disobedient man. And you know what? If we
wrote this story, that is not how we would write this story,
would we? We'd end it this way, we'd say, well, Jonah repented
of all him being angry at the Lord, and he never got angry
at him again, and then he went down and he pastored a church
in Nineveh, and he loved those people for the rest of his days,
never had a cross word with the Lord again, and everything was
just perfect, and everything was fine, and he was just a model
believer, everybody thought he was great. That's how we'd end
that story, be honest, right? If it ended that way, what hope
would you have? In and of himself, General Zen
was no different than his beginning. He's a disobedient, sinful man. And the story ends with him being
a disobedient, sinful man. Now I'm going to explain this
thought here. This chapter, what I believe it does here, it illustrates
the life of every believer. Go back and look at chapter verse
5 again. Look at this. 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 that he might see what would
become of the city. You know whose path he's following?
He's following the path of his first father, Adam. Adam disobeyed
God, he got kicked out of the garden, he went east. Adam sinned
against God. He fell. He took on that sinful,
evil nature. He took on that shame, and he
tried to cover himself, interweaving those fig leaves and making his
own covering, covering of his works, one he made. And you know
what? That's exactly what Jonah's doing
here. He's following in the footsteps of his first father, Adam, and
we do the exact same thing. We are born with that same wicked,
evil nature that can do no good, that can think no good, and we
do the exact same thing that Adam did and what Jonah did.
We tried to make our own shelter. A shelter of our works. Intuitively,
we know God will punish sin. Well, I'm gonna take my works
and I'm gonna make a booth. And it'll hide me. It'll shelter
me from the wrath of God. I'm gonna make up for everything
I've done. I'm gonna present him something that he can be
pleased with. But just like with Jonah here,
it's a shelter they cannot provide. They cannot block that wrathful
heat that comes from the Lord for sin. He's a just God. He
must punish sin. Those works, those works, they
can't create a barrier. But look what happened, 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. We were just like Jonah, rebellious,
insolent, warring against God, trying to create our own covering,
covering of our works. But because he chose us, because
he loved us, He sent the gourd. He sent Christ to be our covering,
to be our shelter. And Christ came up over top of
us, us in him, and he kept the law, and we did in him. And he
suffered under the wrath of God. Those harmful rays of that sun
had to hit something. It was either going to hit the
gourd or it was going to hit Jonah, but it had to hit something.
God is just. Sin must be punished. My sin
has to be punished. Your sin has to be punished.
It can't be swept under the carpet. That's exactly what Christ did.
He became that barrier. He housed us in his body, and
he went to that cross, and he died. The wrath of God would
never touch us. And that's exactly what the next
verse is saying. Look at verse 7. 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, that shelter
that we can actually hide in, that the harmful rays of God's
wrath couldn't get to us. What had to happen? He had to
be smitten. He had to die. I think this is
really cool. That word worm, God prepared
a worm. You know what that word worm
actually means? It means scarlet. The color of
blood. I read the commentary on this,
it's talking about a particular worm, I suppose, that when you
crush it, it leaves this deep scarlet stain that is unmistakable. For Christ to be our shelter,
blocking us from the wrath of God, what had to happen? He had
to bleed and he had to die. That's the only way someone had
to suffer. Someone had to die, and Christ
took our place. Look what happens 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 Jodah that he fainted and wished in
himself to die. What does this vehement east
wind represent? John 3, 8. The wind bloweth where
it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst
not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth. So is every
one that is born of the Spirit. Because Christ became our shelter.
Because he was our surety. He put away our sin, making us
just before God. In God's appointed time, he sends
the Holy Spirit to blow upon us, just like this vehement east
wind hits the breath of life. You say, but Jonah was miserable.
When it beat upon him, he became miserable. And a believer, what
are the first signs of life? Misery. Because you've been given
a new man, a holy man. a new creation inside of you.
You've been birthed into the kingdom of God, and that holy
man inside of you exposes that old, sinful, wicked nature that
is also inside of you. And there's a war that goes on,
and there's a certain level of misery that you can only talk
about with other believers. A war. A war in this heart. Two nations, natures, going on
right now. And you find yourself a miserable
sinner before God, a holy and a just God. And where does your
affection set on for the rest of your days? What do you long
for? Who do you look to? What do you
don't want? You just want the Lord. Give
me back the Lord. That's all I want. And when you
get this new man, this is what you spend the rest of your days
doing. Just looking to Christ. I just want him to be my shelter.
I just want him to be that place that I can go and I can hide.
If that's what you want, that's what you have. Now, I said before,
in and of himself, Jonah, his end didn't look any different
than his beginning in and of himself. And it's because of
this old, sinful, wicked nature. Understand this. If you believe
the gospel right now, you have something new inside of you.
There's not been a change. That old man doesn't reform.
You don't shake him up. He doesn't change. He doesn't
subdue or anything like that. He's just as bad as he's ever
been. He's always going to be that
way until the day you die. Those sinful passions, those
sinful lusts that you had years ago, you still suffer with them. They still swirl around inside
of you. That old man doesn't get any better. There is no change.
There is something new that is given. A new man. full of love
for Christ, that actually believes the gospel, that has love for
his brethren, repents of dead works. I want nothing to do with
that throne of iniquity. Don't even mention it to me.
I'm not going anywhere near that thing. There is something new
that has not been there before, but that old man is still there. And all we can say is this. I
was born a sinner, suffering from evil passions and evil lusts.
And just like Jonah, my story is going down the exact same
way. a sinner, suffering from evil passions and evil lusts. And here's a story that kind
of puts it all in perspective. 2 Samuel chapter 9. David, before
he ascended to the throne and he became the most powerful man
on the face of the earth, made a covenant with Saul's son Jonathan.
Jonathan said, when you become the king, when you vanquish all
your enemies, when you sit on that throne and you are the most
feared man on the face of the earth, make me this promise that
you will show kindness to my house, to my posterity. And when
David ascends to that throne, he gets on top of that throne.
He says, is there any left of the house of Saul that I might
show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? I made a promise to Jonathan. I entered into a covenant with
Jonathan, and I'm going to honor my covenant. Is there any posterity
left? And one of his servants said,
there's one. There's one. His name is Mephibosheth. It
means a shameful thing. He says, here's the thing you
need to know about him, King. He is lame on both his feet. He can't provide for himself.
He can't do anything for you. And he can't even get up here.
If you order him to come, you're going to have to go down there,
throw him over your shoulder, and drag him back to your kingdom.
He can do absolutely nothing. He is utterly useless and utterly
worthless. And David said, that's exactly
who I'm looking for. Go fetch him. And he brings him
a Phibosheth in, and he makes him proclaim his name. What's
your name? Shameful thing. And just as soon as he thought
that David was going to slay him right there in that court,
David restores him everything he lost. Not only that, he adopts
him and he makes him a son. And he says this, I'm providing
everything for you, Mephibosheth, and every day you are going to
eat at my table, the table of my providing every single day.
But this is how the story ends. Listen to this. So Mephibosheth
dwelt in Jerusalem, for he did eat continually at the king's
table, but these are the last words, and was lame on both his
feet. His end was just the same as
his beginning in and of himself. So I expect my end to be. Born
a sinner, going to die a sinner, but received as a son. For what reason? Because Christ
died for me. That is the hope for a believer.
Look to Christ, don't look to yourself. I'll leave you there.