God's Sovereign Compassion (Part 1)

Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Abendroth. Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the scriptures, verse by verse, with No Compromise.

Jonah’s Outline and the Setup for Chapter Four

Well, there are lots of ways to outline the book of Jonah. Some are funny, some aren't so much. I love Howard Hendricks. I think I need to be louder. I always tell sound people, don't need to be louder.

Too loud? All right. I always tell sound people two things. Thank you for serving and louder are the two things I say. Howard Hendricks has a memorable way to outline Jonah. Jonah, chapter one, God has a whale of a plan for your life.

Chapter two, prayer is spiritual breathing. In whale, ex whale. Chapter three, the world's greatest revival by the world's worst evangelist. And chapter four, Jonah chapter four, God has a plan to drive you out of your gourd.

I didn't write that. Let's turn to Jonah this morning as we continue to go verse by verse through this book. Jonah chapter four this morning, but let's have a quick review of chapters one, two, and three.

As you know, in Jonah chapter one, God had sent Jonah to go preach a message to the Ninevites and Jonah didn't want to go, but God arranged for a fish to get him to the right place. Jonah chapter two, as you can see in your text, even with all the white space between the verses, on the side of the verses rather, there's a prayer that Jonah prays in the belly of the fish, highlighted by chapter two, verse nine, salvation belongs to the Lord.

And then God has Jonah vomited out onto the dry land. Chapter three, there's a revival. The king gets saved, the people get saved. There's repentance from the masses, repentance from the royalty, and God relents in what he said he would do.

And what if we ended the book of Jonah in chapter three? I mean, just take a look at it. Verse eight of chapter three, let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and let them call out mightily to God.

Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish. When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them and he did not do it.

What if we just ended right there? Wouldn't that be nice? I mean, a little abrupt, a little anticlimactic, but the people get saved. What a great heartwarming ending, Jonah chapter three. I mean, think about it.

When you get to preach the gospel to other people, when you get to evangelize or share the gospel on the plane, I get happy just knowing the fact I got to tell them about the riches of forgiveness found in Christ Jesus, the only Savior who would love sinners and demonstrates that love on Calvary, dying on the cross for sinners being raised from the dead.

I feel good just telling people. How do you feel when you preach the gospel to someone and they respond with belief, with affirmation? Yes, that's true. I do believe. Would that make you happy? Would that just thrill your soul?

All that thrills my soul is Jesus. I think you'd be very, very happy. Is there anything better? I mean, that's really the theme of the book where Yahweh, this great God, saves not just Jews but Gentiles as well based on his sovereign mercy.

Jonah’s Anger at God’s Mercy

How does Jonah respond though? Let's find out. Jonah chapter four, verses one through four. Let's call this the day after the revival. One man called it. The day after the revival. How would you respond if sinners get saved?

How do you take it spiritually when those folks who are going to go to hell receive sovereign mercy? Jonah chapter four, verse one. But it's just going to go downhill from here. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly and he was angry.

Wasn't Jonah forgiven much? Wasn't Jonah the receiver of much grace? Didn't he have lots of mercy in his life? The answer is yes, but Jonah wanted them damned. He wanted the Ninevites to go to hell. It greatly, the NAS says, displeased Jonah.

James Montgomery Boyce, a preacher, would say when he preaches or when he does evangelism, he says it's like throwing time bombs out into the congregation. And all of a sudden when the Spirit of God wants to sovereignly quicken people unto salvation, he does it through the Word.

And you might preach a sermon and ten days later somebody gets saved. You just throw out time bombs and people are awakened to salvation. But for Jonah it was a bad time bomb. He threw the time bomb and set it off in Nineveh.

And he didn't want it to save people, he wanted it to damn people. Now put yourself in Jonah's sinful shoes. Alright Lord, after some disobedience I finally obeyed. But you didn't do what I wanted. I finally did what you said I should do, but you didn't do what I wanted you to do.

You're letting me down. I wanted you to damn the city, to make those people perish. Forty days and your city is going to be overthrown and you didn't overthrow it. Now put yourself in Jonah's shoes that he should have been wearing.

