to turn back in your Bibles to
Jonah chapter four. You can lay them on your laps
and you can follow me in your pastor's commentary and your
bulletin as well. We do want to once again extend
a warm welcome to our visitors as well as to encourage you to
stay with us afterwards for lunch as well. We have really been
enjoying ourselves in these choice gleaning series, I think. And the book of Jonah has once
again rejoiced our soul in the mercy and goodness of God in
certain ways that require our attention. Jonah's a mess, isn't
he? Jonah's a mess. You wonder how
the Lord uses a brother like that. And the fourth chapter is the
most difficult out of all the chapters. What's going on in
chapter four? Well, what's going on in chapter
four is probably the most complex aspect of Jonah's mission there
is, but it caps the whole of Jonah's mission to us. And if
we don't understand chapter four, we will actually miss the overall
blessing of what God was doing in Jonah's life and therefore
in the life of the people that came in contact with Jonah and
therefore in our life as well. You know, you read an account
or you observe passages of scripture and one of the things we want
to get out of that passage is the significance of it. What's
the meaning of this? That's the overall idea. What's
the sense of what's going on in this book? And if you struggle
through the personality of Jonah, which forces us into some psychology,
getting into the head of the man, then avoid him as a person
and just simply say, you know, God knows how to use crooked
sticks to draw straight lines, right? All right, this is what
God does. But the overall theme of the
book of Jonah must be grasped by us. Like every book has a
theme. Every book has a theme. And when
you are reading the Bible and you are being confronted with
the historical narrative, we've learned that this is what we
call redemptive drama. Don't get distracted by the people
in the text. Always ask, what is God up to? That's what we call theology.
It's a consciousness of the work of God, either behind the scenes,
or in the midst of the events, or in the forefront of the events.
That is what you and I want to gather out of the text. Theology
is seeing God at work. That's what you want from this
account, and this is what we want to derive today. So Jonah
has been told to us by our Lord Jesus in Matthew chapter 12,
verse 40 and 42, Jonah is a sign. Didn't we learn this last week?
Jonah is a sign. He's a signpost. And a signpost
is something that points you from itself to something else. That's what a sign is. And so
a sign will fail to achieve its goal if the person looking at
the sign is stuck on the sign. If the sign says stop and you
get enamored by the color of the sign and don't stop, you're
going to miss the point of the sign. If the sign says go left... And you get just enamored by,
mesmerized by the yellow sign. Oh, look how beautiful that yellow
sign is. And keep going right, you have
missed the point of the sign. Am I making some sense? And that's
what signs are about. And Jonah, the Lord says, there
shall no sign be given this generation. Now, he was talking to Israel.
That's why the title of our message today is Jonah, the sign to Israel. I want you to be able to get
it. Now, there's some hard stuff going on. Inside chapter 4 and
I'm hoping that God will help us today unpack it But understand
that Jonah is assigned to his own nation Our Lord says for
as Jonah was in the whales belly three days and three nights so
the Son of Man shall be in the heart of the earth and Nineveh
repented at the preaching of Jonah and Nineveh will rise up
in judgment against this generation because Nineveh repented at the
preaching of Jonah and In other words, the sign of Jonah is not
just the person of Jonah. It's the work of Jonah. Now,
you and I know that the whole of the Bible points to whom.
So we are trying to find somehow the relationship or correlation
between Jonah and Jesus. We've done well so far, haven't
we? We've learned that chapter 1 taught us the doctrine of substitution. That is, it was necessary for
a world that is filled with the storms of sin to be delivered
by someone else who had to be thrown overboard in our behalf. Isn't that what we learn? Throw
me overboard and the sea will be calm to you. That was a struggle
for the seamen, but when they did it, they found peace, didn't
they? And when the Bible says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved, those who believe on the Lord find
what? being justified. Therefore, by faith, we have
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So Jonah chapter
one is the doctrine of the substitutionary atoning work of Jesus Christ.
Glorious doctrine. That's the first sign Jonah chapter
two. We learn Jonah found himself
in a mess of trouble as he was sucked up by a whale and thus
engulfed by this big fish headed towards, of all places, Nineveh. And he had to struggle through
what we saw was the agony of death that pointed to the atoning
work of Jesus Christ on the behalf of sinners. Jonah said, I have
gone down to the bars of hell forever. And as Jesus says, as
Jonah was in the whale's belly for three days and three nights,
so shall the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth. And so
you and I immediately see that Jonah chapter 2 teaches us the
doctrine of what? The atonement of Jesus Christ.
The cross work of Jesus Christ really is the heart and message
of the Bible. And when Jonah was spit up on
the shores of Nineveh, spit up, as the scripture says, God spoke
to the fish and it spit Jonah up on dry ground. Jonah is now
persuaded to do what God told him to do. Isn't that right?
Do you know God can persuade you ultimately to do what he
wants you to do? So now Jonah is persuaded to
execute the mission to which he's called and we saw last week
gloriously. that in the preaching of the
Gospel, God is pleased to save men and women from every nation,
kindred, tribe, and tongue. After all, we are objects of
His grace, aren't we? We are objects of God's mercy.
We're just like those Ninevites, right? As the Gospel of Christ
is preached, as the glory of God is manifested, as the King
is humbled all the way to the dust, as He's made to put on
sackcloth and ashes, so we saw our Savior come from heaven,
take on humanity, bear our sins, and turn the wrath of God away
from us to Himself. We thank God for that, don't
we? I thank God for salvation. I thank Him for His grace. I
thank Him for His goodness. I thank Him for His mercy. I
thank God for His kindness to me. I thank Him. I thank Him
because I was just like the Ninevites, doing my own thing, an idolatrous,
God-hating person. And do you know God didn't have
to come along and get me? But He did! and he saved me by
a mighty hand. That's why I'm thankful and you
should be too. There's a wonderful theme that's
running through the book of Jonah and I want you to get it because
this theme is going to run in juxtaposition to Jonah to teach
us the larger picture. Do you know that the whole excursion
of Jonah one through four is the movement of a mighty God
acting in mercy? Mercy to the seamen and the folks
on the ship mercy to his knucklehead servant who wants to run from
his mission Mercy to a whole city called the Ninevites. Are
you guys hearing what I'm saying? God is a god of what mercy don't
you ever forget it a god of mercy and that's the linear thing running
through the book of Jonah and as Jonah now heads to his last
portion of his assignment he now is struggling with a great
reality and A great reality that you and I have to work through
too. Do you know what that is? Jonah is struggling with the
fact that God is way more merciful than he is. Jonah's struggling with the fact
that God is way more merciful than he is. Have you ever had
a situation where you found out and discovered God saved somebody
you don't like. I'm trying to set a context for
you so you can enjoy the narrative. Jonah assigned to the nation
of Israel with regards to the way God acts. And I think the
best way for us to enter into this fourth chapter, to pull
out the points that I think are there that are relative to our
edification and joy, is for us to take up our first point in
the outline. I think it goes like this, the cost of discipleship. Do you see that? The cost of
discipleship. Our Lord said in Matthew chapter
10, verse 38, if you'll go there for a moment, these words, and
then I want you to see it in Matthew 16. I think this will
be the door into understanding the conflict that Jonah is having.
