Jonah chapter 4, and let's read
this chapter together. Jonah chapter 4, beginning in verse 1. Let's go
back to the last verse, the last two verses in chapter 3 and begin
there. Beginning in verse 8 of chapter
3, let's go all the way back up to chapter 8. This is what
the Ninevites said. when Jonah came preaching, 40
days and none of us shall be overthrown. The king sent out
this message, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth
and cry mightily unto God. Yea, let them turn every one
from his evil way and from the violence that is in their hands.
Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from
his fierce anger that we perish not? And God saw their works,
that they turned from their evil way, and God repented of the
evil that he said that he would do unto them, and did it not.
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. And he
prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not
this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Wherefore I fled
before unto Tarsus, for I knew that thou art a gracious God,
and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest
thee of the evil? Therefore now, O Lord, take I
beseech thee my life from me, for it is better for me to die
than to live.' Then said the Lord, Dost thou well to be angry?
So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the
city, and there made him a booth, a shade, a shelter. and set under
it in the shadow till he might see what would become of the
city. And the Lord God prepared a gourd and made it to come up
over Jonah that it might be a shelter, a shadow over his head to deliver
him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of
the gourd. But God prepared a worm when
the morning arose the next day and it smoked the gourd that
it withered. And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that
God prepared a behemoth east wind, and the sun beat upon the
head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die,
and said, It is better for me to die than to live. And God
said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And
he said, I do well to be angry even unto death. Then said the
Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for which thou hast not
laboured, neither madest it grow, which came up in a night, and
perished in a night. And should not I spare Nineveh,
that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons,
that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand,
and also much cattle? I hope that all of us have the
same desire. I want to know God, don't you?
I want to know God in Christ. He said, This is life eternal,
that they might know Thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ,
whom Thou hast sent. I want to know God. I want to
know Him as He revealed in His Son, Jesus Christ. And I want
to know Christ better. I want to know the Savior better.
I want to do what Peter instructed us to do, to grow in grace and
knowledge of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And the most any
of us, the most knowledge that we could ever attain of the triune
God is very minute. He just cannot be found out. Jonah here mentions some of these
attributes of God. And it's amazing. It's just amazing. No more than he mentions. I know,
he said, that thou art a gracious God. Now that's an attribute
of God. He's called the God of all grace. He does more than bestow grace
or give grace, but He is a God of grace. Grace is what makes
up a portion of who He is. He's the God of grace. And look
at this, and mercy. I know that thou art a gracious
God and merciful God. Martin Luther used to refer to
Him as mercy. He just called Him mercy. He's
merciful, but He said, Oh, mercy, mercy. He is that, isn't He?
That's just not His name. That's what He is. He's the Father
of mercy. And I know that thou," he said,
are slow to anger. Long-suffering is an attribute
of God. He's very, very patient. And He has been so tried, hasn't
He? And yet He's long-suffering. He's long-suffering. And He said,
of great kindness. He's kind. That's just a few
of the attributes of God that Jonah mentioned. I want to know
that, God, don't you? I want to know Him greater as
the Word of God reveals Him in these attributes. I've got an
interest in grace. I see my need of mercy. I know
that God must be and He has to be long-suffering to me and mine
and all around us. And I tell you, I love kindness,
don't you? And He's the God of kindness.
