The book of Jonah, chapter 3. A small book. If you want to
go in the front of your Bibles to look through the index, that's
fine. We have a few Bibles. It's on
page 1,003. The book of Jonah, chapter 3. And I want to read that chapter
and the first two verses of chapter 4. This is where we've come to
in our study of the book of Jonah. And the word of the Lord came
unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that
great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.
So Jonah arose and went unto Nineveh according to the word
of the Lord. Now Nineveh was not an exceeding
great city of three days' journey. Jonah began to enter into the
city a day's journey, and he cried and said, Yet forty days,
and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed
God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest
of them even to the least of them. For word came unto the
king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, And he laid
aside his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and
set in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed
and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and
his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock,
taste anything. Let them not feed nor drink water. 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 had 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, 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 the evil. I want us to see three simple
things here this afternoon. Maybe this will be something
we can all follow. I want to see first of all what
we're told here in verse 5, that when they heard this message,
they believed God. I want to look this afternoon
not so much upon repentance, but what was behind their repentance. The Lord Jesus Himself said the
Ninevites repented at the preaching of Jonah. I want to look at that
for a few minutes. And then in verse 10, I want
to look at God's reaction to their repentance. And then thirdly
and lastly, I want to look at Jonah's reaction. So that'll
keep us busy for just a few minutes. First of all, we're told here
that they repented and were told why they repented. In verse 5
it said, So the people of Nineveh believed God. And then we're
told of the reaction. They proclaimed a fast. And then
in verse 8 and 9 that they sat in sackcloth and they sat in
ashes and they turned every man from his evil way and the violence
that was in their hands. So it's obviously that they repented,
but it's obvious here also is what was behind their repentance.
And it's said they believed God. They believed God. It's been
said that faith and repentance go hand in hand. They've been
described as twin brothers. born in the heart at the same
time. And that's true. The Apostle Paul said that he
preached repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And in the Scriptures you will
almost always see repentance referred to first. Repent and
believe the Gospel. But maybe the book of Jonah is
going to enlighten us really that they do both go together.
And repentance without faith is nothing but legalism. It's nothing but self-righteousness.
And faith without repentance is a vain faith. They do surely
go hand in hand and we're told here in this verse that they
repented because they believed God. It may prove to us that
there's no true repentance apart from first believing God. You and I try to explain faith
sometimes, and we mess the definition of faith up. We think people
need to understand what is faith? How can I be sure I believe?
I believe. You know what faith is. When
you come right down to the greedy and idiot, he tells us here what
faith is. They believed God. Isn't that
simple? You come to the Word and it clears
up all our thinking, all our commentary. What is faith? It's believing what God said. Jonah said, 40 days and Nineveh
shall be overthrown, and they believed God. And all the reaction,
everything they did, flowed from this, didn't it? They first believed
God. Nineveh believed God concerning
His threatening. And what happened here is when
they believed God, it wrought this great fear in their heart. And it was out of this that they
humbled themselves and turned from their evil ways, the violence
that were in their hand, and sought for mercy. Faith works
by fear. Now, we'll get to that in a few
minutes, but I want to show you a couple of more things before
we get to that that say it of how faith works. Faith works
by something or faith works through something. Faith works by love. I want you to hold on to chapter
3 there just for a minute. Look over in Galatians. The epistle
of Paul to the Galatians in chapter 5. And Paul is going to tell
us something here about faith and how it works. Look over in
Galatians chapter 5 and look in verse 6. These Galatians were beginning
to turn back to the ceremonial law and one of the things they
wanted to do was to be circumcised. They thought that would add something
to their righteousness before God and their acceptance. And
look here what He tells them in verse 6. Chapter 5 and verse
6. For in Jesus Christ, Neither
circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision." Being circumcised
never changed a man's heart, did it? Being circumcised never
changed a man's disposition. It never brought him from hating
the things that's wrong and loving the things that's right. Circumcision
is outward in the flesh. It never affected the heart.