Our Lord said in Matthew chapter 10, verse 38, these words, he
said, and the one that does not take up his cross and do what?
Follow after me is not worthy of me. Those are difficult words,
aren't they? He that does not take up his cross and follow
me is not worthy of me. Now we've heard those words all
of our Christian life. Go to chapter 16 and notice what
it says in chapter 16. In chapter 16, we read over in
verse 24 these words. This is our master speaking to
Peter again. Listen to it. Then said Jesus
unto his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him what? Deny himself and then do what?
Take up his cross and then do what? I submit unto you that
all of us struggle with obedience to Christ. I submit unto you
that while you may stand back and call Jonah some really bizarre,
mentally ill servant of the true and the living God, can I share
something with you? You're more like Jonah than you
wanna admit. You're more like Jonah than you
wanna admit. Jonah is just keeping it real with his God. He's keeping
it real with his God, you know how we fake like, you know, we
just love everything about the will of God Everything about
God's where we just receive it with great joy and great all
the whatever God wants to do Let God do it. Now. Do you know
the only person that had the right to say that was the Lord
Jesus? And he was the one who was able to say it legitimately
and authentically I Always do those things that please my father
I love my father. My father loves me. Now God loves
us. We love God, but come on now. Don't you struggle sometimes
with the text? Don't you struggle with God's
will? Listen, Jonah is having fits. And I want you to understand
exactly why Jonah is having fits. Jonah is having fits, ladies
and gentlemen, because Jonah has been caused to embark upon
an assignment that manifests the glory of God in the context
of mercy, a mercy that was wider than the framework of Jonah's
thinking. And Jonah was smart enough to
know the implications of it. He knew that for God to act in
mercy against the enemies of Israel was going to set him up
for real trouble with his own kinsmen. Jonah knew that if he
took this assignment, He was going to be a target for his
own people. Jonah knew that if God would
work the way God works, God knowing Jonah and Jonah knowing God.
See, when you know God, you know how he works. Jonah knew that
if he took this assignment up, Jonah would have to go back to
his people. And boy, he would have been done.
Because Jonah knew that the same people whom he represented were
people whose view of mercy was very narrow. Jonah, in the first
sense, is very much a type of national Israel. See, national
Israel is like any group of people who have been privileged by God's
blessings, but have made the unfortunate mistake of saying,
we are the only ones who deserve the blessings of God. And yes,
Jonah's people, the Israelites, would, like many of us, be able
to say that we don't mind God doing his own thing. We recognize
that God is sovereign. Is God sovereign? God's sovereign
in every way. And so we accept the passage
in Romans chapter 9, which says, I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy, and I will harden whom I will harden. That passage
works for most of us so long as we are on the receiving end
of mercy. And then our attitude is like
one author puts it, we are God's chosen few. All others will be
damned. There's no place in heaven for
you. We can't have heaven crammed. See what I'm getting at? I want you
to see the gospel in this today. I want you to see how merciful
God is. Anyway. Anyway. when we get stubborn and when
we get narrow and when we get arrogant and when we get presumptuous
and when we think we've earned some right to tell God to do
it our way. I'm so glad God don't pay me
no attention. Aren't you? I'm so glad he just
walks right on around me, does his thing, shows himself to be
God, and he allows it to dawn on me later. He wasn't paying
me no attention. You know how you'd be praying
that God would do a thing you want him to do? He never does
it your way. And you know what you're tripping
on? You're tripping on whether or not you know God. Watch this. It doesn't matter whether you
are affirmed and assured that you know God, you better hope
that God knows you. Now watch this. If he knows you, he knows
that he can't trust you to act like him. So he must continue
to act like himself for his own glory and our own good. I submit
to you that what Jonah is experiencing right now is the mercy of his
God to him in his hard heartedness. Can you imagine what Jonah did?
Jonah went through the city of Nineveh preaching. Exactly the
word of the Lord as God had told him thus first day in we learn
the people are already repenting They're already turning from
their sins. They're already bowing the knee to the true and living
God now The city is three days journey Jonah has said is going
to be 40 days before God destroys you by the time Jonah gets out
of the city everybody say So he heads to the top of the
mountain on the east side of Nineveh, where he can have a
view looking down on the people. Going to help you understand
some truth here, where he can have a view looking down on the
people, because after all, in his own mind, well, God may be
saving them, but there might be an outside chance that he
still may pour his wrath on them. Now, this is why I say Jonah
is a type of national Israel and national Israel is a type
of any religious person. Will you hear me? That thinks
that you are better than the next person and particularly
the individual that God saves. You know, that poor sap that
never could ever be as good as you. This is how we know Jonah
is wrapped up in an Israelite paradigm of thinking. The first
thing that Jonah does after he sees God's act of mercy in saving
these people, you mark this down. This is how you can describe
your self-righteous Pharisee. He separates himself from them. Got it? You got it? See, when
you are a sinner saved by grace and you are persuaded that the
mercy that God bestowed upon you is a mercy that you don't
deserve, You don't have the idea that somehow you're better than
the next person and you can't stand with them and rejoice with
them and commune with them and fellowship with them. When you
and I fall prey to the self-righteous delusion that we are better than
others, one of the evidences of it is that you will separate
yourself from them. Jonah is taking a position of
separation. The second position he's taking
is the position of judge. Jonah was grieved that God saw
their works and repented of their of the judgment that would come
upon them and he took a position of separation and then judgmentality. Isn't that what he's doing? He's
taking a position of desiring something that he knows his God
has not determined to do. But what I'm getting at, Saints,
is this. Jonah is being used by God. God is drawing Jonah
out in his sovereignty to show us how you and I can be that
way with a person, with the people, with the family, with the group,
with the church, with anybody. When we lose our mind and somehow
think that we're adding something to God's glory just because we
are his servants. Are you following me so far?