But something else Jonah found about Him About him too. And not only Jonah knew about
it, but here in the third chapter in verse 9 I read to you, this
is something that these Ninevites recognized. And they mentioned
this. And they mentioned this because they were keenly aware
of this. His fierce anger. His wrath. His just wrath. His holy wrath. That's an attribute
of God. Isn't that mysterious? If you
said about me, boy, our pastor's so kind. You know what my wife
would tell you? He's got more attributes than
that. You ought to see him lose his temper sometime. But God
is a God of wrath, isn't He? The wrath of God is revealed
from heaven. against all unrighteousness and
ungodliness of men who hold to truth and unrighteousness. And
these men of Nineveh experienced in their minds, in their hearts,
these attributes of God. They were threatened with His
wrath. They felt that, didn't they? This wasn't a mistake. They hadn't mistaken in their
mind that God was angry. He was angry, wasn't He? He was
angry. And then they were keenly aware
of His mercies. His grace and His kindness, and
I don't know how better to say it, turned away His wrath, His
anger. In the time of wrath, remember
mercy. And these Ninevites remembered
that. They had a sense of wrath being
removed by these savin' attributes of God. And you know, you come
over to the New Testament, and the Apostle Paul mentions these
same attributes, and he applies it to you and me. Before our
conversion, here's what he said in Titus chapter 3, we ourselves
were sometimes foolish. disobedient, deceived, serving
thyvers, lusts, and pleasures, but after that the kindness and love
of God our Savior towards man appeared, not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy. There we have kindness, there
we have mercy. And listen to this, that being
justified by grace. There's that third one that Jonah
mentioned. So it's not just the New Testament
Scripture of the way God saves, that's Old Testament Scripture
too. And these Ninevites experienced His kindness, His mercy, and
His grace, and His being slow to anger. There is in God a wrath
against sin. But there's something else in
God too. Thank God for this. And it's revealed in Jesus Christ
our Savior. And that is grace and mercy and
kindness and longsuffering. And this is the message of the
Gospel. Outside Jesus Christ we view
God in wrath upon our sins. We see nothing but the curse
of the law. and guilt, and death, and judgment. But in Christ there is grace
for the guilty, and mercy for the lost, and kindness for those
who are oppressed of the devil. And listen to this, the good
news of the gospel is even to those and for those who keenly
feel the anger of God towards their sins. They keenly feel
the anger of God towards their sin. We have a gospel for the
truly condemned and guilty. Don't we? That's what this passage
in Jonah teaches us. Brothers and sisters, I don't
have a gospel for the innocent. I don't have a gospel for those
who are already justified. We've got a gospel for the guilty.
We got a gospel for those who have a sense of God's anger against
their sins. We have a gospel for men who
can say, God has found me out. I am guilty before God. We got
a gospel for people like that. This is where Jonah found these
Ninevites. They had a true sense of where
they were under the fierce anger of God, and they repented, and
they sought the God of all grace and mercy, and they were saved. What an encouraging example for
the worst of sinners. It's right here in this Old Testament
story. Find the most evil man. Find
a man who has lived in violence and loved it. and tell him about
the judgment of God upon his sins, and then give him this
example about these people who said, let's seek Him for grace
and mercy. Maybe He'll turn from His fierce
anger and spare us and save us. And He did, didn't He? What a
beautiful example of the gospel that you and I can preach to
the lost today. Those Pharisees in the Lord's
day were too proud to use Nineveh for their example of need of
mercy. The Lord Jesus told this to them.
He said this, The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment against
you. They are going to stand in judgment
and they are going to condemn you fellows. Because they repented
at the preaching of Jonah. They turn from their sin. They
confess their sin. They obtain mercy. And a greater
than Jonah is here. If they repented at His message,
when He didn't even like the people, how much more should
you repent when I tell you? When I tell you. But you know
what they said? They said, why are you talking
about sin? We don't have any of that. None
of us have any problem with sin. He said, Your sin remains, didn't
it? Your sin remains. And those men of Nineveh that
was ready to perish in their own eyes, they found mercy and
they found grace. And while they're in heaven with
the Lord, you're going to be suffering in torment. What a
good example these men of Nineveh were to those in the Lord's day. This is the problem you and I
are having today. But our Lord Jesus had this problem
too. We can't find any Ninevites,
can we? You can't find any man that says,
Oh, I'm evil. I'm evil. I've been a violent
man. Everybody's pretty good folks
in our day, aren't they? Pretty good folks. You find any
sinners? You find any sinners? around
where you work and your neighbors? You'll find anybody that says
something like this, Oh, I've been an evil person. My heart's
evil. And God's found me out. I'm in
trouble. Can you help me? Yeah, we sure can, Lord. We can. We can. We can tell you about
a Savior who is full of grace and a God who can have mercy
upon the cheapest of sinners and save them. and save them. Let the wicked forsake his way,
let the unrighteous man forsake his thoughts, and let him return
unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Let him come to God by him, and
he will have mercy upon him, and he will abundantly pardon. We've got a glorious gospel,
don't we? I want to know God, don't you? I want to know Jesus
Christ. I want to know more about Him
and His attributes. You and I may have a clearer
view of the Savior in His humanity than Jonah had. But Jonah had
a very clear view of God's saving attributes in Christ. That there
was in God grace and mercy and long-suffering and kindness enough
to bring this great city, this evil, violent people to repentance
and save them. He knew that. He said, I knew
that while I was still in my country. I knew that. I knew that. I think if I believed
that more, I'd probably be out telling people about that more.
