It's unlike any of the other
books of either the Old Testament or the New, in that this book,
though it is found among the minor prophets, is really not
a prophecy at all. Rather, the book of Jonah is
a brief autobiographical sketch of one man's life and ministry,
just a very small portion of his life and ministry. Jonah,
writing by divine inspiration, speaks of one distinct event
in his life which God Almighty uses here to give us instruction
about his goodness, his grace, and his providence, and by which
the Lord portrays for us his purpose of grace in redeeming
and saving his people by the death, burial, and resurrection
of his own darling son. Now, Jonah was an insignificant
man, born to an insignificant man from an insignificant place. He is the son of Amittai of Gath-Heper,
we are told in 2 Kings 14. Gath-Heper was a city that belonged
to the tribe of the Zebulun, a small portion in the remote
corner of Israel. But God chose this man, as the
object of his grace, and chose him to be a messenger of his
grace, and he was a remarkable messenger of God's grace. There
is perhaps no book among the Minor Prophets particularly,
the story of which is so commonly known in theory as the Book of
Jonah, and none so little understood as the Book of Jonah. As this
book opens, Jonah is already a prophet of God. He is already
a man of faith. He is a servant of the Lord,
his God. But like all of God's servants
while we live in this world, he had a whole heap he needed
to learn. Look at verse 1. Now the word
of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise,
go to Nineveh, that great city. and cry against it, for their
wickedness is come up before me." But Jonah didn't want to
go to Nineveh. We're not told why until we get
to the 4th chapter. It seems obvious that Jonah recognized
that the Lord God, being gracious and merciful, might just have
sent him to Nineveh to preach judgment, that Nineveh might
come to repentance. and that Nineveh might be spared
the wrath God threatened upon them. And so because of his racial
prejudice, because of his bias against the Assyrians, Israel's
sworn enemies, Jonah said, No. I'll go preach the gospel to
Israel, I'll go preach the gospel to Judah, I'll go preach the
gospel here or there, but I'm not going to Nineveh. Let those
pagans die, they deserve it. So we read in verse 3, Jonah
rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
That's a long trip. He rose up to flee from the presence
of the Lord, so he went down to the seashore, and he found
a ship so convenient. He probably convinced himself
fully that this was after all an act of God's providence confirming
his decision, he must have misunderstood the Lord. He found him a ship
going to Tarshish, and so he got on the ship. But look at
the next line. So he paid the fare thereof. If you choose to rebel against
God, be warned. As soon as you get on that ship,
you're going to have to pay the fare. And it is a costly fare
to pay. Some of you here, I have no question,
right now are just like Jonah. God has spoken to you. He's revealed
his will to you. You know what you must do. Perhaps
he has spoken to you by the gospel, calling you to faith in Christ.
Perhaps he's called you to some specific area of service in his
kingdom. Perhaps he has given you some
specific work, task, or responsibility for the glory of his name. But
thus far you refuse to hear his voice, and you flee from the
Lord. And our God is so wise and so
good and so gracious, for your sake he may just let you flee
for a while. But you will have to pay the
price thereof. Now, this book easily divides itself into five
acts performed by God. They are given in verse 1 of
chapter 4, the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea. Verse 4 of chapter 1, the Lord
sent out a great wind into the sea. Verse 17, here is the second
thing, the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah.
Here is the third thing, chapter 4, verse the Lord prepared a
gourd. Verse 7, chapter 4, God prepared
a worm, and then God prepared a vehement east wind. Let's look at the book of Jonah
as these things are set before us. First, we read in chapter
1 that the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea. Chapter 1,
No sooner had the ship set sail for Cassius than God raised up
a storm, a storm that nearly destroyed the ship and everyone
on it. Everyone was panic-stricken. The captain of the ship and all
the sailors all got a little religion in the face of death,
and they began to call upon their gods in verse 5. But there was
one man on board the ship who knew exactly what was going on.
He understood what was happening. Jonah knew that this great storm
had arisen for his sake. Look at verse 12. He said unto
them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea. So shall
the sea be calm unto you, for I know that for my sake this
great tempest is upon you. Be sure you learn this lesson.