This man, Jonah, all the way through the excursion was rebelling
against his God. And God's being merciful all
the way through, isn't he? Isn't God a God of mercy? God's
saving folks everywhere and even preserving his own knucklehead
servant. His servant actually glorifies
God in the powerful preaching of the gospel. These people are
saved and loving God magnificently. And Jonah's sitting on the hill
hoping it's not so. Amazing, isn't it? Now, what
is Jonah wrapped up in? He's wrapped up in what I call
a conflict. Now, this conflict, ladies and gentlemen, is a conflict
that is uniquely given to the Jew, but it's also a conflict
that you and I can invite into our lives when we fail to realize
that we are nothing but vessels of mercy. When we go beyond being
a vessel of mercy, that somehow we are one of the more honored
vessels. We're just a vessel of mercy,
an earthen vessel at that. Worthy by nature to be thrown
in the corner dashed into pieces except the goodness of God So
Jonah is wrapped up in the problem of watch this now being a Jew
Preaching the gospel to Gentiles Jonah's wrapped up in the problem
of watch this now Experiencing here we go New Testament missiology
under an Old Testament framework of thinking New Testament missiology
is go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son
that whosoever believes on him should not perish but have everlasting
life. Preach the gospel to every creature. Every creature? With an Old Testament
Jewish paradigm thinking you are saying only God's people.
And see, that conflict internally will cause you to hesitate to
do God's Word. Am I making some sense now? Now,
I can bear this up because even when our Lord Jesus Christ came
on the scene, guess who struggled with this? His own disciples. I remember his disciples. That's
why I'm saying now, you and I struggle with the will of God. That's
point two in your outline. Look at what it says in point number
two in your outline. Knowing God, but not agreeing with Him. That's a good point, isn't it?
It's as simple as like when I drew up that point, I was looking
for a theological way to frame it. You know, one of those nice
theological ways that didn't make it so crass, but this is
as plain as I just feel like being plain today. Could I be
plain today? There are times when we know what is right and
we just don't like it. Jonah knows his God by nature
is mercy. and he does not like this assignment.
Got it? Think it through sometimes. Think
it through. The Word of God comes to you
and it explains itself, and God shows up and manifests His glory
in a certain way, and He shows His attributes and characteristics
in a certain way, and you go, you know, I hear it all the time,
Pastor, that doesn't make sense. That rubs me the wrong way. Like
the Bible is supposed to rub you the right way. Like it's
just, you know, like your mind is straight. Like your mind is
clear, crystal clear. Like you think right. Don't you
know you don't think right? Like God has to conform to your
thinking. Like God, when you show up to
this person, you got to know who they are now. If you want
to win them to you, you got to think like they think. No, there's
a lot about the Bible we don't like. There's a lot about the
way God works that we don't like. God's thoughts are not our thoughts.
God's ways are not our ways. God's ways are higher than the
heavens are to the earth. So are God's ways to our ways.
Now, once we understand that, here's what we learn. I've got
to brace myself for the revelation of God. I've got to brace myself
for the revelation of God. I'll give you the first example,
Brother Peter. Our Lord is the epitome of mercy. the representation of the invisible
God here on earth incarnate He is the epitome of mercy and one
mercy is the revelation of his will given to his people He's
constantly speaking to Peter James John in the 12. I've got
to go to Jerusalem. I've got to be mocked ridiculed
I've got to be killed in the third day. I'll rise again in
Matthew chapter 16 Do you know what it says Peter takes Jesus
by the collar? It says Lord it will not happen Haven't you figured out, young
man, that you're walking with divinity? Haven't you figured
out that this man knows what he's doing? You've been headed
to Jerusalem for three and a half years. But you see, Peter had
a different thought. James had a different thought.
John had a different thought. They thought Jesus was on the
ascent when our master was on the descent. They thought he
was about to be exalted when he was about to be humbled. They
thought he was about to triumph when he was about to be overcome.
And they did not like that. In fact, it was such a powerful
influence on Peter in Matthew 16, where he said that Jesus
turns right around and says, Get thee behind me, Satan, because
you are savoring the things of men and not the things of God.
Children of God, come on now. Can we be so carnal in our own
passions and in our own self-interest and in our own agenda that we
would be more in agreement with the devil than we would with
God? Can I get some truth today? Give you another person who struggled
with it, operating out of an Old Testament paradigm of limited
mercy, purportedly exclusive to only the Jews, but also being
exposed to what we call New Testament missiology. This was Saul of
Tarsus. This man struggled with the message
of the gospel and the power of the gospel going to the Gentiles
as well as some Jews. And he went so far as to persecute
everyone who believed on the Lord Jesus, didn't he? You know
what he was struggling with? A new paradigm with old thinking.
He was struggling with the wider mercies of God to all versus
the limited mercies of God to him and them. And like we said
in our little psalm, the chosen few. That's what he's struggling
with. And so he kills, he persecutes,
he imprisons, he causes to blaspheme those who have received the mercies
of God, didn't he? Until he experienced that same
grace on the road to Damascus. Until he experienced that same
grace. And then do you know what he said? He said in 1 Timothy
chapter 1, around verse 14 through 16, he says, But God was merciful
to me, placing me in the ministry. Because I was one who was a blasphemer. I was a perjurer. I was a murderer. I caused men and women to blaspheme
God. I was a horrible religious criminal. But God had mercy on me because
I did it in ignorance and unbelief. And then he goes on to say, and
therefore, this is a faithful, sane and worthy of all acceptation
that Christ came into the world to save what? Sinners of whom
I am chief. Do you understand how powerfully
revolutionizing the gospel was in the mind of the Apostle Paul
to break him free from this limited, narrow, self-righteous prejudice
thinking that he had? He didn't see the glory of God.