You know my problem is unbelief. My problem is unbelief. I've
got all kinds of knowledge. I read the Bible all the time.
I've read it for 43 years. My whole problem is this, believe
in it. That's my problem, is believe in it. Is that your problem? That's my problem. That's your
pastor's problem. Here in verse 1, Jonah being
exceedingly displeased and very angry, Now, we know this much
about Jonah, his being displeased and very angry. This is not the
anger of a rebel. This is not a God-hater. I don't
want to ever, if I've ever implied that in our study of the book
of Jonah, please forgive me, because this man is not a God-hater. The verse 2 says here, He prayed
unto the Lord his God. And here's how he prayed. Oh,
Lord! See the humility in that prayer?
Rebels and God-haters don't pray that way. This was a man of God
who besought the Lord in humility. God-haters don't seek the Lord
that way, do they? They just don't. Jonah was a
lover of the Lord. And he had this great view of
God. God-haters don't have a view
like this. I knew. that you're gracious and you're
merciful. You're slow to anger. I know
that you delight in mercy. I know that you're kind. I knew that you'd turn these
men of Nineveh. He was a man that knew something
about the Lord. He loved his God. He was a prophet
of God, wasn't he? He told them here in chapter
1 when they asked him who he was, he said, I'm a man that
fears God. I fear God. I reverence the God
of heaven. And even in his great afflictions
in chapter 2, when he was down in this whale's belly and the
rod of God was heavy upon him, he said, I looked again. I looked
again to the mercy of God and my Savior. And he lived, he said
there in the last portion of chapter 4, to render the sacrifice
of his lips, giving thanks unto God's name. And he was obedient
to God's will in going here to Nineveh and preaching the truth
to them. Jonah was a child of God. Don't
ever forget that. It's so important to remember
that. He was a child of God. And remember this. Remember this. Who was it telling this story?
It was Jonah, wasn't it? He was the one that was relating
the story. And he didn't hold back anything.
If you'd have been telling that story, would you have told everything
about yourself? That's what I like about the
Bible. Somebody said, it gives everything
to us, warts and all. It don't hide anything, does
it? John O. was a child of God. A child of
God. And yet he was angry. And yet
he was displeased. And I'm not saying his anger
was justified. It wasn't justified. But I am
saying this, I can understand it, because God had crossed him. God had crossed this man. God's
plans and desires and will had crossed Jonah's plans and Jonah's
desire and Jonah's will. And listen, Jonah's desires weren't
always bad. You say, well, God crossed him
because his desires were bad, his motives were bad. Well, he
wanted his people to be saved. He wanted Israel to be saved.
That's not bad, is it? Paul still wanted that in his
day. He didn't want to be thought
of as a false prophet. Would you like to be thought
of as a false prophet? I wouldn't either. Lord, if you
don't destroy these people, I go back to Israel, They're going
to laugh at me and mock me. They'll never count me as your
prophet." I could see why he'd be concerned about that. If things
had turned out like Jonah wanted them to, he would have had a
powerful witness, would he not, against sin? Boy, he could have
went back and he'd have said, listen, you've heard about Nineveh.