It didn't profit a man to be circumcised, it didn't profit
him to be uncircumcised. But look at this, but faith which
worketh by love. Faith works through love. As soon as we believe in Jesus
Christ to the Saviour of our soul, love is mixed with everything
we do. Faith works through love. The whole gospel scheme is one
that flows from love. It grows from love on God's part,
doesn't it? God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friend. The love
of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. The
love of the Father in giving His Son. The love of the Son
in giving Himself. And now the Holy Spirit sheds
abroad that love in our heart. And as soon as that happens,
you know what will happen with us? We love. As soon as He gives
us grace to believe, we love. We love God. We love the Son
of God. We love His gospel. We love His
ways. We love His people. Faith works
through love. It works by love. Here's what
John said, If a man say, I love God and hate his brother, he's
a liar. For he that does not love his
brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath
not seen? And this is his commandment that we have from him, that he
who loves God loves his brother also. And then the very next
verse, here's what he said. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ, is born of God, and every one that loveth him
that begate, loveth him also that is begotten of When we believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior of our souls, faith works
through love. It works through love. Secondly,
faith works through grief. It works through sorrow. Let
me show you that over in Zechariah, back over in the Old Testament.
Look back over in Zechariah chapter 12 and verse 10. It's close to the New Testament.
Got next to Malachi chapter 12 and verse 10. Faith works through
grief and by grief and sorrow of heart. You see the context
of chapter 12 in verse 13 or chapter 13 verse 1. And that
day there shall be a fountain open to the house of David and
to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness. The context of this verse I'm
going to read to you is the cross. Christ lifted up. And look what
He says in verse 10. Chapter 12 and look in verse
10. And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and supplication,
and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced. And they shall
mourn for him as one that mourneth for his son, and shall be in
bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn."
When they look upon Christ, when they believe upon Christ and
Him crucified, what do they do? I tell you, a man cannot believe
on Christ or the Savior in himself. He cannot look to Him by the
eye of faith, and yet remember his sin, his known sin, without
being filled with sorrow of heart. I think one of the things in
a Christian anyway, in a believer, that works true repentance is
not the fear of hell. It's not the fear of so much
God's punishment or even His chastisement. You know one of
the things that works sorrow in your heart for your sin more
than anything else? When you see Christ. When you
see Him suffering. We're going to come here just
a few minutes to partake of the Lord's table. And when you and
I get that little piece of broken bread, you know what we say? This is His body. It's broken. Why is it broken? Why was his
body broken? When we take that little cup
of wine and drink it, that's his blood. But not just his blood,
he shed blood. Why did he shed his blood? And
here's what you and I'll come back to, and here's what fills
our hearts with sadness over our sin, and mourning as well
as joy, our sin. Our sin. That's why he hung there. When I look upon Him bleeding
and groaning in darkness under the wrath of heaven, I tell you
there is a sense in which my heart is broken because of my
sin. T'was you my sins, my cruel sins,
His chief tormentors were. My crimes became the nails and
unbelief the spear. Wouldn't you get a good look
at Him? I remember little Ramey. came to me one day, a year and
a half or so ago, and he said, I need to talk with you. And
I said, what's going on, buddy? He said, well, I believe the
Lord has saved me. I said, well, tell me about it.
And he said, well, I went home one day and I was laying there
on the couch and I was thinking about the cross, Christ and Him
crucified. And he said, my sins became so
dark and so sinful. And he said, I began to cry unto
the Lord to save me and be merciful to me. And he said, I think he
has. Where did he see his sin? How awful they are! When he looked
to Christ upon the cross. Boy, there is where we see sin.
It must be awful. If it cost the Son of God His
body to be broken and His blood poured out. Faith works. by sorrow. It works by grief,
looking unto the Lord Jesus Christ. And here in the book of Jonah,
turn back over to the book of Jonah again, just on to your
left there, just a little bit. Faith works by fear, by reverence
of God and His Word and His judgment. Jonah came to them and he said,
40 days and none of us shall be overthrown, and they believed
God and What did that stir up in their hearts? A holy reverence,
didn't it? A reverence for God and His judgment,
His Word. We hear so much today about God,
that's love, and I bless Him for that. We'll never get over
that, will we? The God of mercy, we need to
hear so much about that. But you know, that's not all
God is. He's a God of judgment. He is a God of judgment. And
none of them believed that and trembled. And they repented of
the evil that was in their hands, and they turned from the violence
and they cried, Mercy! Give us mercy! Show us mercy! And the Lord said Himself, To
this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite
spirit, and he trembles at My Word. the fear of God, the fear
of His judgment. Sometimes we tremble for His
love and mercy and for His salvation. We serve the Lord with fear and
rejoice with trembling, and sometimes we tremble because of God's judgments. He's a holy God, isn't He? What
would you have done and how would you have felt if you'd have been
sitting in Lot's living room When those angels came that night
and said, up, get out of this place. The Lord's going to destroy
this city. Flee for your lives. Don't look
behind you. Flee for your lives. The Lord's
going to destroy this place. How would you have felt if you'd
have been there? I'll tell you how you'd have felt if you'd
have believed God. But you'd have got out of that place, wouldn't
you? You'd have got out of that place. How would you have felt
if you had been standing next to Corey, there in the Old Testament,
rebellious Corey that tried to overthrow Moses and Aaron and
the priesthood? How would you have felt with
him if you were standing there by him and his little clan of
rebels and Moses said, Get away from this man because God is
going to make some new thing. The Lord is going to open up
the earth and let it swallow him and all his rebellious companions. What would you have done if you
had been there? I'll tell you what you'd have done if you'd
have believed God. You'd have done just what they did. Boy,
when they heard that cracking, they began to scream and they
fled lest they should be consumed in their rebellion and their
sin. You know what makes the difference? They believed God.