They got saved. They got delivered. I experienced sovereign grace and forgiveness and I wanted them to. I know they're Gentiles, I know they're not Israelites, but I can even go back to Genesis chapter 3 verse 15 or the Abrahamic covenant and see that God's plan of salvation includes Jews and Gentiles and I'm thrilled that these image bearers are saved.

Instead of redeemed how I love to proclaim it, these people were redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. I'm mad God, I'm hot literally, that you didn't send them to hell. And by the way, the writer is writing in such a way that you're going to see the compassion and mercy of God on one side and you're going to see just how selfish Jonah is on the other side.

I mean, what a little temper tantrum. What a baby. Have you ever seen a temper tantrum? Have you ever seen a kid do a temper tantrum? I mean, just stomping their feet. I've even seen adults do it. I was really sick a few years ago and had to go to the hospital and you're in a room and you're kind of half sedated and you're watching things go on.

I remember a guy in another bed close by to me needed some care and so the nurse came over. Can I help you? And the man stood up, got out of the gurney and then he said this. He looked at the nurse and he said, I want an acute nurse.

I wanted to get up out of my bed and be the pastor. Sometimes I think I'm in charge of everything like the hospital rooms. I mean, can you imagine? I thought that was bad. How about Jonah? I don't want those people to be saved.

What a baby. What a temper tantrum. Now, there's a little theological principle. Here's the principle. If God is angry at something, it's good if we would be angry at the same thing. If God hates pride, if God hates slander, if God hates lying, Proverbs 6, we should hate those things too.

And the flip side is true. The positive side is true. If God loves to save people, we should love it when people are saved as well. And what made God pleased, delighted, what His will was, Jonah hated.

I hate it that this happened. And the text, if you notice, says Jonah was angry, literally hot. This has got a word that means emotional passion, burnt up with a passion, a negative passion. It's like when I get stung by a hornet on the bike.

The hornets usually hit my chest and then drop down right on my thigh and then whack. And you can just feel on your leg. On my leg, it's about like that, just burning hot. Except this isn't physical. See, most of you are paying attention now.

Notice that? This is spiritual. I can't stand it. I'm so mad you would save these people. Now, Jonah, weren't you a man who was destined to hell and you couldn't earn salvation, you couldn't merit it, you've been affected by the fall too, and God was merciful to you and gracious and forgiving.

And even when you were a prophet, didn't He forgive you and didn't He have kindness towards you and show compassion? I mean, who are you to complain? But the Hebrew literally says it was evil to Jonah with great evil.

Oh, interesting. I thought the Ninevites, chapter one, were doing evil. Jonah, you're the Ninevite. You didn't want the Ninevites to be rescued because they were evil. And then now the evil is really in the heart of the supreme Ninevite, Jonah the prophet.

What could make him so mad? Why would he be so hot and bothered? Well, some think it's because he was a Jew and they were Gentiles. It's this nationalism. It's this we're myopically the Jews and we don't want salvation for anyone else.

Let everybody else be damned, as Jonathan Swift said, we can't have heaven crammed. This jingoistic we are Jews. That probably had something to do with it. Others think, and there's probably truth here as well, if Assyria is strengthened by God's blessing of obedience, right?

When people do what they're supposed to do, their nation is stronger. And Assyria, according to both Hosea and Amos, would be Israel's punisher, would be Israel's destroyer. So let's have a weak punisher.

And the way to have a weak punisher is to have a disciplined punisher. And so here's Jonah's thinking. They're going to repent and believe. And they did repent and believe. Now God will bless them. They'll be stronger.

And when they come to discipline us, it'll be worse. I think that's true. I also think that Jonah's just one selfish man. What do you do when you're a preacher and you say something will happen and then it doesn't happen?

Forty days and Nineveh's going to be overthrown and it wasn't. Calvin said, the reason for Jonah's anger was, because he was unwilling to appear as a vain and lying prophet. I mean, even the rabbis back in those days would quote Deuteronomy 18, and you may say in your heart, how shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?

When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You shall not be afraid of him.

They're going to think I'm a false prophet. They're going to think I said it's going to be destroyed. It wasn't destroyed. But I think underlying everything is, God is so compassionate and gracious, selfless, sacrificial, and it doesn't take long for us to just journey to Calvary to see the incarnation and the death and resurrection of Jesus.