I was the one that predicted that. You better be careful. You better be careful with your
sin. You better humble yourself and seek the Lord. I may pronounce
doom upon you next." That would have been a powerful witness,
wouldn't it? We don't need to look upon Jonah
as an evil rebel with bad motives, even though his anger was sinful. He was a child of God who had
his own plans and wishes crossed by God. who had his own plans
and his own purposes. Have you ever been there? Have you ever had your plans
and wishes crossed because it didn't correspond and run parallel
with God's? Has God ever made you to know
that your thoughts are not His thoughts? And your ways are not
His ways? And right in your face He has
frustrated your thoughts and your ways to accomplish His own
good pleasure? That's what happened to this
man. I often quote to you Proverbs 19 and 21, but sometimes I just
quote it and don't explain very much about it. And here's what
it says. There are many devices in a man's
heart. Nevertheless, the counsel of
the Lord, that shall stand. And we can apply this to a child
of God. Sometimes our purposes are good. It's for God's glory and the
good of those around us. But here's the problem. They're
not God's purpose. They're not God's counsel. And
so what happens? Frustration arises. Does it not? It does. But we say if it's good,
then why does God frustrate my purposes? If my purposes is for
His glory, why does He burn them in ashes before my feet? Because it's not His counsel.
It's not His counsel. Will Jonah dictate to the Almighty? Will he instruct the all-wise
God? Are his devices better than the
counsel of the Lord? Jonah gets angry because he thinks
so. He thinks so. But before we judge
him too harshly, have you ever been there? The Lord's got a way of crossing
us, hasn't He? And it's because He's so eternally
different than we are. Naturally, brothers and sisters,
our plans and our wishes are not going to always be His. And
when they cross, it's where frustration comes in. Have you ever prayed
for wisdom and you got so darkened in your understanding? Have you
ever prayed for health only to get sick? Have you ever prayed
to be filled more with the love of Christ and then grow cold?
Have you ever prayed, Lord, let me bear fruit only to experience
a winter time in your soul? Have you ever prayed for unity
and love in the congregation only to see divisions come? Why
is this? We can humbly pray. Humbly praying for these things
is one thing, but trying to dictate to Him to give them, that's quite
another, isn't it? And sometimes our prayers aren't
humble at all. It's more of a dictation what
we ask Him to do or tell Him to do. Jonas said, Was not this
my saying when I was in my own country? Yeah. But it didn't make it right then
and it don't make it right now. Jonah, you're wrong. You're wrong. Jonah was saying, I've got a
good plan here. My purposes are honoring to God
and good for man. I know just how this ought to
turn out. That's what he was saying. And
that's why he got so frustrated when he didn't turn out his way.
There are many devices in a man's heart. And though sometimes they're
good and honorable, they're not the counsels of the Lord. And
who's going to stand? Is it our devices or His counsel?
Because sometimes they come into conflict. And one of them has
got to win out. Listen to this. When it comes
to our serving the Lord, it's not at all about us. It's not about our plans, our
wishes, our happiness. It's not about me and my four
and no more. It's not about what people may
think or perceive. It's all about God's will and
God's pleasure and His own purposes and His own end. And it's only
when we come to this gracious resolve and conclusion that we
can say we are unprofitable servants. We have done only that which
was our duty to do. Thy will be done. And mean it
in our hearts. Jonah hadn't got there, had he?
If he'd got there, he fell from it. The Lord Jesus was talking about
this very thing in Luke chapter 17. You can read it at your leisure
sometime. This is what He said. He was talking about serving
Him. About the attitude of His servant. And here's what He said,
Which of you, having a servant plowing out in the field, or
feeding his cattle, will say to him by and by, when he comes
in from the field, Go and set down to meet, and I'll serve
you. Is that what the Master says?
No. The Lord Jesus said this, ìThe
Master will rather say to him, ìMake ready wherewith I may sit,
and gird yourself, and serve me till I have eaten and drunken,
then afterwards you shall eat and drink.î Doth he thank that
servant because he did the things that was commanded him? No. So likewise you, when you have
done all the things that are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable
servants. We have did only that which was
our duty." That's true service. That's true service. The servant
seeking above himself the will of his master, always, to please
his master. That's true service, isn't it?
And then when we've done it, we don't complain because the
outcome was not what pleased us. When we've done everything
that He's commanded us to do, and what grace that'll take,
then we say, I'm unprofitable. I'm unprofitable. I've only done
what the Lord commanded me to do. Jonah did what the Lord commanded
him to do too, didn't he? But he didn't like the outcome.
