Thank you, I appreciate that. Jonah, Chapter four, please, after many weeks of. Taking a break from our short study in this book, I want to come back tonight and Lord willing, finish up this series of studies in the book of Jonah. We look at this fourth chapter. I have called our message tonight Spiritual Regression. Let's stand as I read that short chapter to you, Jonah, chapter four. Just to understand its context, let me just begin the chapter three in verse 10. After Jonah's great message of 40 days and none of us shall be overthrown, the people repented. then God saw the works that they turned from the evil way, and God relented from the disasters that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. So he prayed to the Lord and said, Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country, therefore I fled to Tarshish? For I knew that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, an abundant and loving kindness, one who relents from doing harm. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it's better for me to die than to live." Then the Lord said, is it right for you to be angry? So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city. There he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade till he might see what would become of the city. And the Lord God prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah that it might be shade for his head to deliver him from his misery. So Jonah was very grateful for the plant. But as morning dawned the next day, God prepared a worm, and it so damaged the plant that it withered. And it happened when the sun arose that God prepared a vehement east wind, and the sun beat on Jonah's head so that he grew faint. Then he wished for death for himself and said, it is better for me to die than to live. Then God said to Jonah, is it right for you to be angry about the plant? And he said, it is right for me to be angry even to death. But the Lord said, you have pity on the plant for which you have not labored nor made it grow, which came up in the night and perished in the night. And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, at which are more than 120,000 persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left, and also much livestock. You may be seated. The Scriptures often speak of the sins that are hidden in the heart. For instance, in 1 Corinthians 4, Paul says, the hidden things of darkness. Or in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 2, the hidden things of shame. We all have sins in our hearts that we keep hidden from others. There are also sins in our hearts that are hidden from us. Sins that are lurking in the deep recesses of our souls that we're not always aware of. This is why David asked the Lord to take the searchlight of the Holy Spirit and look in every nook and cranny of his soul and see if there's any sins lurking there that needed to be exposed and flushed out. Psalm 139, verses 23 and 24. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxieties and see if there's any wicked way in me and lead me in a way everlasting. Now that's a prayer that should be on the lips of every child of God who desires to live a godly and a holy life. But be careful what you ask for. God will answer that prayer. And you may be shocked at what He reveals to you. You may be surprised by the method He uses to reveal the sin, as well as being shocked by the sin that He reveals to you. That was the situation with Jonah. There was sin lurking in Jonah's heart that was revealed when the Lord called him to go to the pagan city of Nineveh and preach to the wicked people of that city. He had a bigoted hatred for those people, and therefore, he refused to go. He had tried to run away from the Lord by going in the opposite direction. But the Lord sent a supernatural and powerful storm on the Mediterranean Sea, and he was swallowed up by a great fish. And after being in the belly of that fish for three days and three nights, Jonah calls on the name of the Lord and submits to the message that God had given them to proclaim. In fact, it may have been hidden even from Jonah. And if we did not know the rest of the story, we would be convinced that the sin lurking in Jonah's heart was purged. The sin of bigoted hatred would have been hidden from anyone who saw his apparent change of heart and being willing to go to Nineveh and to preach that message that God had called him to proclaim. And as I said, it may have been hidden even from Jonah at that point. But it was not hidden from the Lord. And he used the greatest evangelistic endeavor in the history of the world to bring to light those hidden things of darkness. Those hidden things that were still lurking in Jonah's heart. Jonah repented from his sin when he was in the belly of the great fish, evidenced by his obedience to the Lord. But as so often the case with certain deep-seated and ingrained sins, he fell back into his old ways and manifested the same sinful attitude toward the Ninevites as he did at the beginning of this book. The spiritual regression and how God dealt with it is the theme of this final chapter of the book of Jonah. You'll see how I have divided up our text. I want us to look at the characteristics of spiritual regression and found as found in Jonah's response