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Bro. Bill Nichols
Okay, good. Good morning. Sorry, we're a little bit late. Technology is the bane of us all. It allows us to do things we can't do without it. And yet we try to do it, it doesn't work exactly like we expect.
So we're a few minutes late and we apologize to you. I also want to give you one more little piece of advice. Brother David and I, prior to church this morning, did a quick comparison of what we had prepared.
And we decided that we were way too much overlapping. So I decided not to do my Easter message, leave that for Brother Dave, and go back and do Jonah, which I was prepared to do before anyhow. But before I do that, I'd just like you to think of one thing as you go through Brother David's message.
Keep in mind how Jesus' resurrection matters to you today. Now, I'll say this, it matters in all ways, it matters in all times, past, present, and future. Keep that in mind as you listen to Brother David's message.
With no more to do, let's pray. Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us this time and this place where we may come together and worship you. Thank you for giving us the Word, both the written Word, Jesus, and the living Word.
Thank you for giving us the Holy Spirit to help us better understand the written Word. Thank you for setting us aside to do the work that you have for us to do. Help us to accept what you have us to do and embrace it with relish, a little bit unlike what Jonah did.
Bless us and keep us, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. So, had the book of Jonah ended with chapter 3, it would have been a gripping story. It would have been a story of a reluctant preacher who became the agent of what must have been the world's greatest revival.
J. Bernard McGee had his own way of expressing this. I'm going to read you what he said. Jonah had a most remarkable experience. He experienced what no other man ever has from the very beginning. From Noah's preaching down to the preaching of Billy Graham, no one has ever seen 100 saturation of God's Word bring 100 conversion, but this man saw it.
Jonah had the experience of seeing an entire city turn to God, but there's one chapter remaining, chapter 4, and that changes everything. One would have thought that Jonah would be late and might have rushed to claim at least a little credit for the revival.
After all, that's not a usual thing. It's not a usual thing for everyone to hear, to everyone to accept, everyone to believe, everyone to be converted. That is not a usual revival. Sometimes you get mass acceptance.
Sometimes you get mass repentance. Sometimes you get mass turning to God, but not 100%, ever, ever, anywhere, but Jonah did it in Nineveh. So he had thought he had won a little credit for that, but that is not at all what happened.
J. Vernon McGee goes on to say, now if you and I had that experience, I think we would go down to Western Union and send a wire back to Jerusalem. That kind of dates J. Vernon McGee, doesn't it? We wouldn't say that today.
We'd say email or text, something like that, but he's doing telegram saying, rejoice with me. Revival is here. It's broken out in the city of Nineveh. This is J. Vernon McGee. You'd think that Jonah would have done something like this, but no.
Chapter four opens with a startling statement, and to me, this is the strangest part of the book of Jonah, and I agree with McGee. It's strange to me as well. Here's what it said. Verse one, but it displeased him, and he was very angry.
Now, Jonah was not just angry. He was very angry. So why? Why was Jonah angry? He did not like those people, and he did not like God doing what he didn't want to be done. In fact, God did exactly what Jonah thought he would do.
It's just that Jonah didn't like it, and I like to add one other thing. There are commentators who say that Jonah truly repented at the moment he was cast out of the great fish. I don't think that's the case, and I think this says it all.
Jonah is not happy with Jesus, with God for sparing Nineveh. In any case, let's go on. Verse two, and he prayed unto the Lord and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was this not my saying when I was yet in my country?
Isn't this what I told you the last time? Therefore, I fled before Tartarus, for I knew that thou art a gracious God, slow to anger and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. Now, what evil is that that he's repenting of?
Jonah is referring to the evil that God said he was going to do to Nineveh. What did Jonah say that God was going to do? Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown, the destruction of Nineveh, and he's mad because God changed his mind, but from the very beginning, Jonah should have known and probably did clearly understand the gracious character of God.
After all, Jonah was a biblical scholar. He was a prophet. He knew about the scripture. He probably had read of Abraham and his attempt to persuade God to spare Sodom and Gomorrah. So, we're going to go to Genesis chapter 18, verse 14, and read a little bit.
Genesis 18, verse 14, and the men rose up from the fence and looked toward Sodom, and Abraham went with them to bring them on the way. Now, the men were Jesus and two angels. Yeah, Jesus and two angels.