He only saw his self-interest. That takes us back to Jonah.
Jonah is struggling with his identity, because he has to,
like all of us do. He's struggling with his identity
as a Jew, and he's struggling with his identity as a Christian. Got it? Let's go back to our
text and work it through. Point number two in your outline,
knowing God, but not agreeing with Him. Knowing God, but not
agreeing with Him. Sometimes we just don't agree
with God, do we? Here's where we are really inclined
to get wrapped up into the psychology of Jonah, into his mind. But
I don't want us to get distracted by that. You and I are pretty
well persuaded now that Jonah is struggling through the way
God is working. Now, some of the theologians
would say, or the scholars would say, now the reason why Jonah
struggling with this verse one says it displeased Jonah exceedingly
that God would save them and he was angry some would say he's
struggling with this because now when he goes home his role
as a prophet is completely discredited because after all Deuteronomy
13 and Deuteronomy 18 tells us that the prophet who speaks for
God if the thing that he says does not come to pass he has
no more credibility So he's going to go back to Israel having told
Israel that he's going to Nineveh to preach judgment on Nineveh.
God saves him. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
He's struggling with now that order. That's what they say. That's
not quite the way I see it. I understand that argument and
it's a valid argument. Don't you ever listen to someone
who doesn't know the truth, who doesn't exalt Christ, who doesn't
preach the Word of God. Definitely don't listen to these
wild-eyed prophets who want to tell you what God told them to
tell you about what he's going to do in your life, like you
can't go to God yourself. And especially when they get
it wrong, write them off right away. No more listening to you.
Are you hearing me? No more listening to you because
God doesn't bat with averages. God doesn't need three strikes.
Send it down the pipe and God gonna hit it right every time.
That's God. He can't lie, change, or fail. When he says a thing,
it's gonna be. That's the integrity and the
impeccableness of God's prophetic word. It's gonna come to pass.
Am I telling the truth? We don't need to listen at nuts saying,
well, listen to me tomorrow. I think I'll get it right tomorrow.
No, we're done with you. But Jonah's struggling through,
he's struggling through the fact that he's going to have a reputation
now. And I want you to hear this because we're getting ready to
bore into the gospel here. He's got to go back to a people
that he's more afraid of than the people that he just came
from. Got it? Because Jonah is operating out
of two offices. He's operating out of the office
of a Jew. and he's operating out of the
office of a prophet of Jesus Christ. See, all the prophets
pointed to whom? They all pointed to Christ in
these two categories. Now follow this, the sufferings
of Christ and the glory that should follow. All the prophets
had one role, to preach Christ and to demonstrate either by
their life or their message, the sufferings of Christ, are
you with me so far? And the glory that should follow.
Now mark this, Jonah saw the glory of Christ all through his
ministry. Wasn't it glorious for him to
see on the ship of Tarshish or headed to Tarshish all those
people saved by the grace of God? Isn't that the glory of
Christ? Isn't it the glory of Christ for Jonah to see a whole
pagan city of about 600, 700,000 people completely converted to
Jesus Christ? Isn't that the glory of Christ,
the power of the gospel to convert the whole group? Isn't that the
glory of the gospel? Well, ladies and gentlemen, if
you and I are going to be a partaker of the glory, don't we also have
to be a partaker of the suffering? Am I telling the truth? So Jonah
in chapter one saw the glory. Jonah in chapter 2 saw the suffering. He was made to be swallowed up
by hell as it were for him to know that sinners who die without
Christ are going to hell. He was made to be swallowed up
by the fish in order for him to know what his savior, his
mediator, his high priest had to endure in order for him to
be delivered from hell. Jonah experienced in a typological
metaphorical form the sufferings of Christ. That's what prophets
experience. But then Jonah again saw the
glory of God in the wholesale turning of the nation of Nineveh,
glorious. And now he has to once again
experience the sufferings of Christ in chapter four so that
he can know that the God who shows mercy to sinners shows
mercy to sinners because of the sufferings of his darling son
Jesus. So Jonah is now seated in this
real perplexing place where in his mind he knows God has done
something but he also knows what's in front of him and ladies and
gentlemen is what's in front of Jonah is exactly what we described
in our first point the cost of what discipleship the cost of
discipleship Jonah knew that God would be merciful isn't that
the way Jonah put it himself look at what Jonah says over
in verse two he says And he prayed unto the Lord and said, now I
pray thee, oh Lord, was this not the way I was thinking and
saying in my own mind when I was back at home before I even got
this mission? Therefore, I fled under torches. Like he's explaining
to God why he didn't go. Why he didn't want to go. God,
now Lord, I know you. I know you're a merciful God.
I know that if you leave people to themselves to go to hell,
you won't tell them to repent. But if you are going to save
people, you're going to come to them with the message of repentance
and you're going to accompany the message of repentance with
power to repent by pointing them to Christ. Jonah says, Lord,
you could have did that without me. Jeremiah, chapter 18, verse
four and five says, At what time? I determine and decree and devise
to raise up and to establish a nation and show them my goodness
and mercy. And that nation of whom I have
determined to raise up and establish and show my goodness and mercy
turn from me. Therefore, I devise evil against
that nation. That nation will come under my
judgment. God will judge the nation that he has shown mercy
to who reject the mercy that was shown to him. And at what
time I decide to destroy and pluck up and do away with a nation
that's rebelling against me, but that nation turns from its
evil ways, I will turn from the wrath that I said I would pour
upon them and I will preserve that nation and I will raise
that nation up. Are you guys hearing me? The
prophet knew his God. He knew his God for in verse
3, guess what he does? He describes the character of
God from the top to the bottom. I want you to mark this before
we go into our more enigmatic elements here and see the glory
of God. Jonah says in verse 3, that which
is described for us in a larger, fuller development in the book
of Exodus chapter 34. Here's what Jonah says, I fled
to Tarshish for I knew that you are a what? Gracious God. At the top of the list of the
character of God is His grace. Flowing from his grace get this.
This is theology now watch this flowing out of God's grace his
unmerited favor His bountiful predisposition towards sinners
in Christ is his mercy Do you see it? Notice what it says.