Everything that comes to pass in this world comes to pass by
the hand of our God for your sake, my brother, for your sake,
my sisters, everything. It is written over and over again,
Therefore let no man glory in men, for all things are All things
are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through
the thanksgiving of many be downed to the glory of God. All things
are of God.' Now, though Jonah was determined to forsake God,
isn't that hard to imagine? Peter did the same thing. After
he had cursed and denied the Lord three times, he said to
his fellow disciples, I'm going fishing. And what he said was,
I'm going right back to where I was when this whole thing started.
Everything's done for me. I'm gone. I'm gone. Jonah determined
to forsake God. A prophet. A faithful man. A believing man. A sinner still. Though Jonah
was determined to forsake God, God Almighty was determined that
Jonah would not forsake him. Oh, wondrous grace! The foundation of God standeth
sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his. That
means it stands sure. And though many times it is true
of us as it was of Jonah, we turn from him in utter Yet it
is a faithful saying, if we believe not, he abideth faithful. Aren't you glad? How often I
have shamefully proved that statement. If we believe not, yet he abideth
faithful. Though Jonah sought to flee from
his responsibilities as a believer, the Lord graciously forced him
to confess his faith before an unbelieving mob in the most hostile
of circumstances. Look at verse 8, chapter 1. These
fellows saw what was going on, and they said to Jonah, they
said, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil has
come upon us. He said, What's your occupation?
They said, Where did you come from? They said, Where is your
country? What people are you of? And he
said to them, verse 9, I am a Hebrew, I am God's chosen child. And
I fear the Lord, not these little peanut gods you've been hollering
at. I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the
sea and the dry land.' And then were the men exceeding terrified,
and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled
from the presence of the Lord, because he told And then in the
10th verse, having told them these things, we read in verse
14, 14, Wherefore they cried unto the Lord, and said, We beseech
thee, O Lord, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man's
life, and lay not upon us innocent blood. Now watch how they speak.
For thou, O Lord, hast done as it please thee. Jonah apparently
told them a good from those verses that are not recorded here. He
just gives us little snips. He said, Now you fellows have
been calling on these gods, and you see the sea is still raging. You fellows have been crying
out to your gods, but they can't hear you. You fellows have been
crying out to your gods, but you carry them in your pockets.
They don't have any arms. They can't do anything to help
you. I worship the God of heaven. It's true. We're in this mess
because of my rebellion and my sin. This has come upon you because
of my rebellion and my sin. But the God I worship, he is
God indeed. And they cry out to the Lord
and say, For thou hast done as it pleased thee." Then in verses
13-16, before the day was over, God was glorified before all
who were in the ship. The men heard Jonah's message,
and nevertheless There's a sermon here, I'll just give you the
gloss. The men rode hard to bring it
to land. Men hear the gospel of God's
grace, hear the message of God's grace, called upon to trust God,
and they say, that sounds good, but we can do it ourselves. And
they rode hard to bring the ship to the land. But it's a useless
battle. You can't save yourself. You
can't deliver yourself. You can't even control your circumstances. You can't even control yourself.
They could not, for the sea wrought and was contemptuous, look at
it, against thee. Wherefore they cried to the Lord,
and said, We beseech thee, O Lord, we beseech thee, let us not perish
for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood, for
thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased thee. So they took up
Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea, and the sea ceased from
her raging. Then the men feared the Lord
exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord, and made vows. So great is our God, great beyond
anything I have ever imagined, much less declared to great beyond
our highest estimation in his wisdom and goodness. So great
is our God that he uses all things, overrules all things, even the
evil done by men. even the evil done by his own
people, for their good and his glory." These folks glorified
God, and it could not have happened had Jonah not been on board that
ship. Now, I read this last night and got to looking at it. Shelby
and I were working late. About one o'clock this morning
I walked back into her office and I said, Listen to this. Behold,
a greater than Jonah is here. The Lord Jesus tells us plainly
in Luke 11 that Jonah was a type of himself. It is Christ himself
who gives us the true, full meaning and significance of Jonah's experiences. Jonah, he tells us, was a sign
both to the Ninevites and to all future generations. In Luke
11, verse 29, you can look at it later, when the people were
gathered together, he began to say, generation, they seek a
sign, and there shall no sign be given it." No sign, but what? The sign of Jonah the prophet. For as Jonah was a sign unto
the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of Man be to this generation. And in this first chapter of
Jonah, We see a very clear, instructive picture of our all-glorious Savior
and his great sacrifice for sin. First, we saw here a mighty,
mighty, contemptuous storm raging against these mariners, threatening
them with immediate death. And of course, the storm, the
raging sea, is set before us continually through the scriptures
as a picture of God's impending wrath and judgment. When they
cast lots See that in chapter 1, verse 7? They cast lots. What
a strange thing. You remember what the wise man
said? The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing
thereof is of the Lord. They cast lots. What's happening
here? For whose cause is this? They
cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. The lot fell on Jonah,
not by luck, or chance or blind fate, the lot fell on Jonah by
the deliberate disposition of God Almighty turning the lot
to Jonah. That's the man, according to
God's purpose. And our Lord Jesus Christ was
taken by the hands of wicked men, crucified and slain, but
he was delivered to their hands and delivered up to death by
the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. When Jonah saw that these
men were about to be slain, when he saw that they were about to
perish in the storm of God's wrath, Jonah did a remarkable
thing. He voluntarily offered himself
as a sacrifice in their stead. He said, Throw me overboard.