And the Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham the thing which I do, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. Oh, would that include Nineveh?
Would that include Syria? Would Syria be in one of those nations that would be blessed through Abraham's seed? It says all. For I know him, this is Jesus still speaking, that he will command his children, speaking of Abraham, and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment, that the Lord will do that which he had spoken of him.
Now, keeping the way of the Lord includes sharing the blessings given to Abraham and his descendants with all the nations, which would include Nineveh. But that was something Jonah did not want to happen, and he was not alone.
The general consensus among the Jews was that Gentiles were dogs, filthy beasts, not worthy of the blessings given to Abraham and his descendants. What did they not so clearly see? They saw that Gentiles were all dogs and not worthy.
What did they not see? That they weren't worthy either. The Jews failed to recognize that they were not worthy either. So back to verse 20, and the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous, I will go down and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it which is coming to me, and if not, I will know.
Now that brings up a question. The Lord is coming down to discover something that he did not already know. I thought that God was all-knowing. How then could he come down to learn something that he didn't already know?
What do you think, sir? Sounds like a trick question. It is. It is true that God the Father is out of time and is all-knowing. God the Father, God as the Father, knows everything all the time. He's outside of time.
Time doesn't matter to him. He knows everything, and he knows about everywhere. But what about Jesus the Son? We know that when he spent his 30-something years as a man on earth, he did not know everything.
I picked one verse out of Luke chapter 2, verse 51, and I'm just going to read it. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. What did that mean? What did that say? Jesus acquired as he grew up more and more wisdom and more and more size.
He grew in stature and he grew in wisdom. So before, he knew less and was smaller than he was later. And then in Matthew 13, 3, there's another instance of something that Jesus does not know. But of that day and of that hour knoweth no man.
No, not the angels, which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only. I put the word on man, but the Father. Of that day, the day of his return to set up the kingdom. Of that day and that hour knoweth no man.
No, not the angels, which are in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. So we know that between his birth and his death, this is Jesus. He was in time and things were revealed to him sequentially. So he did grow in knowledge and wisdom.
We're less certain about his stature before his birth and in heaven after his resurrection. But I believe that in his pre-incarnate appearances, he was on the earth and therefore in time. And as a result, he really could learn new things.
But every time I say I believe, you need to apply Act 17, 11. And if you go there, you'll see what I'm talking about. Talking about those in Thessalonica being more faithful than the others, because they accepted the word and then studied the scripture daily to see if those things were true.
So keep that in mind. If I say I believe something, keep that in mind. It's just what I believe. And you need to study and make sure you and I put on explain to me why and I will fix it. And the men turned their faces from fence and went toward Sodom.
Those are the two angels. But Abraham stood yet before the Lord. And Abraham drew near and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Now that's a trick question. Abraham drew near and he said, Wilt thou destroy the wicked?
That's a trick question in just a second. Peradventure. Wilt thou destroy and not spare the place for the 50 righteous that are therein? Far be it from thee to do after this matter the righteous with the wicked, that the righteous should not be as the wicked.
That far from thee shall not the judge of all the earth do right? So Abraham is scolding God. If I did not find in Sodom the righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.
50, I'll spare the entire place. Verse 27. And Abraham answered and said, Behold now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes. Peradventure thou shalt lack five of the 50 righteous.
Will thou destroy the city for the lack of five? And he said, If I find 40 and five, I will not destroy it. And he spoke to him yet again and said, Peradventure, there shall be 40 found there. And he, that's God said, I will not do it for 40's sake.
Verse 30. And he said unto him, O let the Lord not be angry with me, and I will speak. Peradventure, there shall be 30 found there. Now you notice, he knocked off 10 this time. He's been going five at a time, he's more bold now he's knocking off 10 at a time.
And he said, I will not do it if I'm 30 there. And behold, I have, and he said, this is back to Abraham, and behold he said, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord. Peradventure, there shall be 20 found there.
And he said, I will not destroy it for 20's sake. Now he's getting a little bit nervous. And he said, O let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet this once. Peradventure, 10 shall be found there.
And what did the Lord say? And he said, I will not destroy it for 10's sake. Now somebody at the beginning told me that this was a trick question. And I said, yes, it was. How many righteous did the Lord find in Sodom?
I didn't ask that. I said, how many righteous did he find? Oh, I want to repeat that because I know you didn't hear it. He said he found, what did you say? He took four out. And I said, I didn't ask you that.
