The title of this morning's sermon is, The Mercy and Judgment of God, Part Three. The Mercy and Judgment of God, Part Three. In 1 Samuel 15, which is a passage we're gonna be looking at, not this morning. In 1 Samuel 15, Saul is commanded to wipe out the Amalekites. It is a very serious judgment where even the women and children are killed or commanded to be killed. Listen to this, please. 1 Samuel 15, three. Now go and attack Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have and do not spare them but kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child. Now, I know that this can seem very troubling. In some sense, it's troubling to me. And so before we look at something like this, I wanted to make sure that we laid a foundation regarding God's mercy. And it's been a little bigger foundation than I probably initially thought, but I wanna make sure that we laid a foundation regarding God's mercy and judgment before looking at a passage like that. And I hope the previous sermons have helped accomplish that and helped us see a few things. that when God punishes the wicked, he's still able to spare who? The righteous, exactly. And then even when God's judgments look the severest, there's still a substantial amount of what? Of mercy, exactly. There's an equally strong amount of mercy. And we're gonna see that even when the Amalekites are judged because we'll see that the Kenites are shown mercy at that time. Now this morning's sermon is gonna continue where we left off last Sunday. So let me briefly review some of that message. When Israel entered the Promised Land, they encountered Rahab and they encountered the Gibeonites. And it was obvious from the things that Rahab and the Gibeonites said to some of the Israelites, like the spies, and then to the nation of Israel in Joshua 9, that Rahab and the Gibeonites had heard about a number of God's judgments. They had heard about the plagues that had been unleashed on Egypt. They had heard about the crossing of the Red Sea. They heard about the destruction of some number of enemies of Israel when God brought them through the wilderness, especially two kings named Sion and Og, who it seemed probably were considered almost invincible to people who knew of them. And they had also heard that God was gonna do what with the land of Canaan? He was gonna take it from the Canaanites and give it to the Israelites. The Canaanites had heard that God, or Rahab and the Gibeonites had heard that God was gonna destroy the Canaanites, removing them from the land, and then giving that land to Israel. Now, as a result of hearing about all of these judgments of God, there's something that happened in Rahab's heart, and there's something that happened in the Gibeonites' hearts, and they developed a very healthy fear of God, and they developed a very wonderful faith in God, and as a result of that, they wanted to join Israel, and by wanting to join Israel, they were actually wanting to join who? Israel's God, exactly. And this reveals something to us about God's judgments. And this brings us to lesson one in your bulletins. Lesson one, part one, some people are humbled by God's judgments. Lesson one, part one, some people are humbled by God's judgments. Lesson one, part one, some people are humbled by God's judgments. When we think about the purpose of God's judgments, I'm assuming the first thing that probably comes to mind is the punishing of sin, or the punishing of the wicked. And that's true, God's judgments serve that purpose, but there's another very, very important purpose that God's judgments serve, and it's humbling. It's humbling people, and it's drawing people to the Lord. You could say that God's judgments can actually be a very, very effective evangelistic tool. When we looked at 2 Peter 2, what was one of the reasons that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah? Obviously to punish those people because of their wickedness, but he also wanted to punish them and he wanted that punishment to serve as what? Does anyone remember? He wanted it to serve as an example. He wanted that destruction or that punishment to serve as an example. He wanted people to learn from it. 2 Peter 2.6, God turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly. And so when that fire in Brimstone, when it rained down on those cities, what did it communicate? It communicated that God is real. It communicated that God is holy. It communicated that God is just. It communicated that God punishes sin. It communicated that you should repent. It communicated that you should turn to the Lord. When Israel marched through the wilderness and they destroyed or had that tremendous victory or those tremendous victories over Sion and Og, Sion was the king of the Amorites. Og was the king of Bashan. What did that communicate? It communicated that the God of Israel or the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was stronger or was greater than any of the gods of the Amorites or any of the gods of Sion and Og, any of the gods that they worshiped in Bashan. It communicated those aren't gods at all. When God unleashed the plagues on Egypt, They punished the Egyptians for worshiping false gods, and those plagues on Egypt also punished the Egyptians for mistreating the slaves that they had been mistreating. But what else did those plagues do? What did it communicate when Pharaoh was unable to stop those plagues? What did it communicate when Pharaoh's magicians, using all of the satanic power that they could muster were unable to stop those plagues, or were only able to match those plagues. And it's interesting, did pharaohs and magicians stop the plagues? They actually made them worse. They did the same things, but they could only match those. I mean, why turn, if the nation needs water, why are you gonna turn whatever little amount of water is left into blood, right? And so that's what they were doing. They did not approve the situation. It just revealed that they could not stop the plagues. And even in their mimicking of them, they can only do so to a certain point. The plagues revealed that all the gods of Egypt were no match for the God of Israel. So you could say that every single one of those plagues screamed the same thing. They screamed that the gods you worship, the pharaoh you worship, the satanic power that he has or that the magicians have, it's no match for the God of Israel. That the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the Lord. He is the real God. And as a result of this, there's many people in Egypt who are one to the God of Israel. Listen to this verse that