He didn't like the result. And that's the problem he was
having with this anger. It's not about us. It's about
what pleases our Lord and our Savior. And our greatest joy
should be to know that we have served Him well. We have served
Him well. and have no anxious thoughts
about ourselves. That's true service. That's what
makes us happy. If anything will make a happy
servant, it's just serving the Master unselfishly. I remember Brother Walter Gruber,
one of our missionaries down in Yucatan, He was down there
for years and it was rough. I'd heard some of the stories
and trials he was going through. And somebody asked him one day,
he said, Walter, are you happy down in Mexico? And he said,
what has happiness got to do with it? What has happiness got
to do with it? He said, it's my God's will that
I be there. You let us come to that resolve,
that will make us happy. Jonah was not a happy man because
he could not come to this resolve. The result belongs to Him. All the glory and the honor and
the purposes and the counsels are His. And if He crosses me,
that's fine. It's not always easy though,
is it? I mean, I can sympathize with this man. I've never went
through what he went through. I've never walked in his shoes
and you ain't either. I'd probably act a lot worse than he did.
I have trouble with just what little job I got. I'm going to tell on myself here
now. Sometime when it's my and Joe's turn to clean the building,
if I run into a place where somebody's wadded up a lot of tissue and
left it, what are they doing? What are they doing? Whoever cleaned last time didn't
get the commodes very well, that's for sure. Man, what a messy kitchen. You never did feel that, did
you? And you teachers, bless your
hearts. How many is in your class when
you teach? Wonder don't have very many when the children are
here. I mean, you study. You get your lesson. I study
in my message. But I tell you, let a few people
miss. Have one or two in your Sunday school class. Do you complain
about that? Well, I've studied, Lord, I've
sought Your will. Yeah, but the outcome I'm not
pleased with, Lord. Ain't that the way we are? I tell you, we need to walk in
this man's shoes before we blame him too much, don't we? I have
trouble with it too, brothers and sisters. I have trouble when
I've studied and when I've preached and I don't see any fruit. You have trouble when you teach.
You see no fruit. When you work and you go and
you do and you don't see any fruit, you begin to have trouble
with that, don't you? You could produce a better outcome,
couldn't you? You could imagine a better end
than God can. Then after a while, if you're not
careful, you become just a little bit angry, don't you? A little
bit displeased because He's crossing you. And instead of saying, I've
just done my duty. Bless God that He's let me serve
Him. We get down in the mouth like
this man did. Our happiness should be knowing
God's will and doing it. And doing it. Think of this, and I mentioned
this just a minute ago. Think of the vast difference
between us and our Lord. How difficult it is, I say this
reverently, I don't know if that's the right word to say or not,
from our perspective anyway, how difficult it is for us to
be taught these valuable lessons about true service to our God. Seeking His glory and submitting
to His will and His ways and counsel. Think of how He must
love us. Think of how patient He is with
us. How determined He is to confirm
us to His will. Think of what a skilled and patient
potter our Lord is. God put Jonah in a storm. You
notice sometimes about all the things that the Lord was doing.
Look how He was working. Just to confirm this one man
to His will. He sent out this storm. Some
people say, oh, the devil sent out a storm. The Lord sent that
storm out. He's doing all of this. He sent
out a storm. He put Jonah in the sea. Prepared
a fish to swallow him. Prepared a gourd to give him
shade. Prepared a worm to eat the gourd. Then prepared a weak
east wind to burn him to the point where he fainted. Look
how the Lord was working all of this work just to conform
one man to His will. Isn't that amazing? The next
time He's conforming you and it's hurting, remember that. Look at all the time that He's
spending with you. Ain't that amazing? And it comes down to this, one
of the last paragraphs here we read in chapter 4, and we still
don't know if this was settled in. Was it all settled? It seems like He stops there,
doesn't He? There should be one more chapter where all of this
was straightened out, but He just stops. And you and I look
at the book of Jonah, and we can look at it objectively, can't
we? And what do we say when we look
at Jonah? How petty. How childish. Don't we say that about him? You're worried about this. You're
angry about this. Look at yourself. That's what
we say about Jonah. You're struggling with your own
unhappiness, man. And you're struggling against
the very thing that would make you happy. Jonah, what's the
matter with you? But think of this, brothers and
sisters, when it comes to writing the last paragraph of your life, and somebody comes to you in
your dying days, and they're looking at you objectively. Are they going to say the same
thing to us? Why are you even thinking that
way now when you're dying? Why are you making an issue out
of this when you're facing eternity? What's the matter with you, man?