to God's mercy in verses 1 through 3, and then the cure for spiritual regression as found in God's response to Jonah's anger in verses 4 through 11. First of all, the characteristics of spiritual regression, or as the scriptures call it, backsliding, as found in Jonah's response to God's mercy. If the book of Jonah were written by man apart from divine inspiration, the narrative would probably have ended in chapter three. Jonah obeys the Lord, went to Nineveh, and preached with unprecedented success. If the historians are accurate in estimating the population of that city, and it's estimated that there were over 600,000 people in that city, then there never has been an evangelistic endeavor as successful as this one. And the text clearly indicates that everyone in that city repented at the preaching of Jonah. Look at chapter 3, verses 5 through 9. So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed the fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. Then word came to the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles saying, let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Do not let them eat or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and crying mightily to God. Yes, let everyone turn from his evil ways and from the violence as in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent and turn away from his fierce anger so that we may not perish. Here the grace of God truly stands out, and that the repentance was genuine is made clear by the Lord withholding His judgment upon the Ninevites. Look at verse 10, Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way. And God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it. And as we said, here the grace of God stands out like a bright light on a dark night. But the Lord had a lesson to teach the prophet and us. We all harbor a bigoted disdain for certain others. And that bigoted disdain is not only an ugly sin, but it stands in direct contrast to the grace and mercy of the Lord toward sinners. All of this is seen as we consider the marks of spiritual regression in the response of Jonah to God's grace and the mercy toward the Ninevites. First of all, we see a lack of compassion for the Ninevites in verse 1. Notice, "...but it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry." I think it's safe to assume that his message of judgment and doom brought a measure of delight to Jonah. Judgment on these wicked Ninevites Judgment on one of the major cities of Israel's greatest enemy was a task that I believe Jonah probably relished once he went there and began to preach. And his message is in the latter part of chapter 2, verse 3 and verse 4. Yet 40 days and none of us shall be overthrown. Now, let's go back to what I brought out of the previous message in order to get a better appreciation of why Jonah had no compassion for the people in the city. And there are two basic reasons. First of all, the extreme wickedness of the people of Nineveh. Remember what the Lord said about the wickedness of the people in this city all the way back in chapter 1 in verse 2, where He says, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me. This is the same statement made by God concerning Solomon and Gomorrah. a statement that carries with it the idea of a degree of wickedness that is far beyond that which is common among sinful man. And one of the ways that this intense wickedness manifested itself was through extreme cruelty toward their enemies. This is supported by the words of the King of Nineveh himself in chapter 3 and verse 8. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily to God, yes, let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. If you would, would you turn ahead in your Bible to the little book of Nahum, please. After Jonah is the book of Micah, and then the little book of Nahum. Now, I brought this out in the beginning of our series of studies. Nahum wrote to, spoke of judgment upon ancient Nineveh, but it was about 120 to 150 years after this revival of Jonah. Notice what he says in chapter 1, verse 1, the burden against Nineveh, the book of the vision of Nahum, the Elkishite. Over in chapter 3, he describes how these People had fallen 120, 150 years later. They'd fallen back into their wickedness and their violence. Notice chapter 3 and verse 3. Horsemen charged with bright sword and glittering spear. There was a multitude of slain and a great number of bodies, countless corpses. They stumble over the corpses. F.W. Farrar gave this description of these people. He said, judging from the inscription of their kings, no power was more savage, more terrible, that ever cast its gigantic shadow on the page of history as it passed on the way to ruin. The kings of Assyria tormented the miserable world. They exult to record how space failed for corpses, how unsparing a destroyer. how they flung away the bodies of soldiers like so much clay, how they made pyramids of human heads, how they burned cities, how they filled populous lands with carnage of warriors, how they scattered whole countries with the corpses of their defenders as with chaff, how they impaled heaps of men on stakes and strewed the mountains, choked rivers with dead bodies, how they cut off the hands of kings, nailed them on the walls and left their