It's believing God. That's what makes the difference.
God came to Noah, and He said, Noah, I saw the wickedness of
man in this earth, that it is great, and every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continued. And this
is what He said, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth,
and destroy all flesh, and everything wherein is the breath of life. And you know what the Bible said
Noah did? By faith. Noah being warned of God, as
things not seen yet moved with fear. See how faith works? It
believes God. These Ninevites believed God,
that He was a God of His Word, that He had threatened judgment
because of their sin. They believed Him, and when they
believed Him, boy, there's this holy reverence for God. And they
trembled, and they turned from their evil ways. and the violence
that was in their hands. By faith, nor being warned of
God. What does that mean? Nor believe
what God said. That's it, ain't it? That's it. Nor believe what God said. I tell you, brothers and sisters,
it's a wonderful thing when men's hearts are driven from trusting
in their feelings. Trusting in carnal reasonings
and arguments and complacency. And they come to believe God's
Word. That's it, isn't it? How do we determine if we've
got faith or not? I feel like it. When I feel good,
I've got it. When I feel bad, I don't. Isn't
that silly? And we argue about this and that
and complain. You know how we know that we
have faith? When we believe God. When we believe His Word, that's
faith. That's faith. And boy, when we
just come, all we've got, all we've got is God's Word to go
by. Oh, I thank God for that, don't
you? I thank Him when He strips me of every feeling I've got.
And all He leaves me is nothing but His written Word as the foundation
for my faith. I love it when it's like that.
That's what drives me to the Word. That's what gives me confidence
and strength. His Word. I believe it because
He said it. Oh, you've got some of these
people today and they look at the church and they say, Boy,
these evolutionists have turned you guys upside down, ain't they?
They give you guys a bunch of stuff to think about, haven't
they? They've made you go back and read your Bibles and you,
haven't they? Yeah. They've made me go back and read
my Bible and it just confirmed what I believe all along, in
six days. God created the heavens and the
earth and the sea and all that in it is. How do you know that? I believe God. Through faith
we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God. But Bruce, how can you be sure
of all this? Look at all of this stuff. You're
telling me in six days? How can you be sure? How can
they be sure that judgment was coming in 40 days? They believe
God. They believe God. That's it. When you believe God, it all
clears up, doesn't it? It all clears up when you believe Him. Some have wanted to start a debate
on how the earth is going to be destroyed. They're wanting
to get into that so bad. They've wrote books about it.
Will it be a nuclear holocaust? Will some asteroid come and destroy
the earth? Is that how it's going to be
destroyed? Such debates is wasteless. It's useless, brothers and sisters.
When we believe this, that the day of the Lord will come as
a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass
away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat, and the works that are therein shall be burned up,
that clears everything up. We want little details, don't
we? The Lord is coming. The Lord is coming. I believe
it, don't you? The inhabitants of this earth
is going to be punished because of their sin. The world is going
to be burned up and there's going to be a new heaven and a new
earth. Bruce, give me some details. I can't. He don't give me the
details. He just said it's going to happen.
And I say I believe Him. Forty days and Nineveh is going
to be overthrown. How is that going to happen,
John? You mean an army is coming? Is a plague coming? I don't know. But I know this. Forty days and Nineveh is going
to be overthrown. I believe it. God have mercy on this sinner.
God have mercy on this sinner. I believe God. What He's given
us in His Word is enough, isn't it? And I tell you, when we believe
Him, I tell you what it'll do. It'll create something in our
hearts. And here's what it'll create,
a hatred of sin, a fear of sin, a reverence for God, a need of
Christ. We believe in God. We believe
in God. This world don't believe judgment
is coming because they don't believe God is a God of judgment.