I said, how many righteous did he find? It wasn't 10. It wasn't four. It wasn't even one. Zero. Well, Romans tells us that. As it is written, there is none righteous. No, not one. There is none that understand.
That's the standard of God's righteousness, to understand and to seek God. He goes on to say, they are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good. No, not one.
And there's another verse in Psalms 14 one that I would like to read. And I think Jonah may have had this one in his possession as well. I'm not so certain about that though. The fool hath said in. They are corrupt.
They have done abominable work. There is none that doeth good. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God. They are all gone aside.
They are all together become filthy. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. And then another Psalms. The fool hath said in his heart there is no God. Corrupt they are. They have done abominable work.
There is none that doeth good. God looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God. Every one of them has gone back. They are all together filthy.
There is none that doeth good. So how many righteous did the Lord find in Sodom and Gomorrah? None. But God should spare some of them anyway. And now that's the answer that you wanted to ask. How many did he spare?
Well, he took four out. He took four and three of them made it. Well, and the Lord went on his way as soon as he had left communing with Abraham and Abraham returned to this. And he was afraid that God might spare none of them as he spared Lot.
Lot received God's mercy. Jonah had received God's mercy on at least four occasions. Occasion number one, God sent a great fish to retrieve Jonah's body. Occasion number two, he brought Jonah back to life.
Occasion number three, he caused the fish to deposit Jonah on dry land. And number four, he gave Jonah a chance to be obedient. So at least four occasions God showed mercy to Jonah. But Jonah did not want Nineveh to share in God's mercy.
He was afraid that God might show the same mercy to Nineveh that he had shown to Lot and he didn't like it. Now in the New Testament, we have this from Peter, from Paul, each of whom received a measure of the mercy of mercy from God.
Peter said this, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsword, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And of course, he's talking about all of his children.
And Paul said in Timothy 2, 3, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who will have all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. So that's where we are, and we're now to the end, verse 2 of Jonah chapter 4.
So now back to Jonah and his complaints. Therefore now, O Lord, take I beseech thee my life from thee, from me, for it is better for me to die than to live. There are commentators who believe Jonah was expressing his understanding of the seriousness of breaking his vow to God.
Now, they got that from Ecclesiastes 5, verse 2. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God. For God is in heaven, and thou upon the earth. Therefore, let thy words be few.
For a dream cometh through the multitude of business, and a fool's mouth is known by man. When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it, for he hath no pleasure in fools. Pay that which thou has vowed.
Better it is that thou shouldest not vow, than to vow and not pray, not pay. Now, it's certainly possible that Jonah now recognized the seriousness of breaking whatever vows he had made. And we know he'd made some vows, we just don't know exactly what vows he made.
Back in Jonah chapter 2, we had this, verse 7. And my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple. They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving.
I will pay that which I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. But I don't think that that's the reason that he is now saying it's better for him to die than to live. I don't see a significant difference between his attitude here and his attitude back in chapter 1.
Back in chapter 1, he was afraid the Lord would forgive the Ninevites, and he was right. The Lord forgave the Ninevites, and he doesn't like it. But I do need to see the significance part of his statement.
Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation belongs to the Lord. The Lord decides, and the Lord alone decides who is to be saved. And the Lord, I believe, Lot and his daughters, he chose to save Jonah. He chose to save Noah and his four sons and their wives and his wife.
He chose to save the Ninevites, and that he doesn't like. So the Lord then responds to Jonah one more time. Dost thou doeth well to be angry? We don't hear Jonah's answer. Instead, we see Jonah. The Lord says, is it right that you be angry?
And Jonah stalks away. Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth and sat under it until he might see what would become of the city. Apparently, Jonah thought the Lord might relent and destroy Nineveh, and he wanted to be close enough to see it, but far enough away to be safe from the destruction.
So he's sitting out on a hill on the east side of Nineveh. And the Lord 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. One more instance of being, of God being generous and merciful to Jonah.
Jonah is camped out on a hill, and it's hot and shake. Just as God prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah, he now prepares a vine to shelter him, even as he waited, hoping that the city would be destroyed.
So Jonah was exceedingly glad of the gourd. Now, if you read through Jonah, and you read through the first four chapters up to verse six, the first time you see Jonah happy about anything is happy about the gourd.