bodies to rot with bears and dogs on the entrance gates of cities. How they employed nations of captives in making brick fetters. How they cut warriors like weeds or smote them like wild beasts in the forest and covered pillars with the flayed skins of rival monarchs." And then William Graham Scrovey in his little commentary says, the notorious brutality of the Assyrians was such as to make the surrounding peoples shudder with a sickly tear of ever-falling prey to them. Without a doubt, the Assyrians were the German Nazis of those days. The inscription on Assyrian monuments, which have been interpreted by archaeologists, reveal how they reveled in hideous cruelty on those whom they vanquished. But Nahum also shows us that they were steeped in sexual immorality and witchcraft. Now this, of course, is later on, 150 years later, but we can assume that the generations forgot about the revival and we resorted to the old ways. Look at verse 4 of chapter 3 of Nahum. Because of the multitude of harlotries of the seductor of harlot, the mistress of sorceries, who sells nations through her harlotries and families through her sorceries. Now add to this the ways of the human heart without divine restraint, and we get a little glimpse of the intense wickedness of these people. But there's a second reason why Jonah had absolutely no compassion for the Ninevites. Nineveh was a major city in the Assyrian Empire, which later became Israel's greatest enemy. In fact, the northern nations of Israel were eventually destroyed by the Assyrian armies and the people taken away into captivity. Now, Jonah would probably have been aware of this due to the prophecies of the prophets Hosea and Amos. Turn backwards, please, to the book of Hosea. Daniel, Hosea. It's just one phrase or one statement made by Hosea But it indicates that the Assyrians one day will rule over the nation of Israel, at least the northern tribes. God is chastising Israel for their wickedness. He says in chapter 11, verse 1, When Israel was a child, I loved him. Hosea chapter 11, verse 1. When Israel was a child, I loved him. And out of Egypt I called my son, as they called them. So they went from them. They sacrificed to the bales and burned incense to carved images. I taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them. I drew them with gentle cords, with bands of love. And I was to them as those who take the yoke from the neck. I stooped and fed them. He shall not return to the land of Egypt, notice, But the Assyrians shall be his king because they refused to repent." So there is a veiled reference to the fact that one day the Assyrian Empire would rule, and we know by history and from the Word of God that they eventually did come down against the northern tribes of Israel, overrun the northern nations of Israel, slaughtered people by the thousands and took the nation and most of the people off into captivity. Now, as a result, Jonah had absolutely no compassion for the spiritual well-being of his people. I'm sure, as I said, that the message of God's impending judgment within 40 days brought Jonah a sense of delight. But I think he was highly prepared for the outcome. He thought he had planted a spiritual time bomb in that city and was looking for it to go off. And when it didn't, he was angry. This is the first clue after Jonah's initial repentance and trip to Nineveh that his heart was still not completely right with God. He may have truly repented in the belly of the fish, but he was sliding back into his old sins. We know what that's like, don't we? There are certain sins that we ask God to deliver us from, and He does. We repent from it. But if we're not careful, we find out that those sins reaching up and grabbing hold of us once again. He did the will of God, but with the wrong attitude. And that's the focus of this entire fourth chapter. The repentance of the Ninevites pleased God, but it displeased Jonah. It made God happy, but it made Jonah angry. Notice how verse one begins, but. And that little word points at the contrast between God's compassion as set forth in chapter three in verse 10 and Jonah's displeasure. between God turning from His anger in verses 9 and 10 of chapter 3, and Jonah turning to anger. He became angry with God because he wanted God to judge the Ninevites for their wickedness and remove them as a military threat to His own nation of Israel. The second The characteristic of spiritual regression in Jonah's life is a lack of concern for God's justice. Look at verse 2. So he prayed to the Lord and said, Ah, Lord God, was this not what I said when I was still in my country? A lot of people say, well, why did Jonah run away the first time? Here he explains to us why he did it. Was this not what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore, I fled previously to Tarshish, for I know that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness, one who relents from doing harm. Lord, I know those things about you. That's one of the reasons I didn't want to come and preach, because I was afraid you were going to do this very thing, that you were going to forgive these wicked people because I know what you're like. To his credit, Jonah told God why he was angry. Even though the prophet had been rebellious, he had an intimate relationship