I knew that you are a gracious God and what merciful So then
you and I know where mercy comes from. Where does it come from
the grace of God? mercy flows from grace Mercy
is God not giving you what you deserve. Grace is God giving
you what you don't deserve. So grace is preeminent in the
act of God towards sinners and is manifested in mercy in our
life. Now, Pastor, get a little bit
more practical. I'm glad you asked about that. You know what
practical is? Every day that you and I live
and breathe and have our being and hell doesn't swallow us up.
is the mercy of God. And the mercy of God has this
enormous expiration date on it because of another characteristic
of God in conjunction with it. Do you know what that is? Watch
it now. God is slow to anger. Slow to anger. Isn't He? Come on, say people
of God, isn't he slow to anger? Doesn't God take his time pouring
out his judgment upon men and women? Come on, children of the
living God, tell the truth. By the time God pulls his belt
out and give us a whooping, watch this now, watch it now. It's
like I should have been had that whooping. He should have been
with my, but he should have been got at me. I'm glad he finally
got me because in his long suffering and his patience with me, he
left me so long in my foolishness, I thought I wasn't his son. Because
I know that whom all the Lord loves, he was. And it's kind
of weird, isn't it? Sometimes he'll let us go and
it scares us to death. And then the Lord will bring
in a little rod on us and we go, oh, thank you, Father. Thank
you that you stopped me in my tracks and once again affirmed
me in my sonship and helped me know that I need you every moment
of the day, every moment of my life. Every moment of my life
now you can get the extended version in Exodus 34 where Moses
was struggling with God Chastening the whole nation for committing
the idolatrous worship of the golden calf. You remember that?
Moses saw a side of God that he had never known and That's
the side of God destroying his own covenant people And Moses
said, wait a minute, this is what I call in one of the ways
I craft this message in Exodus 34, the preacher having a bad
day. Because when a good portion of
your congregation get wiped out by the Lord, that's a bad day. Now he's asking, Lord, is this
the way it's going to be all the way through the wilderness?
Because we only two months in. And from what I understand, because
of these stiff-necked, hard-headed people, we got 39 more years
to go. The way you're acting, we won't
make it. And God says, Moses, I'm going to show you my glory.
Remember that? I'm going to hide you in a rock.
Who is that rock? And I'm going to pass by you and let my glory
manifest itself to you so that you don't die. And when I pass
by you, I'm going to proclaim my name. And he began to proclaim
His name, the Lord, the Lord God, the Lord God, gracious and
merciful and long-suffering and plenteous in goodness and kindness,
forgiving iniquity unto thousands and thousands. Isn't God good?
Those are the preeminent attributes of his character displayed in
the life of his people. But then he goes on by saying,
but never as it were, never as it were, forgetting iniquity
and transgression. I will punish the sinner. I will
punish the sinner. I will punish the sinner. I am
a just God. But it flows out at the end of
his attributes. God shows grace. God shows mercy. God shows long-suffering. God
shows patience. When you reject all that, all
you got left is the judgment of God. Am I telling the truth? All you've got left is the judgment
of God. You deserve it. I deserve it. We all deserve
it if God doesn't turn us. Jonah knew this. So Jonah was
struggling with, struggling with, really what was implied in his
assignment. What he was struggling with that
was implied in his assignment was what would occur when he
got back home. So here's what he does. Let's
work this through. So take about 10 minutes. Watch this. Therefore,
now, this is amazing. Look at verse three. God, I knew
how good you were. I knew you were gonna repent.
You didn't have to send me. Therefore now O Lord take I beseech
thee my life from me For it is better for me to die than to
live Jonah is acting like a manic depressant He didn't swung so far to the
left, you know how we get okay see can I talk to you Can I talk
to you? See, mostly you are acting like
you are always operating out of an even keel. You are cool. But a lot of us are not cool.
We swing to the right and to the left like this a thousand
times during the week in between services. Can I get a witness? Can I get one witness? Now watch
this. Now watch this. By the time we get to church
on Sunday, Lord, I'm so glad you got me standing up straight
because these people will think I'm nutty the way I feel. I'm telling the truth. I'm telling
the truth. See, Jolie is forcing me to tell the truth today. We
got emotional and psychological issues all over the place, don't
we? I'm glad God is a rock. I'm glad he's a foundation. I'm
glad he's a cover from the storm. I'm glad God is a bulwark. I'm
glad he's a shield and a buckler and a high tower. I'm glad God
is an anchor to my soul. Keep me from blowing away in
the wind, because I'm gone some days. I say, Lord, get me back
before my wife sees me. So Jonah has separated himself,
operating out of his Jewish paradigm, because he's a judge. We all
can be pharisaical. Jonah is sitting on the mountaintop,
more interested in being right than for God being glorified
in the salvation of sinners. Woo! See what he's struggling
with? Because he want to go back to
his knucklehead people, whom he knows they're religious, but
more violent and more hostile than these pagan Gentiles. He
doesn't want to go back. You know what he says? In prospect
of going back home, I'd rather die. I'd rather you kill me and
take me to glory. I'd rather you kill me and take
me to glory. But I want you to stay with me, saints. When we
preach the word of God, what are we preaching? We're preaching
the gospel. When you preach the gospel, who are you talking about?
We're talking about Christ. I would completely fail you if
I leave you stuck with Jonah. This is not about Jonah. This
is about Jesus. This is about the gospel of the
glory of God in Christ. And so I'm going to say it here.
Jonah is stuck on a knowledge and understanding that what he
has been called to do is suffer for Christ. Suffer for Christ. Suffer for Christ. Did you get
it? If any man will follow me, let him deny himself, take up
his cross and follow me. He goes back home, they're going
to kill him. That's what they do to the prophet
of God. That's what you do when you're
religious. You persecute, you kill because we can't stand the
wider mercy of God to others. Jonah is a type of whom? Christ. My first series on Jonah 20 years
ago was Jonah or Jesus. Such a vivid picture. Jonah is
struggling with entering into now the sufferings of Christ.
But may I teach you something, ladies and gentlemen? If you're
going to be a faithful witness to the Word of God, you've got
to suffer with him if you're going to reign with him. If you're
going to be a faithful proclaimer of the gospel of his glory, you've
got to be ready to suffer with Christ if you're going to reign
with Christ. If you're going to faithfully preach that Christ
is the only way, the truth and the life. You got to be ready
to suffer with the son of God. If you want to reign with him,
Paul said, I'm ready to suffer. All those who suffer with Christ
will reign with Christ. Jonah struggling through being
what he's called to be. And that is a Christ preacher.