describes when Israel left Egypt. Let me ask you this. Was it only Israelites that left Egypt? No, it was a dramatic, significant deliverance. Exodus 12, 38, it says, a mixed multitude left Egypt with Israel. The Amplified says a mixed multitude of non-Israelites from foreign nations went with Israel. Now that mixed multitude included who? It included races of slaves that were in Egypt. It included some number of Egyptians even who were one to the God of Israel. They saw the might and the power of the God of Israel. They decided to forsake the gods of Egypt and follow the God of Israel. And so one thing that I want to invite you to keep in mind about the deliverance from Israel or the deliverance from Egypt We generally think about that being a physical deliverance, and it was. It was a physical deliverance from a physical slavery. But even more so, it was a deliverance from a true and greater slavery, which was spiritual. It was a deliverance from those false gods that those people in Egypt worshiped. So let me say it like this. Did God want to deliver the people physically from Egypt? Yes, he did. But even more, he wanted to deliver them what? Spiritually, and that's what those plagues accomplished, as they communicated to all these people that they were in an even worse spiritual bondage or spiritual slavery. Even the freest people in Egypt were spiritual slaves or in a worse spiritual bondage to those false gods that they worship. And God delivered them from that. Later, when Israel was in the promised land in Joshua 8, it makes mention of strangers or it makes mention of foreigners that were with Israel. And you know that it's not the Gibeonites because the Gibeonites did not join Israel until Joshua 9. In Joshua 8, 33, it says, all Israel, the stranger as well as he who was born among them. And then Joshua 8.35, it says, Joshua read before the assembly of Israel with the women, with the little ones and the strangers who were living among them. So twice it makes mention of these strangers or these foreigners who were living or dwelling among the Israelites. And now if we pause for a moment and we get a little elevated scripture of Israel's history up to this point. Israel is generally considered to have been birthed out of Egypt, or that's generally considered their beginning as a nation. And then they had 40 years of history in the wilderness, and then they had about 25 years of history in the Promised Land. And it did not even take all 25 years of history in the Promised Land to see before, that's not a real lengthy period of time. I mean, 40 years and 25 years, that's not that long of a time of history. And even in that relatively short period of time, Israel had already accumulated, it seems, a fairly large number of non-Israelites. They'd already accumulated some number of strangers and foreigners to them. And the obvious question is, why would these strangers or foreigners, why would these Gentiles, these non-Israelites, wanna join Israel? And the reason is, the same reason the Rahab and the Gibeonites wanted to join Israel. They knew what God had done. They were familiar with God's judgments. They said, I want to be on the side of that God. That is a God who's awesome and powerful. That is a God that I want to worship. I want to avoid or be spared of those judgments. And so we conclude, as we conclude this part of the lesson, I just want to make sure we all understand that God's judgments have this very tremendous potential. They have this very tremendous potential to humble people, to bring people to repentance, God's judgments can draw people to the Lord. And as a result, God's judgments, as severe or terrible as they might look at times, can actually be considered very merciful in a sense, because they bring people to what? They bring people to repentance, they bring people to Christ, they bring people to the Lord, where they're going to be able to avoid even further worse judgments in the future, like hell possibly. And so in that sense, you could say that God's judgments are merciful. Now let me ask you something else. Rahab and the Gibeonites were the ones who joined Israel. Were Rahab and the Gibeonites the only Canaanites who heard about everything God had done? Even though Rahab and the Gibeonites were the ones to join Israel, had the other Canaanites also heard about what God had done? Yes, most definitely. When Rahab was speaking to the spies, in verse nine, Joshua 2.9, she said, all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted. In verse 10, she said, we have heard how the Lord did this. And then in verse 11, she said, as soon as we heard these things. And then in Joshua 6, right before Jericho is destroyed, it says that the whole city is locked up because everyone is terrified of what God had done. But there was a difference between Rahab the Gibeonites and the rest of the Canaanites. And the difference is this, Rahab and the Gibeonites, they were convinced that God was going to destroy the Canaanites. They were convinced that God was going to take their land from them and give it to Israel. So you could say they were convinced that God was going to defeat them, or God was going to be victorious, or they were convinced God was going to do what he said he would do. They had faith in God, they were afraid of God, right? Now, can that be said of the rest of the Canaanites? No, what were they convinced of? They were essentially convinced of the opposite. They were convinced that they could defeat the God of Israel. They were convinced they could keep their land. They were convinced that they could face the Israelites in battle, and defeating them would be defeating the God of Israel, which is what they thought. Briefly listen to these verses, Joshua 11, 19, it says, no city made peace with the children of Israel except the inhabitants of Gibeon. All the others, all the other peoples or nations in the promised land, Israel had to face or had to take in battle. When Joshua recounted Israel's history in the promised land at the end of Joshua, in Joshua 24, 11, he said, We went over the Jordan and we came to Jericho. The men of Jericho fought against us. Also the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites, and Jebusites. Everyone fought against us when they went into the promised land. So I want you to notice this. Even though all the Canaanites had heard about God's judgments, it produced a very polarizing, or it produced a very opposing effect in the hearts of Rahab and the Gibeonites, versus the hearts of the rest of the Canaanites. For some people, whether it's the Old Testament or