with God. Jonah's motives in fleeing to Tarsus now becomes known. He was afraid that the Ninevites would repent, that God would be merciful to these ancient enemies of God's people, and by opposing Israelites, her enemies were actually opposing the Lord, and that's why a godly man such as Jonah hated those Ninevites. and he was angry with what the Lord did. Notice that Jonah is very knowledgeable of the character of God. He says, I know that you are a gracious and merciful God. The word gracious comes from the Hebrew word where we get grace. This expresses God's attitude toward those who have no claim on Him because they're outside a saving relationship with Him. The only reason we're saved is why? The grace of God. bestowed His grace upon us. Compassion is one of the themes of the story. He said that God was a compassionate God, a merciful God. He said He showed loving kindness, God's loyal love to those who have a strong relationship with Him. The prophet was criticizing God for His good qualities that he recognized in God. I knew that about you, God. Lord, I knew those things about you. Oh, I was glad that you showed these aspects of your character while I was in the belly of that fish. I really appreciated that part about you now. But Lord, not for these wicked people. Not for these vile people. They are wicked. They are the great enemies of your people. Jonah did not have a problem of preaching God's wrath upon the Ninevites. but because he had no compassion for them. He had no concern for God's justice. In fact, he resented God's display of grace and mercy on that city. And the third thing we see is a lack of composure in himself. Here, Jonah loses all composure. He's so angry with God and his failure to destroy the city that he asks God to take his life. Verse 3, Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me for it's better for me to die than to live." There's a lot of speculation as to why Jonah was so angry that he wanted to die, but the text doesn't tell us. But because he had no concern for the salvation of his people, he became preoccupied with himself. God's concern was the salvation of over 600,000 people. Jonah's concern at this point was himself. This is always a sign of spiritual regression. When our concern is a preoccupation with ourselves and little concern for sinners. The second thing I want us to consider in verses 4-11 is the cure for spiritual regression as found in God's response to Jonah's anger. There are two things I want us to consider and then draw some lines of application. The Lord questions Jonah about his anger in relationship to the mercy he had shown the Ninevites. Verse 4. then the Lord said, is it right for you to be angry? Even here we see the compassion and the patience of the Lord. He could have chastised Jonah severely for his peculiar attitude, but he doesn't. He merely asked him if it was right for him to be angry in the face of an unprecedented demonstration of God's grace and mercy. At this point, Jonah ignores the question. Instead, he goes outside the city to see what will happen. I believe he goes out and probably builds himself a little lean-to in verse 5. So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city. There he made himself his shelter. And he sat under it in the shade till he might see what would become of the city. Because of the intense heat in that area of the world. Did the Lord cause some kind of fast-growing plant to sprout up and grow almost overnight? It was large enough and luxuriant enough to provide additional shade for Jonah. God was not only showing kindness to Jonah despite his petulant spirit, but He was going to use this plant as a teaching tool for Jonah in verse 6. And the Lord prepared a plant and He made it come up over Jonah that it might be a shade for his head to deliver him from his misery. So Jonah was very grateful for the plant. As the sun began to come up the next morning, the Lord prepared some kind of worm or worms to begin to eat at the plant, so it began to wither and die, verse 7. But as morning dawned the next day, God prepared a worm and it so damaged the plant that it withered. As the sun grew hotter, the Lord causes a powerful wind to blow out of the east. Now, living in that part of the world, we cannot appreciate the significance of that. In the Middle East, when the wind comes out of the east, it's like standing in front of a blast furnace. Notice it was not a gentle wind, but a very powerful wind. Look at verse 8. And it happened when the sun arose, God prepared a vehement east wind, and the sun beat on Jonah's head. That scorching east wind that God provided is called a Sirocco. During the period of a Sirocco, the temperature rises steeply. Sometimes even climbing during the night, it remains high, 16 to 22 degrees above the average. At times, every scrap of moisture is extracted from the air and someone said that your skin seems to be drawn much tighter than usual because there's no moisture. There's just this tremendous blast of heat coming in this wind. Now, add that to the sun that's baking down on Jonah's head. The plant that shaded his head is now dead. He's completely exposed to the blazing sun. And the scorching winds out of the desert make him extremely miserable, and he pleads with God to take