They all were. He sees himself now headed to
Jerusalem. He said, my goodness, they kill
everything that looked like God in Jerusalem. Do you see the
picture, gentlemen? Do you see the picture, ladies
and gentlemen? He's struggling with his messianic calling. He's struggling with his dual
identity. He's struggling with brethren
who are going to miss the point when they see that their enemy
has become converted. He would have loved for the Jewish
people to say, Oh, God saved my enemies. Hallelujah! You mean we can worship together?
They worship the true and the living God? We're friends now?
Hallelujah! He knew they wouldn't get it.
He knew that that conversion of the nation of Nineveh would
not provoke them to jealousy to believe God. He knew that
that wouldn't happen even when the Messiah came. So Jonah now
serves as a sign to Israel. of their impenitency of the mercy
of God to sinners. Are you guys following me? Let
me finish it here. Strange events that are taking
place now. Watch this. See again, I love Jonah. I really
do. And I'm so, listen, I know I'm going to heaven now. I know
I'm going to heaven because Jonah's in heaven. You know, and in my own twisted
way, I'm not as bad as Jonah. I got my issues, but I'm not
as bad as Jonah. So God can save Jonah. He can
save me. I want you to see this now. This
here is point number four in our outline. The gourd, the gourd. The gourd strange things happen.
We call this redemptive drama. It is called Really the uh narrative
theology. This is what god does in history. This is how god works in time
This is how god providentially works events to teach us redemptive
truth. We do believe that right? We believe that the gospel is
inherent in what god does and what god says and how god acts
So verse five verse four says then said the lord jonah. Do
you do well to be angry? This is the first time God is
talking to Jonah after Jonah's assignment. Jonah, do you do
well to be angry? So Jonah went out of the city.
See, now Jonah's talking like this on his way out. I see these
folk getting saved. Lord, didn't I tell you these
folks was going to get saved? He's on his way. Didn't I tell you?
Why, why are you even? So he goes out of the city and he sets
up his boot because he has the watch stuck between maybe God
will kill him and I'll save my ministry and save my reputation,
right? Here it is, verse five. So Jonah went out of the city
and sat on the east side of the city. This is what I'm saying.
This is part of the Tigris River where the dry beds are. And there's
a sense, are mountains high enough for him to kind of take a more,
as it were, a judicial position over against the city to see
what God would do. And there he made a booth. This is a little
ragtag covering. And he sat under it in the shadow
till he might see what would become of the city. Now, he's
at a time where they say there's this wind that comes from the
east, from the Mediterranean, called the Sirocco wind. A very
hot wind that gusts through at certain miles per hour, which
is almost like a fan blowing, only the heat that's coming upon
you is like that of Death Valley. And it dries your skin, it parches
your skin, it dehydrates you, so much so that everybody is
just kind of walking around agitated. Now come on now, 115, 120 degrees
in Death Valley, are you going to be singing, praise the Lord,
hallelujah, or are you going to be a little bit agitated?
Are you following me? So the translators have said
that the term angry can also be termed grieved because of
his condition. God's teaching us something.
When you move away from the mercy of God, which was situated in
the city of Nineveh, because of the presence of the Holy Ghost
in converting sinners to Christ, and you neglect that mercy, you
move away from God's cool presence and calm wind of grace into the
heat of God, the chastisement of God. When the Bible talks
about heat in the scripture, it talks about heat in two ways.
the heat that your enemies bring upon you when they are seeking
to destroy you, and the heat of God's anger against us when
we rebel against Him. Jonah has moved away from the
mercy into a place where God's wrath is typically experienced
on him. He needs to experience the heat
of God's wrath. You and I know if we were in
a desert land, in Death Valley, under those kind of temperatures,
we would die. Isn't that right? That's a kind
of the wrath of God. God's wrath is like heat. Go
with me in your Bible to Revelation chapter 16. I want to show you
this as we build this typology. I want to work this through really
quickly here in Revelation 16. Listen to the language. This
is part of God's vile judgment. that are poured out upon men
when they neglect God's mercy and God's overtures of redemption
in Jesus Christ. We read over in verse 8 and 9
of chapter 16, "...and the fourth angel poured out of his vial
upon the..." What? See, now we're talking about
that source of energy by which heat comes, right? "...and power
was given unto him to scorch men with..." What? That's messed
up, isn't it? We could talk about that and
its implications in our culture now, but listen to the next verse.
And men were scorched with great heat and blasphemed the name
of God, which had poured over these plagues, and they repented
not to give him glory. Isn't that crazy? Watch this. In a real way, Jonah is just
like these unrepentant sinners in Revelation 16. experiencing
the heat of God and not submitting to it and recognizing the anger
of God against his soul. But we're not surprised because
Jonah is a type of Israel. Right. And Israel did not repent
when a greater than Jonah came. And ultimately, Israel experienced
the heat of God when Israel was destroyed in A.D. 70. I'm going
to tie that together now. Can I do that? So Jonah is sitting
out the hillside exercising as self-righteous pharisaical judgment
against the Gentiles whom God has marked out for mercy and
God has now brought his heat and he has spewed his heat down
upon Jonas covering Jonah has this little rag tag covering.
They call it a booth in the Hebrew. It's kind of a generic term.
We don't know what it is. It's a generic term because God
now wants to deal with what God did to set Jonah up. Obviously,
what Jonah had set up didn't work. So the text tells us over
in verse six and the Lord God prepared a what? Gourd. Gourd now this gourd was a a
plant a shrubby plant that was large enough and it had these
massive leaves That was large enough to go over the top of
Jonah's head to protect him from the heat It was a, uh, they call
it a sycoran plant or kakaim plant in the Hebrew. And it was
a big leafy thing that grows really quick. It flourishes quick,
but it's very flimsy. I'm going to talk about that
in a moment. In fact, in the verb form of this word is called to
spew out. They grow quickly. Now imagine yourself being in
a desert area on a mountainside where hardly nothing grows. And
all of a sudden this big old gore has grown up over you to
protect you from the heat. Now watch how deceived you are.