Throw me into the sea, and everything is going to be all right. into the pit of the earth, and
everything will be all right. And so they cast him into the
sea. As our Lord Jesus says concerning
himself, I laid down my life. I had the power to lay it down,
and I had the power to take it again. This commandment have
I received of my Father, no man takes my life from me. I'm doing
this because I want to. I'm doing this because the good
shepherd gives his life for the sheep. And as soon as Jonah was
cast into the sea, I mean, he hit the water. When I hit the
water, I don't care how well I dive, I make some waves. When
he hit the water, dead call. Dead call. The rage of the sea
ceased. We are told plainly, the sea
from her raging. The sea stopped raging. What does that mean? It means
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. It means there
is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
And if you look at verse 16, all of those for whom Jonah gave
his life were saved from death and worshiped God. Isn't that
a great picture of Now, here's the second thing, chapter 1,
verse 17. The Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. Yesterday I read a good many
explanations of how the great white sharks and great sperm
whales have been found with men in them. A whale was once found
caught, cut open, and a man was still alive inside the whale. Whether those things are fact
or fiction, it really doesn't matter. it just wouldn't be possible
for a great fish to swallow up Jonah. The word translated fish
here, and the word used by our Lord that's translated whale
in Matthew 12, really is not in reference specifically to
any definite species of sea creature. But rather, it speaks of a great
sea monster. The word might be translated
dragon. It may be that the Lord raised up a great shark to swallow
Jonah up, it may be that he raised up a great whale, or it may be
that the Lord prepared a specific beast of the sea to swallow up
Jonah, a beast in which he could be swallowed up whole and remain
alive for three days in his stomach. Whatever the case may be, we
are told plainly that God specifically prepared this great fish to swallow
up Jonah. But I'm also convinced that God
wisely throws things in his word deliberately to cause unbelieving
men to stumble. So I don't care to explain things
that God hasn't explained. He raised up a fish to swallow
Jonah, and Jonah was in the fish's belly for three days. Well, what's
this teach us? Again, turn to Matthew 12. Hold your hands there. Jonah's
experiences in this passage typify and represent the accomplishment
of redemption by Christ, and this is not guesswork. This is
what our Lord tells us, Matthew 12, verse 40. For as Jonah was
three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the
Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of
the earth. Our Lord Jesus was made to be
sin for us. And when he was made to be sin
for us, he was swallowed up in the sea of God's wrath and slain
as our substitute. As a dead man, his body was buried,
cast into the heart of the earth in the tomb of death. But three
days later, the Son of God, our Redeemer, arose, justified in
the Spirit. being put away. He rose victorious
over the tomb, over death, hell and the grave. And his resurrection
is proof positive that he is both himself the all-sufficient,
accepted sacrifice and substitute who has put away the sins imputed
to him, and he is thereby declared to be the Son of God with power
through his resurrection. Just as Jonah came to Nineveh, He hit the streets of Nineveh,
proclaiming the word of the Lord as a man brought forth from the
dead to give to those people, though he didn't know it. He
suspected it, but he didn't know it. He was sent there as one
raised from the dead, coming forth out of the whale's belly
to proclaim the word of the Lord, to give Nineveh repentance and