This world don't believe judgment is coming because they don't
believe it ever came upon this world. The world's never believed
there's a flood. This world don't believe that
God destroyed Solomon and Gomorrah. They do not believe that. They
don't believe God's Word. If they did, what would they
do? Just what this people did. The world is full of unbelievers.
Oh, I believe. No, you don't believe. When a
man believes, it creates a reaction. just like it did this ungodly
city. The world won't forsake their evil way and the violence
of their hands because they don't believe God is holy and will
punish sin. Now that's a fact. That's a fact. The world hears about the Son
of God dying on a cross outside the city of Jerusalem, but they
won't seek salvation by that cross because they don't believe
it. They don't believe it. People
of Nineveh believed God, and they moved with fear, and humbled
themselves, and proclaimed a fast, and forsook their sins, and cried
mightily to God. Second thing, let's look at this,
God's reaction. in verse 10, look at this, And
God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, and
God repented of the evil that He did, that He said that He
would do unto them, and did it not. What does this mean, God
repented? Does that mean He had sinned?
That's ridiculous, we know it don't mean that, God can't sin.
He's not a man that He should lie, or the Son of Man that He
should repent. It simply means what it said
here in verse 9, that he turned away from his fierce anger. My little reference in my Bible,
my little reference says he relented. He simply relented. He turned
from his threatenance and wrath and did it not. Now this brings us to something
else though, doesn't it? Brings us to something else. If he said,
that He was going to absolutely destroy them in forty days, and
then didn't, what does that tell us about God? Well, He never
told them He was going to absolutely destroy them, did He? There was
something in there that wasn't revealed to them, but known only
to God. There wasn't an except in there,
was there? In God's heart there wasn't an
except. Jonah had suspicion of it because
he said, I thought this was what you were going to do. And you
know something? None of us hoped there wasn't
an acceptance. See, we can't read God's mind,
can we? We can read His Word the best
we can, but unless He says something absolutely, and we know that
He has decreed something, then we have to be careful. He may
be threatening somebody waiting for their repentance. Something else is said here in
verse 10. God saw their works and then
God repented of the evil that He said He would do. Ain't it
amazing that we read something like this? God condescending
as He did here to teach us something to help us and then The minds
of ignorant men will attribute something to Him that's almost
profane. Some men will read this verse,
then God saw their works, and they read it like this, and they
read this into that. God didn't know what they were
going to do until they did it. Now, you don't believe somebody
can read that in there. I had a man to tell me that God did
not know who was going to be saved until they got to heaven.
He said it like this, God don't want to know who's going to be
saved until they get to heaven. What kind of God is that, brothers
and sisters? Is He a God that don't know things? If He tells
you He don't know a certain thing, make sure you've got chapter
and verse. But in otherwise, He knows everything,
don't He? Or some people would say this,
since God was waiting to see, God is never the cause, He only
reacts to things. It makes God to be man and man
God. It makes man the master to be
waiting on God to serve Him. It makes man the master to be
waited on, and the master the servant to wait. It's like saying God never knew
the old world would become so wicked. Did He know that? Did He know that? It's like saying
God never knew Joseph's brother would sell him down into slavery.
It's like saying God never knew the Jews would reject Christ
when He came. Why does God say this? Why did He say this like He was
waiting when God saw their works? He never forgave them. He never
turned from His threatening until He saw it. That's obvious, isn't
it? He condescends to us to help us to understand Him that we may know about Him. You
know, if He didn't condescend to us in language, our language,
sometimes the way we speak to each other, we couldn't understand
God. Angels couldn't even understand
Him. If He exalted Himself and spoke in His language, nobody
could come near Him. If we're going to know Him, what
He's like and how He works, then we've got to listen to what He
says. God is not a God that is a fore-off. His language is not foreign to
us. He speaks in such a way that
you and I can understand what He is saying. Let me say it like
this. Do you want to be saved from
your sins tonight? Do you want mercy from God? Do
you want that eternal life that is in the Lord Jesus Christ?
Do you want Him to look upon you with the eyes of pity and
spare you? Then let Him hear your voice. Let Him see your turning unto
Him. Don't that make sense? If you and I, when we used to
be little tots and we'd get in trouble with our parents, what did we do? Did we just stick
out our chest and walk up to Dad and say, I don't care, boy?