Look how good God is. God then gave me air condition
in the desert. Jonah is glad for the gourd.
Got it? But Jonah is being set up by
God. Remember the linear objective
of God Almighty. Until the day of judgment is
to show mercy to sinners. That's the linear objective running
through our text, right? That's the inviolable projectory
of God. He's showing mercy, right? He
wants his servant to get this because his servant, all four
chapters, the Jewish people would be reading up to this hour. And
Jesus said, Jonah is assigned to you. Jonah is assigned to
you. Watch it. Lord God prepared a
gourd, made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow
over his head to deliver him from his what? So Jonah was so
glad for the glory. Thank you. You good Watch this
verse seven, but God prepared a worm That when the morning
rose the next day it smoked the gourd and it withered Jonah experienced
the temporary covering and comfort of a gourd of which he fell in
love with so much so that when that gourd withered just as fast
as it came up, Jonah got mad all over again. Now, can God make a gourd come
up in a day and perish in a day? Can he do it in a minute and
perish in a minute? God raised that gourd up to teach
us a truth about Jonah, who is a type of Israel, who has a sense
of confidence and comfort in a covenant scheme. that was never
designed for them to trust in. I've taught this for years. The
gourd represents the covenant of works and law that Jonah,
as a type of Israel, put their trust in rather than the God
who gave them the covenant. See, Israel always trusted in
their good works. They were those who said, we
are the people who have the law. These Gentiles are cursed, not
having the law. Paul knew them well because he
was one of them. And he said in Romans chapter
9, 31 and 32, Israel has sought after righteousness by the works
of the law and have failed to obtain unto the righteousness
which are by the works of the law because they sought it not
as it were by faith, but by the works of the law. And they stumbled
at the stumbling stone, which is whom? Christ. Jonah, I submit
to you is trusting in a temporary covering called the Old Testament
covenant of works that legal system that God used to bring
Israel all the way up to the time where Messiah would come.
Here comes Messiah. And Messiah says, don't trust
in your works. Don't trust in your righteousness.
Don't trust in your blood lineage to Abraham. Don't trust in this
covenant. You better trust in me. And they
rejected Christ for the gourd. Now the gourd represents that
old covenant. We read it in Hebrews 7 and Hebrews
8. In Hebrews 7 and 8 we are told that the old covenant was
a system that was weak and filled with faults. It was unprofitable
and it never could bring men and women into a saving relationship
with God. Yet Israel persists in trusting
in the old covenant to this day. How much so do they trust in
the old covenant to this day? They don't even recognize a new
covenant. Israel will not accept what the
Hebrew writer says. The old covenant, watch this,
the last verse in Hebrews 8 is waxing old and fading away even
now, like a gourd shriveling up and withering away. What position
does that put Israel in if they are trusting in a covenant that's
gone? It puts them in an exposed state
under the wrath of God. Much like Jonah bearing the heat
of the sun upon his head, probably bald head. I'm sorry, brother.
It's burning on Jonah. Now watch this now, because he
has no covering. Do you see what I'm saying, Saints?
This is the gospel. Jonah is being a type of national
Israel failing to realize that the end of the law for righteousness
is not their good works. It's Jesus Christ. It's Jesus
Christ. It's Jesus Christ. Now watch
how God works. Jonah sitting there all snuggled
up that night, feeling good. Got me a good, got me a good,
got me a good, got me a covering, got me a covering. Like Israel
trusting in the works of the law, trusting in the law, trusting
in the temple. I've got verses there that I
want you to read, but for time I'm going to stop. Verses that
speak to the covenant sign. We learn this in biblical theology,
lady. There are lots of signs that affirm the covenant, right?
The rainbow, the coats of skin, the Ark of the Covenant, circumcision.
One of the biggest signs that affirm the old covenant, watch
this ladies and gentlemen, is the temple. The temple was the
greatest sign to Israel that they were God's covenant people.
They thought the temple was going to stand forever. You know what
the disciples said as Jesus left the temple for the last time
in Matthew 24? Lord, look at all these buildings.
Look how glorious this temple is. Jesus said, get a good look. Because it's about to wither
up. It's all coming. Are y'all hearing me? It's all
coming down. The end of the old covenant is
coming down. getting ready to fall apart.
There will be no refuge in the temple, no refuge in the priesthood,
no refuge in the sacrifices all coming down. That gourds getting
ready to be eaten up. Which brings me to the next point.
Watch it now. The worm that ate it up. God does have a sense of humor.
Watch the text. God prepared a worm when the
morning rose the next day and and smote the gourd that it withered. Do you see that? 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 he wished to himself again. Here we go. I want to die. I
want to die. I want to die. It's better for me to die than to
live. Ladies and gentlemen, I submit
to you that when the Bible says, lo, I come, the volume of the
book it is written of me to do thy will O God that's exactly
what it means that whenever we read a portion of scripture historical
narrative didactic prose or whatever we want to find the glory of
God in it don't we I submit to you that that worm that God raised
up to eat up that gourd is a type of our Lord Jesus Christ the
worm that eats up the gourd If the gourd is the covenant, if
it's the old covenant, if it's the system of works religion
that must be fulfilled, must be completed, must be accomplished,
and then put away that we might enter into a new covenant, who's
going to put away that covenant but a worm? Watch this. In Isaiah chapter 41, God calls
Jacob a worm. In Psalm 22, Jesus says, I am
a worm, a man, and less than a worm. He's the worm that God
used to fulfill, accomplish, and put away the old covenant.
This worm is an interesting worm. Are y'all hearing me right now?
Because this worm is called in the Hebrew, a blood worm, a blood
worm. Actually, the word here is used
back in the Levitical code and in Exodus 28 throughout the temple
construction where the word scarlet is used to depict the color of
the linen that was used for the Holy of Holies. Now, scarlet
signifies the blood. Though your sins be as what? Scarlet. I will make them as
white as snow. This worm here represents our
bloody savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the one who was
made to fulfill God's covenant and put it away by the sacrifice
of himself on Calvary's tree. What was it that put an end to
the law? It was the death of Christ on Calvary. Who's on Calvary? He said him himself, I'm a worm
and more than a worm. What's taking place on Calvary?
The outpouring of the blood of the son of God by which blood
Our sins are washed away right along with that old covenant
to make way for a new and living way through the death of Christ.