forgiveness from God Almighty. And our Lord Jesus Christ in
the time of his mercy and grace comes to chosen sinners, as that
one who was crucified and slain by men, and hanged on a tree,
but raised up by God, to give repentance to Israel and the
forgiveness of sins." Now look at chapter 2. Jonah's deliverance
from the belly of the whale is a picture of every believer's
experience of grace. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord
God, the Lord his God, out of the fish's belly. Again, behold,
a greater than Jonah is here. The Lord Jesus is obviously portrayed
here. You read these first 10 verses
of chapter 2, and there are some things spoken of here that could
not strictly be spoken of concerning Jonah. not fully, not absolutely. They could not be spoken by anyone
except by the Incarnate Son of God, our Savior. Our Lord Jesus
is described in Psalm 69 as suffering the very things that are recorded
here. He was in the deep. The deep swallowed him up. He
cried unto the Lord, his God, in Psalm 22, just as Jonah did
here out of the belly of the great fish. And our Lord made
the same promise in his anguish that Jonah made in his anguish,
that he would praise the Lord his God. But Jonah, we are told,
as he cries out here, says, You have shut me up in the depth,
you shut me up in hell forever. Now, wait a minute. Jonah was
just there for three days. That's not forever. That's not
forever. What is he talking about? Well,
it's true, when a man, I suspect if I were in the whale's belly
for three days in the depths of the sea, I would think it
had been forever. And you might speak with a little bit of exaggeration
and hyperbole, and that's understandable and it's all right. But strictly,
he wasn't there forever. But there is one man who is the
infinite God, who takes all the hail of God's eternal wrath and
suffers it to the full satisfaction of justice in one day, in three
short hours. He took the forever of our hell
and endured it. And then Jonah declared, I'll
pay my vow, salvation is of the Lord. I'll pay the thing I vowed.
In Psalm 22, our Lord Jesus said exactly the same thing. He said,
I will pay that which I have vowed. Now, again, there's only
one man who ever paid what he swore to God he would pay. Only
one man who ever really did what he vowed to God he would do.
And that man is our Savior. But still, these verses portray
every believer's experience of grace. And I want to spend a
little bit of time here. It's needful. There is a great
deal of debate these days about when a person is saved. I sometimes meet with folks. I get around. People think I
don't know what's going on, but I tend to have a little idea.
And folks will meet me the first time and say, Well, Brother Fortin,
when were you saved? And I usually will give them
some kind of an answer that will send them spinning on purpose.
Because you see, in the scriptures Never was there an apostle, never
did our Lord, never did a prophet ask anybody, when will you say
it? It is a totally insignificant
question. It is a meaningless question.
And yet it is important for us to understand that whenever a
person is saved by God's grace, he is taught of God. And when
a man or woman is taught of God, there are some things they experience.
They experience by the hand of God. A person is saved when with
the awareness of God's just wrath upon him, he calls upon God for
mercy. Look in Jonah 2, verse 1. unto the Lord," when he was in
the whale's belly. He prayed to the Lord, his God, out of
the fish's belly and said, I cried by reason of mine affliction,
I cried when the hand of God was heavy on me, and he heard
me out of the belly of hell, cried I, and thou heardest my
voice. Oh, if God ever puts you in hell,
you will cry out for mercy, but not to them. A person is saved
when from the depths of his corruption He looks to Christ in faith.