No, we didn't do it. What did we do? Bud, we humbled
ourselves, didn't we? Why? I want my dad to know that
he scared me to death. I don't want him to take off
the belt to me. I want him to take me in his arms and love
me, not beat me. When you're going down the highway
and you're running 75 into 55 and the state trooper pulls up
behind you, what do you do? Jump out of your car and start
bawling him out? No, you don't, do you? You want him to see,
man, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, man, I ain't got a
word of defense. I'm sorry, officer, forgive me.
It's the same way with God, is it not? He knows all of these
things. It's Him that's working. But
He condescends to teach us and to help us. You want mercy? Then
let Him see it. You want Him to save you? Then
let Him hear your cry. Lord, save me, I perish. That's
what He's teaching us. And then when he hears it, he'll
probably answer it. And when he sees you're turning
from sin to him, he'll see it with his eyes of pity, and he'll
have mercy upon you. That's what this means, isn't
it? Isn't it something, and I'll say this with all reverence,
but isn't it something that, I don't know how else to say
it, but God risked being misunderstood by infidels and ignorant minds
He risks that to teach you and to teach me. Let me see you. Let me hear you. I will see you. I will hear you. That's what He says. This God
saw their works. John's reaction. Chapter 4 and
verse 1. Ain't this amazing? But it displeased
Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry when the Lord had
mercy upon him. You know what? I think all of
Jonah's problem goes back to chapter 2 and verse 9. He made
this statement there in chapter 2 and verse 9. Salvation is of
the Lord. He made that statement concerning
himself. And what he was saying, if I
ever get out of this whale's belly, the Lord's going to have
to deliver me. If He don't deliver me, I'm going
to perish right where I'm at. If I get out of here, Lord, it's
Your doings. Salvation, deliverance is of
the Lord. Here's the problem that Jonah
was having right now. Salvation is of the Lord in saving
these Ninevites. That's the trouble he's having
now. Look at it this way. I want you to turn over your
whole Jonah and turn over to 2 Kings chapter 14. Here's the
trouble that Jonah was having. 2 Kings chapter 14. In verse 23. Jonah's own people, his own country
was in a terrible fix. They were in a state of misery.
and they were unrepentant themselves. Look at the fix they were in.
This is the only place it tells us about Jonah and the condition
of his country. In verse 23, In the fifteenth
year of Amaziah the son of Joas, king of Judah, Jeroboam the son
of Joash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria and reigned
41 years. And look at this, this Jeroboam.
And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. He
departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nabat. Man, he is a wicked man who made
Israel to sin. Israel was the northern kingdom
and they had some wicked kings. In verse 25, He restored the
coast of Israel from the inner end 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 Amatea the
prophet, which was of Gethsemane. For the Lord saw the affliction
of Israel, that it was very bitter. There was not any shut up, nor
any left, nor any helper for Israel." They were in an awful,
awful predicament. Misery of sin and rebellion against
God. And here's Jonah's problem. He
was saying this. He said, I've made a prediction
that Nineveh is going to be destroyed in 40 days. If this prediction
comes true, then I can go back to my own rebellious people and
preach repentance to them and say, look what happened to Nineveh.
And if you don't repent, God may destroy you. And I can say
that with authority and maybe it will have some effect upon
them. But if I go back and God hasn't destroyed this city, I'll
be a laughing stock among my own people. That was one of the
problems. Can you relate to that? I can
relate to that. Look at it this way. Jonah had
another problem. There was this matter of prejudice. He was saying, I don't want the
Lord to save the Ninevites because they're not like me. They're
not like Israel. They're different. They're a
different nationality. They've done great things to
me and mine in the past. And they've hurt my people and
they've offended me. They're friends of my enemies.
I don't want the Lord to save them. Now that's another one
of His problems. This place had invaded Israel
before. I gave you some history about
the Ninevites. They're the Isis of their day. They invaded cities and cut their
heads off. Hung them on poles, just like ISIS did. They had
done that to northern Israel before. And he was saying, You're
my enemy. I don't like you. You're a sorry
bunch of low-down people. You're enemies of my friends.
I don't want God to save you. I hope He destroys you. Now,
before we get too quick about condemning him, we better set
checker on hearts, haven't we? Is there anybody that you know
of that you wouldn't be too crazy about praying the Lord save them?