And Jonah was compassionless. He was selfish. I cannot believe you could have compassion on the Ninevites. Can't get it through my mind. Verse 2, and he prayed. Well, at least he's not going around talking to other people.

I guess that's good, but that's about the only thing good. And now Jonah is reverting back to good old old Jonah, kind of Jonah 1 .0. And he prayed to Yahweh and said, O Lord, is this not what I said when I was yet in my country?

That's why I made haste to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that You were a gracious God. Nine times in Hebrew, not in English, but nine times in Hebrew, I am I. It's all about Jonah. Isn't this what I said?

I'm selfish. I'm short-sighted. I told you this was going to happen, and now I'm offended what You would do, God. What You did is odious in my sight. It's offensive to me. There was a man who had two sons.

The younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of the property that's coming to me. And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all that he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living.

When he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to the citizens of the country, who sent him into the fields to feed pigs.

He was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. When he came to himself, how many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread? But I perish with hunger.

I will arise and go to my father and will say to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and before you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants. And he arose and came to his father.

While he was still a long way off, what did his father do? His father saw him, felt compassion, and ran and embraced, and literally, the Greek says, fell on his neck, kissing him. That wasn't the right thing to do, by the way, back in those days.

Is the father running to the repentant son? First of all, fathers don't run. Well, let me rephrase that. Fathers, old fathers, can't run. Ever see your dad run? I'm now to the stage, I'm 54 years old, I can't catch one of my kids.

Not a one of them. They all can run faster than dad. And when dad runs, I hate to make all these personal confessions here, dad lopes. Dad kind of like hop, skip, and lopes. Dads don't run back in those days, not because they can't, because it just is not done.

And of course, the parable of the lost sons, you see the love of the father going out and intercepting the son and arms wide open, loving the son. And the son said to him, father, I've sinned against heaven and before you, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

And before he can say, treat me as your hired servant, the father interrupts the son. He won't even let him get those words out, but the father said to his servants, bring quickly the best robe, put it on him, put a ring on his hand, shoes on his feet, bring the fatted calf, kill it, let us eat and celebrate for this son was dead and is live again.

He was lost and is found and they begin to celebrate. And the older son, Jonah, the older son, the Pharisees was in the field and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music, dancing, called one of the servants and asked what these things meant.

Your brother has come home, your father's killed the fatted calf because he has received him back safe and sound. But he, the son along with Jonah was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him.

He answered his father, look, these many years I've served you, I never disobeyed your command yet you never gave me a goat that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him.

Son, you're always with me and all that is mine is yours. I appeal to you as a generous father. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad for your brother was dead and is alive. He was lost and is found.

Shouldn't Jonah have responded like the person who had a lost sheep? In Luke 15 it says there'll be more joy in heaven over how many sinners who repent? Over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance.

Same section in Luke 15. Just so regarding the lost coin that was found, there's joy before the angels of God over how many sinners that repent? One sinner who repents. Because Jesus comes, not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

The Savior, God the Savior, salvation is from the Lord, Jonah 2, verse 9. He's the same God, the same triune God, and He calls sinners to repentance. And when they repent, there's joy. There's happiness.

The love of God saving sinners. Amen, praise the Lord, or I'm mad. In Jonah 4, verse 2, Jonah prays to the Lord. And he says some amazing things about God that are all true, yet Jonah's not using them for praise.

He's using them with this, I knew you were like this attitude. Now let's think about it. You ever talk to somebody and say, let me teach you how to pray? So if you're going to teach someone how to pray, maybe you would go to the fundamentals of the faith book, chapter 8, and there's a little acronym.

What's the acronym? C, the second letter, confess. That's good to do, 1 John. Proverbs 28. T, thanksgiving. It's God's will for you to give thanks, 1 Thessalonians 5. Supplication, Philippians 4. But there's a first letter that we're missing.

C-T-S, what's the first letter? A, and it stands for adoration. And so you, instead of just running to God, God I need, God I want, can you do, please? You go to God and say, God, you know, you're gracious, you're merciful, you're slow to anger, you abound in loving kindness, and you just relent from calamities.