Look at verse 3. For thou hast cast me into the
deep, in the midst of the seas, and the floods that encompassed
me about, all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. Then,
said I, I am cast out of thy sight, yet will I look again
toward thy holy temple. You remember what Solomon prayed
when the temple was dedicated? He said, look this way. And he's
not talking about looking at the physical temple as you see
folks these days in the Muslim world praying toward the mosque. He's not talking about folks
praying toward that physical temple. He's talking about what's
represented there. He's talking about Christ Jesus, our Redeemer
and our Savior, represented in all things in the temple. The
waters compassed me, even to the soul. The depths closed me
round about. The weeds were wrapped about
my head. I went down to the bottoms of
the mountains. The earth with her bars was about
me forever. Yet hast thou brought up my life
from corruption. O Lord, my God, when my soul
fainted within me, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came
in unto thee, into thine holy The person is saved when he comes
to know the true and living God. Jonah says in verse 8, They that
observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. Our Savior said,
This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. Salvation is knowing
God. And a person is saved when God
lifts him from the miry pit of corruption by his mighty grace. I went down to the bottoms of
the mountains. The earth with her bars was about
me forever. Yet thou hast brought up my life
from corruption, O Lord my God." When is a person saved? A person
is saved when from the depths of his inmost soul he acknowledges
and confesses salvation is of the Lord. Brother Moose knew
the man who was my pastor when God was pleased to reveal Christ
in me, Brother Taberna Davis. I heard him preaching out of
Jonah 2.9 one time, and he said that Jonah was down in the whale's
belly and the seaweeds all about him. He was choking to death,
and some little Arminian preacher came up and knocked on the wheel
bell and said, Brother Jonah, you need to make a decision and
get yourself out of there. And he said, Oh, no, my decision
is what got me in this mess. And he spit out seaweeds and
said, Salvation is of the Lord. You are saved when you are made
to understand that God saves you. Salvation is what God purchased. Salvation is what God performs.
Salvation is what God preserves. Salvation is what God perfects,
and salvation is what gives God praise. Once the Lord calls this
great fish to spit Jonah out, the word of the Lord came to
him a second time. And Jonah hit the ground running to go
to Nineveh to preach the preaching that the Lord told him to preach.
It is written, Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy
power. And now Jonah is willing to go. And I promise you, whatever
it is that God Almighty wills for you to do, he will sooner
or later make you perfectly willing to do it." This trip that Jonah
took, we are told plainly that it was a three-day journey. But
Jonah got there in less than a day. He was moving. He was
perfectly willing now to go to Nineveh. And he proclaimed God's
message. You see, when God intends to
be gracious to sinners, he sends his word with a man carrying
it in his lips, to proclaim to those sinners at his time of
mercy." Folks often say, well, what if there are not any preachers
down there? If God has to create a great fish and send you there
in a whale's belly, he will still send his word by his servants
when he is pleased to send his word to heal his people. And
the whole city of Nineveh repented. I don't have any idea how many
people were there, but we're told in the last chapter, I think
it's the last verse, verse 11, there were 120,000 infants who
didn't know their right hand from their left. This is a huge
city, a huge city. And the whole city repented.
That was a great message Peter preached on Pentecost. This one
seems to have accomplished a little more. The Ninevites reason like
any condemned sinner should. It's amazing to me how Satan
can persuade men, he can persuade women to reason, well, the Lord
won't have mercy. I'm going to hell. I'll just
go to hell. I don't understand that reasoning.
I can't fathom that reasoning. This sounds a whole lot more
sensible even for an insane man. Look at verse 9, chapter 3. Who
can tell? Who can tell? if God will turn
and repent. Jonah said, You're going to hell,
boys. And the Ninevites said, Maybe not. God's decreed that
you perish. Maybe not. God has sent me to
tell you the judgment's coming. Maybe not. Who can tell? Who can tell? Maybe he sent you
here to get our attention. Maybe he sent you here because
he intends to be gracious. We've heard that he's gracious.
Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from
his fierce anger that we perish not? Now, watch this. When sinners
hear God's word and turn to him in repentance, even Assyrian Ninevites. When sinners hear God's word,
and hearing his word are turned to him in repentance, they always
obtain mercy. Did you hear me? They always
obtain mercy. Verse 10, And God saw their Not
their sackcloth and ashes, but what's represented. God saw their
works of repentance and faith toward him, works of grace brought
in them. God saw their works that they
turned from their evil way. Same thing is said in Isaiah
55. Turn from your evil way. And God repented of the evil. There are lots of ways to explain
that, but most of the time folks explain it away. Was God changed? No. No, God
doesn't change. Did these Ninevites call God
to change his mind? No! The whole story tells otherwise. God sent Jonah there because
God intends to have mercy on these Ninevites. But it appeared
that God changed. The change took place in the
Ninevites. But it appeared that God changed. They were before
at enmity with God. Their hearts enmity against him
like all men are. But now they turn to the Lord
God in repentance. bowing to him, acknowledging
him, worshiping him, and God repents of the evil. That is
to say, the Lord takes away the wrath. Now, this is what happens
when God saves a sinner. Brother Todd Nyberg called me
asking about this the other day. We were talking. God's wrath is revealed from heaven against
all ungodliness and unrighteousness. If any man believes not, he's
condemned already, because the wrath of God abides on him. If you're an unbeliever, there's
nothing in this book to say anything to you except damned. That's
all. Damned, lost under the wrath
of God. And your conscience agrees, because
you know your guilt. But when God comes in his free
grace and reveals Christ in your soul, and gives you faith in
him, looking on Christ, God's wrath is gone. It's gone. No more condemnation. Did your
faith take it away? No. No, no, no, no, no. Christ
took it away a long time ago. But now you see and know and
experience the fact that it's taken away. Judgment's gone. Christ put away my sin. God repented
of the evil that he said he would do unto them, and he did it not. Here I was, a rebel, condemned. I heard God screaming in my soul,
damned, damned, forever gone, damned, cursed, deserving of
infinite wrath. And I looked away to Christ,
and I heard God say, No wrath, no condemnation, no guilt, no
sin. It's taken away. Did you hear
what Jesus said to me? They're all taken away. Your
sins are pardoned and you are free. They're all taken away. Then, in chapter 4, we read that
Jonah got mad at God because of his mercy upon Nineveh and
went out to pout. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly,
and he was very angry, and he prayed. What kind of prayer is
this? He prayed unto the Lord and said,
I pray thee, Lord, was not this my saying when I was yet in my
country? Therefore I fled before unto
Tarshish, for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful,
and slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee
of evil, and I don't like it. Therefore, now, Lord, take, I
beseech thee, my life from me." I feel so bad I just want to
die. Let's see chapter 4, verse 6. Here's the third thing God did
for Jonah. The Lord God prepared a gourd and made it come up over
Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head to deliver him
from his grief." Oh, I'm so glad to read that. Here's a pouting,
peevish poppet, mad at God. And God raises up a gourd. Now,
again, obviously, it's not one of those gourds I can make a
martin box out of. This is a pomegranate, a great leaf. God prepared this
great leaf, raised it up overnight. going out and made him booze,
and God raised up a gourd and put it up over him. As we see the hand of God in
grace, children of God, let us see the hand of God in all the
daily comforts of our lives. Every good thing we enjoy, no
matter how great or small it may be, whether we are in our best behavior or in our worst
behavior, is distinctly prepared by God for his children. Everything. Everything. "'Tis
God that lifts our comforts high or sinks them to the grave. He
gives, and blessed be his name, he takes for what he Let me show
you a few things about this comfort, this gourd that God prepared
for Jonah. God sent this comfort to his
servant when he was totally undeserving of comfort. He's mad at God. He's mad at
God for being good. He's mad. And God sends a gourd
to his servant to comfort him. The comfort God gave, though
it was only a gourd, was exactly what Jonah needed at the time. He needed something over his
head. He didn't need a new suit of
clothes. He didn't need a new house. He didn't need somebody
to come along and pat him on the back and tell him what a
fine fellow he was. He needed something over his head. And God gave him exactly
what he needed. Will you hear me? Oh, Don Fortner,
hear yourself. Whatever God gives is exactly
what you need. Whatever it is. Here's the third thing. The Lord
sent this gourd to Jonah at exactly the time he needed it. He's never
in a hurry, and he's never slow. He never runs ahead of his purpose
and schedule, and he never runs behind. And fourthly, God's purpose
in sending the Lord was to comfort and protect his beloved servant
in a state of utter rebellion. I've got to move on. You can
work on that when you go home. And then God's purpose in all of this was perfectly
fulfilled. Look what the scripture says.
Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. Oh, God, thank you for that gourd.
Thank you for that gourd. Oh, that's the best thing I ever
saw in my life. Thank you for that gourd. But
all earthly comforts are just temporary, and we get far too attached to
them, far too quickly. Look at the next thing, verse
7. God prepared a worm, and it smoked the gourd that it died. As soon as the hand of God comforted he often smites with sorrow,
bereavement and loss. And it's the same hand from the
same God for the same reasons. Eli, God's going to kill your
two boys because they're rebels. It is the Lord let him do what
seemeth him good. Aaron, your boys have blasphemed
me before the people. And I'm going to kill them, and
don't you show any sympathy for them. Don't you let anybody see
you weep." God took everything from Job, and Job worshipped. Now, look at verse 8. Here's
the fifth thing. 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." You see, in our greatest trials,
they sometimes come one on the heels of another, in connection
with the most insignificant as nothing was more pleasing
to Jonah than this gourd. Nothing could have made him any
happier, nothing was more distressing than to have the gourd gone.