his life again. Look at the latter part of verse 8. Then he wished for death himself and said, It is better for me to die than to live. So the Lord questions Jonah about his anger in relationship to the mercy he had shown the Ninevites. Then the Lord questions Jonah about his anger in relationship to the plant that he had provided shade for him. The Lord asked Jonah a second question about his anger. In this case, it has to do with his anger about the dead plant that had been provided for him with shade. Look at verse 9, the first half of it. Then God said to Jonah, is it right for you to be angry about the plant? Jonah answers the question in the heat of the Spirit. He said, it is right for me to be angry even to death. And it's here that the Lord teaches Jonah a most powerful lesson and reveals the irrational nature of his sin. Look at verse 10. Then the Lord said, You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up at night and perished in the night. And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than 120,000 persons which cannot discern between their right hand and their left, and also much livestock. God revealed to Jonah how the prophet's heart was totally out of harmony with his. He contrasted Jonah's attitude with his own. The word for compassion is concern, sorrow, or pity. Jonah had become completely indifferent to the fate of those Ninevites. To reveal his lack of compassion, the Lord exposed to him the comfort of having that plant to shade him and the discomfort that everyone faces and made him see that his theology lacked universal compassion. There was no compassion in his theology for sinners, at least these sinners. It should have. Knowledge of a sovereign, compassionate God whom we fear should have made Jonah and us more submissive to God's will and more compassionate toward other people and more respectful of God. Jonah's compassion extended to a plant, but not to these people. God's compassion extended not only to plants, but also the people. The 120,000 people that God cited as a special object of His compassion were described as those not knowing the difference between the right hand and the left. Meaning those who are innocent because of lack of knowledge. That could mean infants. That could mean mentally impaired. And He even spoke about compassion on the animals that were in that city. John, you had compassion for a plant. It was angry over its demise because it afforded you a little measure of comfort. Shouldn't the God of grace and mercy have compassion on 120,000 people who don't know right from wrong, as well as all the animals and the creatures in that city? With that, the book comes to an abrupt end. Two lines of quick application. Let us pray that the Lord will create in us a sincere burden for those who are not saved. Let us pray that the Lord will create in all of us a sincere burden for those who are not saved. A couple of weeks ago in the prayer meeting, Alma had mentioned, because of her cousin's daughter, that she was saying that she'd been asking the Lord to give her more compassion for the lost. Boy, we need that, don't we? Because we have a tendency to look at the sinners and look down our nose at sinners, sort of like Jonah did. We need to realize that there but for the grace of God go I, and that we would have not looked down on sinners, but had compassion for sinners. Have love, a real burden to see them become saved. There's a couple of texts of Scripture I'd like us to consider in light of that. Go over to Psalm 126, please. This is one of the Psalms I have memorized. But I mentioned this Wednesday night in a prayer meeting. Talking about the burden for souls. And as we sow the word of God, we do so with a great burden. Psalmist describes it as tears. Look at verse five. Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy." That's speaking about having a burden for the lost. And in sharing the Gospel with him and sowing the seed of God's Word, he promises that we're going to one day reap in joy. That's similar to what we considered this morning about the grain of wheat falling into the ground and dying. Notice, he who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtlessly come again with rejoicing. bringing His sheaves with Him. That's a text we ought to hold on to when we consider our loved ones who are not saved. Our children, maybe parents, grandchildren, neighbors, whatever. That praying, God, give me, even though I don't cry literal tears, give me a broken heart over the lost. Help me to love the lost and to manifest Christ and to share the Gospel with them. And you said, Lord, and hold this prayer up and say, Lord, this is what you said. You said, if I go continually go forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, I'm going to bring some seeds with me. I'm going to see a fruit. I'm going to see souls saved. That's not just for preachers. That's for all of us. Go over to Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9. Here is a burden for souls that's probably unmatched in all of mankind. Probably only the Lord Jesus Christ had this kind of burden for the lost. I know that I could not say that my burden is as great as the Apostle Paul's was for his own Jewish people. And remember, these are not just boastful words. These are from