If you prayed for them, it would almost be a lip service. You
can't pray for them in your heart. You got anybody like that? I
mean, boy, they've just hurt you so bad. They've done some
bad things to you, bad things to your family, and you have
difficulty praying for them. You got anybody like that? Peter
had some people like that, didn't he? He had some people like that. The Lord told him to go down
and preach to Cornelius, the Gentiles. And he had to convince
him to go, didn't he? And he went down there and was
preaching to them, and the Holy Spirit fell on them, and the
Lord saved them. And Peter said, I've got a problem. He was amazed,
but he said, I've got a problem. I've got to go back up now and
face the other apostles and the disciples of Jerusalem. That's
what he did. And he rehearsed it in himself
and got it all down together. And when they met him, the first
thing they said, You went into men uncircumcised? And you ate with them? And you
preached to them? And here is what they heard.
Now get this. Here is what they heard. And
they still resented it. They heard up in Jerusalem that
the Gentiles had received the Word of God. And they got mad. They got upset. And they said,
as soon as Peter gets here, we're going to straighten this out.
Why did you go down there and preach to them? They'd have never
received the Word if you hadn't went down there. And Peter went
back up there and here's what he said, God convinced me to
go. Wasn't that what he told them?
And he rehearsed the whole story. And he said, who was I that I
could withstand God? You know what Jonah should have
done? He should have went back to his people and told them the
story. I wasn't going to go to Nineveh.
I didn't want to go to Nineveh. But God convinced me. And tell
them how God convinced him. And then said, who was I that
I could withstand God? There's times I wouldn't come
to this pulpit and preach to you loving people. Who am I that
I can withstand God? He's made me to know, woe is
me if I preach not the Gospel. It ain't always pleasant. But who am I that I could withstand
God? Boy, prejudiced. Prejudiced. Sometimes back in the 1800s,
there were a lot of good preachers back in the 1800s in England
and Wales and those places. And sometimes pastors would have
a falling out. Horatius Bonar and J.C. Philpott. It wasn't so much on Philpott,
but Bonar could not stand J.C. Philpott. And both of them were
excellent preachers. If you had told Bonar that you
had gone over to hear Philpott and the Lord had saved you, Bonar would have believed it,
but it would have grieved him at his heart that the Lord saved
somebody under the ministry of somebody that he was so in disagreement
with. There is one thing that would
have healed Jonah of his anger and Bonar of his grief, and it
was to come to this place. Salvation is of the Lord. My salvation, my children's salvation,
the salvation of my enemy is of the Lord. And if God is pleased
to save a poor, perishing sinner and give him that life in Christ
over and above how I may perceive that that reflects on me and
mine, I rejoice. I rejoice. Oh, dear John, bless his heart.
He was so prejudiced and so jealous of his own ministry that he said,
Lord, we saw one casting out devils in your name and we forbid
it. We stopped him in his tracks. You'd have done the same thing.
Oh, you'd have done the same thing. Greg, you'd have stomped
him, too. Oh, you'd have stomped him. If you ain't following me,
then shut your mouth, man. You don't believe everything
just as that, then shut your mouth. You don't know nothing
anyway. Shut up. The Lord was having some problem
with the Samaritans. They wouldn't receive Him into
their presence because He had His face set like a plant to
Jerusalem. And Peter cried out, Lord, you want us to call fire
down from heaven and destroy it? And you remember the Master's
answer. I didn't come to destroy men's
lives. I could have done that and stayed in heaven. I have
come that they might have life. That's why I've come. If Jonah had delighted himself,
and this is Jonah's problem, bless his heart, he was a prophet
of God. But it's tough to come to terms
with some of these things. We're all the time talking about
the sovereignty of God, but God and His sovereignty will cross
your path somewhere or another. If you settle one issue about
God's sovereignty in your heart, another one will creep up because
we're so unlike Him. There are many devices in a man's
heart. And we go planning and purposing
to do these things, some even for His glory. But He tears our
purposes down, doesn't He? He crosses our counsels. The
counsel of the Lord, that shall stand. And sometimes that crosses
our plans. If Jonah had delighted in the
salvation of these poor sinners, listen, as much as God did. Who rejoices when a poor sinner
is saved? God does. The shepherd does. Angels do. Those in heaven do. If Jonah hadn't rejoiced like
God did to save these poor sinners, you know what he would have done?
He would have hugged their necks. He would have these half a million
people of, and said, let's have a big group hug. And he would
have went skipping back to Israel, whistling, amazing grace how
sweet the sound, that saved a bunch of wretches like that. Wouldn't
he? That's the trouble with prejudice.
That's the trouble with jealousy. That's the trouble with us not
being able to pray for our enemies that the Lord would save them.
We don't really want salvation to be of the Lord. But that would have fixed his
problem. Lord bless this message. We'll
begin there next week.