You didn't see him happy when he was thrown up on the shore. You didn't see him happy when he was thrown overboard. You didn't see him happy when he ran off jumping. You didn't see him happy until now.
First time he's happy. Now, this is a quote from James Montgomery Boyce. Jonah was pleased that at last, after all the compounding for Jonah, and he follows that with a question, selfish? Of course it was, and petty too.
Now, just to tell you who James Boyce is, he was a Reformed Christian theologian. He was a Bible teacher, a scholar. He lived from, he was born in 1938. He was the senior pastor of the 10th Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia from 1968 until his death.
But something I wanted to add, Mr. Boyce said, he said, God was finally doing something for Jonah. And my question, finally, maybe Boyce had forgot God had already done four major, one minor thing for Jonah.
What were they? Remember the four he did? He provided the fish to scoop him up. He brought him back to life, spit him up on dry land, and gave him a second chance to be obedient. That's the four major things.
What was the fifth minor thing? He gave him the gourd to shelter him. So he's now done five things. But apparently, that was not, the four things were not enough to make Jonah happy. What was enough to make him happy?
The gourd. Of all the things the Lord did for him, he was the gourd. I can't believe that. You think Jonah's a strange book. That's the strangest part. Yes, Jonah was happy, but not for long. But God prepared a worm.
The same God that created the gourd brought up the gourd. When the morning rose the next day, it smoked the gourd that it withered. Now, I want to take a second here and off on a tangent to Job and look at the plot, the things that happened to Job, and how Job responded.
This is Job, not Jonah. All of his children were dead. Property had all been stolen or destroyed. He's covered with boils. He is free. He is left with only his wife, and what did she tell him? Curse God and die.
And what was Jonah's attitude in the midst of all this? The Lord gave, and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Now, let's consider Jonah. He might have said, the Lord giveth to the Lord, but he didn't.
Compare it to Jonah's great hardship. The vine that had provided him shelter from the sun has withered, and his attitude, he wished to die. He said, it is better for me to die than to live. So now, let's look at the entire verse.
But God prepared a worm in the morning, rose the next day, and it smoked the gourd that it withered, and it came to pass when the sun did rise, that God prepared a vent, east wind, and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah that he fainted, and he wished himself to die, and said, it is better for me to die than to live.
Well, his happiness didn't last very long. Now, he's wishing again to die, and God said to Jonah, thus thou doest well to be angry of the gourd, and he said, I do well to be angry even unto death. Now, these are the last words of Jonah recorded in this book, but thankfully, they're not the last words of the book.
God's mercy and compassion, I hope believe still working with Jonah, teaching him and guiding him to God's heart. Then said the Lord, pity the gourd for which thou hast not labored, which came up in a night and perished in night.
In other words, you're concerned about a gourd, a gourd whose existence that you had no part in. You criticize me for being concerned about Nineveh. Verse 11, and should I not spare Nineveh that great wherein there are more than six score thousand, six score thousand persons who cannot discern between the right hand and their left hand also much cattle.
That is 120 ,000 children too young to know the right hand from the left hand. How much more should God be concerned about the destruction of the people, those that he made in his image, even if they are Assyrians.
God's response to Jonah showed the prophet that he really didn't know God as well as he thought he did. Now, Jewish tradition says that after God said the words of Jonah, Jonah fell on his face and said, govern your word world according to the measure of the mercy as it is said to the Lord, our God belong mercy and forgiveness.
That's what Jewish tradition is, but that's not anywhere in the scripture. We can only at Jonah and we should have such a humble response. Whatever it is that God brings into our life, the goodness and the hardship to God, to the Lord, our God belong mercy and forgiveness.
Let us pray. Most gracious heavenly father, thank you. Thank you for bringing us into a world where we are allowed to be obedient to you. Thank you for giving us the power to be obedient, at least to the extent that we can be.
Understanding there will never be a fourth member of the trinity. It will never be God, the father, the son, the holy spirit, and me. No other man, no man qualifies. We understand that. And so we understand that we will fail in our endeavors to be as much like God as possible.
And when we fail, thank you ever so much for giving us the Lord Jesus Christ, our savior, whose death and resurrection paid the price, paid the penalty, so that we do not have to pay the penalty for the mistakes that we make.
In Jesus name we pray. Amen.