Paul's heart. Words that he was inspired to write by the Holy Spirit of God. Chapter 9, Romans. He says, I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscious also bearing witness in the Holy Spirit. He is going out of the way to tell us that what I'm about to say to you is right. It's truth. I'm telling you the truth. I have a clear conscience. And I have a clear conscience before the Holy Spirit Himself that what I'm about to say to you is the way I really, the truly kind of burden I have for the Lord. That I have a great sorrow and continuing grief in my heart. That I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh. Paul is saying, I have such a burden to see the Jews saved, I myself would be willing to be damned if that would bring them to the Lord Jesus Christ. I can't say there's anyone that I have that kind of burden for. But Paul did. Go over to chapter 10, because again, he shows you the burden that he had. Verse 1, Brethren, my heart's desire, or better translated, my good pleasure and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. And all I'm saying, folks, is that you and I, in light of our studies in the book of Jonah, need to pray that we would have more of a compassion for the lost. For those who are unsaved. Second line of application. Let us beware of the spirit of Jonah. In having a bigoted disdain for certain persons. That quench any compassion for their spiritual well-being. Let us be aware of the spirit of Jonah. And having a bigoted disdain for certain persons. than that bigoted disdain quenches any compassion for their spiritual well-being." Watching the news on television and talk radio is a threat to your spiritual well-being. Let me tell you what I mean. We're constantly seeing pictures of Arab Muslims blowing up churches killing Christians. You're not seeing that on television and the media will never cover that. They don't care about that. But there's reports of them blowing up Christian churches in Muslim countries. We see them rioting, burning the U.S. embassies over a silly cartoon. We see them putting death threats out. We see this over and over and over and over again. And after a while you begin to sense a rising anger in your heart toward what you're watching and toward those people. And eventually that anger turns to a bigoted hatred to a point where every Arab and every person who claims to be a Muslim, you sense a certain disdain towards them. And you're walking in the shopping center and you see them with their burkas on, or you see some Arabs walking down the street, and you sense that you have absolutely no compassion or concern for their lost souls, the only thing you can think about is destroying them all. Hello? Am I the only one who struggles in that area? We all know that's true, don't we? But we need to recognize how foreign that is to the character of God. Yes, we need to be suspicious. And yes, we shouldn't stick our heads in the sand like our media and very frankly, our government is doing and hoping that it all will one day go away. It won't go away. It won't go away. And we can't be foolish. But in light, but in spite of that, we have to recognize that God is even calling out from among those people a people for His name. There are Christians, truly born-again Christians in Arab nations. There are Christian, true evangelical churches in Arab nations. And they're preaching the Gospel, but they're doing so under tremendous pressure and threats of death. And we ask ourselves, O Lord, don't let me justify this wicked anger and hatred that I sense towards these people. Don't let me dare justify that and claim somehow it's alright. Because it's contrary to the character of God. He saved the city of extremely decadent and wicked people. Because He's a God of compassion, of love, and of mercy. And we need to thank Him for that. That's the only reason we're here tonight in Christ Jesus. Because He is a God of compassion, and of mercy, and of long-suffering. Let's go from this place praising Him, asking God for a greater burden for the lost. Let's bow in prayer. Forgive us, Lord, for not having a burden for the lost as we should. Create that burden in our hearts as we read the Word of God, as we read what's waiting for the lost if they die in their sins. And that we have the truth that could save them. Give us a love for them that will move us to speak and to share the Gospel of saving grace with them. May the burden cause us to be on our knees praying for our loved ones, praying for moms and dads and for children, for grandparents and for grandchildren, and for our friends and neighbors and for the people in this church who are still in their sins. May it cause us to cry out to You to show mercy and to give opportunities to share the Gospel. And don't let us justify that spirit of Jonah that's in all of us. That's generated by events or just the latent bigotry that's in the heart of all human beings. Help us never to justify it, but to always look to You and ask that You would give us compassion and grace. And that You, by Your Spirit, would put down that sin and we cast it from us. We pray, we thank You for these studies in Jonah. May the practical aspects of this little book be a great help to all of us, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.