Here Jonah is in great distress and anger again, mad at God again
because of a worm and a gourd. And the trials often come, one
on the heels of another. God sends a worm, Jonah watches
that worm chew away at that gourd, and the gourd withers and dies,
and the sun rises as hot as it's ever been, and God raises up
an east wind and causes the heat to just blister Jonah. And our troubles sometimes as far as
we can see, because we can't see just that far. We just can't
see any further than that. The troubles God sends sometimes
seem to be utterly cruel. And those that are hardest to
bear, Rex, are the ones for which there is no apparent good purpose. I can picture him, because there's
a whole lot of Jonah in Don. He's sitting up there, he's watching
that gold wither, and now the sun rises and the wind blows,
and Jonah's looking at it, and wow! What's the use? What's the
purpose? This is horrible! But our trials really Never do
anything except reveal what's in us. And this is what Jonah had to
learn. God said, Jonah, are you doing real good right now to
be mad at me? Doest thou good to be angry?
And Jonah said, yes, sir. Yes, sir, I am. It's your bite.
I've got every reason to be mad. Now, let me show you something. Turn to 2 Kings, chapter 14. Why on earth did God do all this
to Jonah? He did all of this for his servant Jonah. He raised up the mighty storm. He raised up the great fish.
He raised up the gourd, he raised up the worm, he raised up the
east wind, so that he might prepare Jonah to be an instrument of
usefulness in his kingdom. Now let me read back here in
Jonah 4. You hold your heads, 2 Kings.
The Lord said, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for which
thou hast not labored. Neither madest it grow, which
came up in a night, and perished in a night. And should I not
spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than 120,000,
more than sixscore thousand persons, that cannot discern between their
right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle?" What God
did for Nineveh, he was also to do for Israel. and even more
undeserving people. And the prophet who would carry
the message to Israel in their most desperate rebellion, in
their most desperate need of mercy, is this man, Jonah. He restored the coast of Israel
from the entering in of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according
to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which he spake by the
hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet which
was of Japheth. For the Lord saw the affliction
of Israel, that it was very bitter, for there was not any shut up,
nor any left, nor any helper of Israel." You see, God taught
Jonah a lesson in mercy, and taught him to be merciful to
people who don't deserve it. And this man, knowing God's mercy
and being merciful, was used of God as an instrument for the
deliverance of many in his kingdom. in the time of great need for
his glory. Oh, if ever we learn to be merciful,
he might just use us. Now this little book of Jonah
portrays God's purpose to save his people by his righteous servant,
the Lord Jesus Christ, by his death, burial, his resurrection,
glory. It stands as a declaration of our unceasing responsibility
as believers to proclaim the gospel of his grace. But it ends with a question. And gentlemen, I never answered
the question. Not as far as we can tell here. We don't know
what he said or whether he said anything at all in response to
the question or not. The Lord said, you had pity on
the Lord, shouldn't I have pity on these men? Perhaps the book of Jonah ends
with this question so that we might be forced to answer it
for ourselves. Before I went to bed last night,
this is what I wrote down for me. You can listen in if you
will. Is it right for me ever to question
what God does? Is it right for me ever to be
angry with my God? Is it right that I should ever
prefer my own comfort, ease, and pleasure to the souls of
perishing men? Is it right for me to weep over
my withered, worthless while their mortal souls perish
without Christ. I leave it for you to answer
for yourself. My own heart is smitten, and I pray that God
will give me grace that I may be conformed to his Son, who
wept not like Jonah over a worthless gourd. a worthless, temporary
comfort in this worthless, temporary wilderness. He wept not for himself,
but rather for eternity bound sinners. Listen to this. When the Lord Jesus came near
the city, he beheld it and wept over it. If thou hadst known, even thou,
at least in this die they, the things which belong unto thy
peace. But now they are hid from thine
eyes. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets,
and stonest them which are sin unto thee, how often would I
have gathered thy children together as a hen gathereth her chickens
under her wings, and you would not."