You're just a great God to be praised. And Jonah takes this old creed, Jonah takes this formula of the attributes of God and uses it against God. I knew you were like that. How could you? This is complaining against God.

Using the attributes of God to complain against God. How's that? Now, if I were to ask you this question, could you please give me eight attributes of God from the Old Testament? The Old Testament revelation of God, tell me eight things about God.

Or you could say, well, what does the world think about the Old Testament God? And give me eight, why? Because I'm thinking about pie right now. Maybe some homemade blueberry pie or something like that.

Eight slices, and so there's eight pieces, eight slices, eight attributes of God. I wonder what the world would say of the Old Testament view of God. Here's probably what they would say. Wrathful, full of indignation, holy, righteous, just.

Wouldn't they say that? This old, angry Old Testament God. Turn, if you would, to Exodus chapter 34, please. And I want you to see the basis for Jonah's theology. Although torqued, still it comes from this formula that you can see in Numbers 14, you can see in Nehemiah 9, Psalm 86, Psalm 103, Psalm 145, and even the prophet Joel.

But it all comes from Exodus chapter 34. What is informing Jonah's sarcastic complaint Exodus 34, Moses has been tucked by God in the cleft of the rock and the goodness of God and his attributes passed by God.

I wonder if there was a pie chart describing God in the Old Testament. What would each of the eight pieces of pie look like? Exodus 34, verse six. Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God.

Slice one, compassionate. Slice two, gracious. Slice three, slow to anger. Slice four, abounding in loving kindness. Slice five, abounding in truth. Verse seven, slice six, who keeps loving kindness for thousands.

Slice seven, who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin. And of course, we know the Old Testament God is the New Testament God because God doesn't change and there is judgment, verse eight, there is a slice that says, he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.

Back to Jonah, please. I knew it all along. I know who you are. I know that creed from the Psalms, from Exodus, and I knew you were going to do it. I could see it coming. You ever play basketball? And if you're going to pass the ball, you don't look at the guy you're passing to because the defender will steal it.

It's called telegraphing the pass. You don't want to telegraph the pass because everyone knows where that ball's going. And so when you have Pete Maravich, for instance, and he wants to pass the ball over here, he doesn't look there to pass, he looks to the side and with the all-time famous wrist pass, type it up on YouTube, Pete Maravich wrist pass.

I know you all have to love Pete Maravich around here. Why? He played for the Celtics when he was older and decrepit, you know, but he still did. Or if you have to think of another passer, a better passer maybe, Magic Johnson, you don't look toward the person.

You look one way and pass it another way. And Jonah is saying, I could tell you telegraphed the pass. I knew it was a bounce pass, and it was a slam dunk that you would save these people. I don't want them saved.

Can't stand it. I knew it all along. I'm going to just take the orthodox creed and formula of graciousness and mercy and long-suffering and compassion and throw it in the face of God. I don't like who you are and what you've done.

And how unlike Jonah are these slices of the pie. Look at the first one found in chapter 4, verse 2. You're a gracious God. What's grace mean? God favors people that don't deserve it. And we know, of course, that that grace comes through and only through the person and work of Jesus Christ, the sacrifice for sinners, the atonement for sinners, the risen Savior.

People don't deserve grace. They don't merit it. They can't earn it. There's nothing they can do to get it. But God has benevolence towards the undeserving. That's what grace is. I know you can't have any claim upon me, God says, you Ninevites, but I can give you grace.

If I'd like, because I'm a gracious God. How unlike Jonah. Jonah was the exact opposite. He wasn't gracious. He wanted to receive mercy, but didn't want anybody else to receive mercy. That's the second one.

Merciful are translated in some Bibles, compassionate. It means tender affection. It means a mom who has a son in the hospital having seizures and that mom, out of pity and compassion, wants to help, wants to intercede, wants to solve the problem, wants to do something about it.

That's the word compassion. Pity. Doesn't sound like Jonah to me. By the way, grace and mercy are only used of God in the Bible. These are words exclusively used of God. Grace and mercy.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 8 .30 and 11 a .m. and Sunday evenings at 6 p .m. We're located on Route 110 in West Boylston, Massachusetts. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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