That is the veil that is to say his flesh that we might enter
into a new covenant, a new covenant, a new covenant with better promises
and a better priesthood and a better high priest with greater blessings. We are not there yet in our account
because Jonah is assigned to Israel. Are you with me? If Israel were to look at the
life of Jonah, they would come to understand that Jonah's end
typically points to our end. That is Israel's. We are without
covenant today. Israel is not under the new covenant.
They reject Jesus Christ and they are not under the old covenant
because the old covenant has been put away in Jesus Christ.
Where is Israel? They are in the heat of the day
under the wrath of God like every sinner who trusts in his works
and not in the grace of God which is in Jesus Christ. Are you guys
hearing me? Exposed! Exposed and they will never come
out of the heat of the son of God's wrath into the blessed
cool Refreshing wind of his grace until they bow the knee to Jesus
Christ now watch how God closes it out This is what God does
in mercy. See God's gonna still show mercy
now watch what he does look at verse 9 and God said to Jonah
do you well to be angry for the gourd and He says, I do well
to be angry, even under death. Follow me, ladies and gentlemen.
That's where Israel is in his blindness today, for which Paul
said, I could wish myself accursed from God because of the blistering
blindness of my own people who are trusting in who they are
over against who Christ is. Ladies and gentlemen, that's
blindness. to the nth degree. You are blind when God in the
person of His Son has come into the world. The world was made
by Him and He was in the world and the world knew Him not. He
came unto His own and His own knew Him not. He came and left
and they still didn't see Him. How blind must you be? And then
when the prophet said, I'm going to destroy this temple as a great
and final sign that the covenant is over with. Temple been gone
for 2,000 years. They still think they're under
a covenant. And they ought to know, no temple, no high priest,
no covenant. For a covenant must always have
a mediating high priest. Am I making some sense? We got
one. Nineveh got one. Oakland got
one. Hayward got one. San Leandro
got one. We got a mediating high priest.
We've got a covenant. We've got a surety. We've got
blood and we've got righteousness. We've got mercy and we've got
grace. We've got the Lord Jesus Christ
who stands between us and the wrath of God, pouring out his
blood to cover our sins and show us his grace and show us his
mercy and show us his goodness and his kindness. Do you know
why? Because God loves showing mercy
to children. Look at what he says. I'm almost
done. I'm kind of proud of myself.
I almost got this done in an hour. Point number six, mercy to children. Do you see it? Mercy to children.
I love God. I mean, listen to what God says.
Now, see, I'm telling you, chapter 4 is wild. Because God's spending
his time with his son. You know how when your son is
all twisted, and you just spend your time with him, you don't
leave him? You don't threaten him? You talk to him. You show
him your plan. You work it through. So Jonah,
come on, man, sit down. You all messed up, brother. Don't
you understand the parable that happened? Now look, this gore,
you didn't make it, you didn't own it, you didn't pay for it,
it came up in a day, went down in a day. And you want to show
pity to a gore? I've got millions of these things
all over planet Earth, but you won't show pity to eternity-bound
souls. Jonah, don't you think your priorities
are all messed up? See how he's pleading with his
son? Now come on, when we're teenagers, weren't we messed
up in our thinking? Young adults too. See, you got
to get the priorities right. God has his priorities right.
God always uses things for his glory and the good of his people.
Jonah, I can make a gourd anytime, brother. When a soul dies, it
dies forever. Don't you understand that you
are my vicar, you are my representative to show mercy to sinners? 600,000 people, 120,000 that
don't know their left hand from their right hand. That's a reference
to children. That's a reference to children.
You know what God is saying? I will save a city just for the
children. Because the children won't come
under my wrath until they're accountable for their rebellion
and disobedience. Am I making some sense? And therefore,
except you humble yourself and become like a little child, you
will not enter into the kingdom of heaven. except you come so
far down in yourself to where you say, I have nothing I can
do. If God's wrath is coming upon
me, I'm like a little child. I'm completely exposed to God's
wrath. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Until you and I return to the place where Ezekiel chapter 16
says, God says, and when I saw you, you were like a little child
thrown out into the midst of the field in the day of your
birth. when your mama left you there,
cut the umbilical cord, and left you in the field to die. But
I passed by you, and I looked upon you, and I showed mercy
upon you, and I picked you up because you were helpless. Helpless. Helpless. Helpless. We call it grace. We call it
grace. That's how the sinner is. He's
helpless. He has no power. He has no strength. He can't save himself. He's dying
under the wrath of God. Am I making some sense, ladies
and gentlemen? God swooped down, picked that child up, brought
him into his bosom. He said, you're mine. I'm going
to wash you. I'm going to supple you. I'm going to clothe you.
I'm going to clean you up. I'm going to grow you up. And
I'm going to marry you. I'm going to marry you. I'm gonna
marry you. Marry a bunch of rejects like
us. We were as good as dead. Marry a bunch of rejects like
us. Am I telling the truth, Mario? Picked us up, brought us into
his bosom. We call it sovereign grace. Sovereign
grace. Do you know how many children
die every day, left alone, because their parents can't even take
care of them? All over the world, my heart
breaks all the time about it. God, how can I help fix that
thing? You know, we have to stop thinking about that stuff is
so bad, don't we? We have to stop thinking about it. I'm saying,
Lord, grow us up as a church so we can help that. I'm learning
it from the text. God saved the nation for 100
years because he was going to judge him. That's what he does. One generation believed. The
next generation didn't believe. God's wrath came upon them. I'm
trying to get you to understand your salvation in mine is a function
of the mercy of God. Let your mercy come unto me,
O Lord, even your salvation according to your word, not by works of
righteousness, which we have done, but by your mercy, by your
mercy, by your mercy, have you saved us by the washing of regeneration. and renewing of the Holy Ghost,
which he has poured upon us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Point seven, done. Jews and Gentiles
shut up to one covenant. That's it. Ain't but one covenant. It's the gospel. That's all we've
got for people. We don't have works for people.
We don't have a covenant of works. Aaron is dead. The temple tore
up. The blood of bulls and goats
won't do. Christ died one time. He rose again. He's in heaven.
He's the one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. We only have to offer to sinners
Jesus Christ. That's all we have. Amen. Amen. Amen.