Why are you concerned about this or that when you're ready to
leave this life? Bruce, you're so petty. You're
so childish. When you and I come down to write
the last paragraph of our life, will we be perfectly conformed
to His will? Will we be contented in everything
if we know it's His will? We may go off the stage the same
way this man did, with his same attitude. Don't
you thank the Lord for His patience and His love? And now He's just
not going to give up until He has conformed us to the very
image of His Son. And here is the image of His
Son. Father, not My will, but Thine be done. If we can reach
that place in our hearts here, that is the greatest we can know
about being conformed to the image of Christ. Until at last,
our souls and bodies will be conformed to the image of God's
Son. And think of this, lastly, sometimes
it's only these fiery trials that brings us from ourself and
our secret pride and conforms us to His likeness and His will. Man, I can't imagine, I can't
imagine as I think upon what this prophet had gone through,
this was, wasn't this something else? What this man went through,
a storm, they thought he was going to perish. They threw everything
overboard. And that was just the start of
it. Can you imagine when they took him up in their arms and
he looked out over that stormy sea? And they plunged him down
in the water? And he couldn't get his breath?
And suddenly a big mouth opened up and down in the belly of that
fish he went, all the way down to the bottom of the mountain.
He finally spits him out. He gets over there and does the
Lord's will. And he goes up and he's just sick in his soul about
everything. And this gourd grows up. And
he said, Oh man, thank you Lord. This is wonderful. And this sorry
worm comes up and chops it off. And there it is. Well, I can
take it for a while longer I guess. You know, it's a pretty nice
day. A little bit chilly this morning. Oh, it feels good right
now. Then here comes this blistering east wind. And he begins to sweat
and dehydrate and he just falls over and faints. And he says,
let me die. Let me die. But listen. It's this way. The Lord takes
with His children to conform us to His image. Christ suffered
for us. Leave it us, man, example. And we are going to suffer. And
the most that we suffer are these conflicts in our souls. I've been in plenty of those
storms, haven't you? I felt the pressure of that and the hot
heat from those storms. Old John Newton, I think, said
it very well in one of his poems, in one of his hymns. You've probably
heard it many times. But listen to this, I think it
tells us something about where Jonah was. Newton said, I asked the Lord
that I might grow in faith and love and every grace. Well, that's a good request,
isn't it? Might know more, might more of His salvation know, and
seek more earnestly His face. T'was He that taught me thus
to pray, and He, I trust, has answered prayer. But He has done
it in such a way that almost drove me to despair. I hoped
that in some favored hour at once He would answer my request,
and by His love's constraining power subdue my sins and give
me rest. That's what I hoped He would
do. That's what I imagined He would do. That's what I'd have
done. But instead, instead of this,
He made me feel the hidden evils of my heart and let the angry
powers of hell assault my soul in every part. Yea, more! With His own hand, He sings,
intent to aggravate my woes. crossed all the fire designs
and schemes I had, blasted my gourd, and laid me low. Lord,
why is this? I trembled and cried. Will thou
pursue thy worm to death? Tis in this way, the Lord replied. I answer prayer for grace and
faith. These inward trials I employ
from self and pride to set thee free, and break thy schemes of
earthly joy, that thou mayest find your all in me." Sometimes it's these fiery trials
that brings us out of ourselves and brings us to Him. Lest us
see that in ourselves we have nothing. Though we scheme these
designs, thinking that if we can just have our way and work
out our own ends, we'll surely be happy. And if God lets us
do that, we won't be happy at all. Our true happiness lies
in this, His will, Him, His self. And that's what He taught this
prophet, and that's what I trust what He will be teaching us all
of our life long. Let us pray.