even for some people today, God's judgments have this very polarizing or opposing effect in people's hearts. And this brings us to the rest of lesson one. Lesson one, part one, some people are hardened by God's judgments while others are what? Oh, excuse me, some people, I gave it to you. Lesson one, some people are humbled by God's judgments while others are what? Hardened, that's right. Some people are humbled by God's judgments, part two, while others are hardened. Some people are humbled and others are hardened. Romans 11, 22. Romans 11.22, it says to consider the goodness and the severity of God. Consider the goodness and the severity of God. The New Living Translation, it says to notice it. The ESV says to note it. The NAS says to behold the goodness and severity of God. And so we're told to do something. We're told to do something. We're told to note or notice or to behold the goodness and the severity of God. You could think of this as a command. Now, sometimes people disobey this verse because they only wanna think about what? the goodness. They want to think about God's love, God's graciousness, God's kindness, God's mercy, God's forgiveness. They don't want to think about the severity. They don't want to think about God's judgment. They don't want to think about His wrath. They don't want to think about His anger. They don't want to think about His justice. And when people do this, what they're doing is they're creating a God of their own imaginations. They've actually created a what? And They have created an idol. They have created a false god. It is a form of idolatry. Now, in the Old Testament, people used to create false gods, or they created these idols by going and obtaining some amount of wood or stone and then decorating it or trimming it up and possibly setting it in their homes. Do people still create idols today? They do. They may not use wood and stone, but they create them in their hearts. They create them in their minds. That's how we create idols today, and we do that every time we choose to think about certain attributes of God. perhaps just or most often just His goodness without also thinking about His severity. And we want to make sure we don't do this. And if we want to make sure we don't do this, we need to make sure we think about God's goodness and His severity. I hope that's what we're doing with these sermons, actually. We've been considering God's goodness, His mercy, and we're considering His judgments, His severity. So there's nothing wrong with thinking about God's severity. And I'll tell you this, there's nothing wrong with saying God is severe. Is there something wrong with saying God is severe? What says God is severe? The Bible says God is severe, and not only does the Bible say God is severe, the Bible says think about that severity, consider it, notice it. Romans 11, 22, behold it, recognize it. So not only is it not wrong to think about God's severity, we should recognize it, and we should think about it, we should consider it. But here's the thing. When some people consider the severity of God, what happens in their hearts as a result? What do they say? He's too severe. or he's too cruel or he's too harsh. I cannot handle a God like that. I cannot handle a God who would judge or who would punish people like that. I cannot handle a God who would send people to hell. And so what happens with these people is the exact opposite of what happened in the heart of Rahab. What happens with people like that is the exact opposite of what happened in the hearts of the Gibeonites. or that mixed multitude that chose to join Israel. Instead of being humbled and drawn to God, these people are hardened and they turn from God. They become hostile to God. They even start to blaspheme Him. And I wanna give you an example of this from Scripture that hopefully illustrates what we're discussing. If I asked for the time of God's worst judgments in history, which has not taken place yet, what time would you tell me? We'd say the tribulation, right? That is the time when God's wrath against a Christ-rejecting world will be unleashed in the form of those 21 judgments, right? The seals, the trumpets, and the bowls. That's the instance, or will be the instance, of God's worst judgments in history. And when that takes place, everyone on the face of the earth, and hopefully we won't be there for it, but everyone on the face of the earth at that time is gonna fall into one of two categories. They are going to be humbled, or they are gonna be what? or they're gonna be hardened. Listen to the group that's humbled. This is one instance, one verse I can give you. There was a great earthquake, Revelation 11, 13. There was a great earthquake, a tenth of the city of Jerusalem fell. In the earthquake, 7,000 people were killed just in that city. And the rest, listen to this, Now you'd think, a bunch of people died, there's this terrible earthquake, they know that it came from God. And listen to this, they were afraid of God and gave glory to the God of heaven. Now is that a wonderful, beautiful response or what? To God's judgment, and it was not a gracious thing that God did, at least not from our perspective. I would say that it's gracious because it got these people to repent and turn to the Lord. They were humbled, they developed a fear of God, they were drawn to him, they gave him glory. Now the second group, Revelation 16.8, the fourth angel, he poured out his bowl on the sun and men were scorched with great heat and they blasphemed the name of God. They did not repent and give him glory. Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl. There was darkness and men nodded their tongues because of the pain. They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pain and their sores. They did not repent. Revelation 16.21, great hail fell from heaven upon men. Men blasphemed God because of the hail. And so you have these people witnessing or experiencing the exact same judgments falling into these completely opposing categories. One being humbled, repenting, giving glory to God. Another being hardened, rejecting God, blaspheming Him. Now I want to give you an example from Katie's life that she shared with me. Katie had the same best friend through high school and called us a young lady that I grew up with too, that I was friends with, I remember her. From high school, I would have told you that by all outward appearances, she was a very devoted follower of Christ. And we're going to say that her name was Jennifer. She was raised in a Christian home. She seemed to have a strong commitment to the Lord. And she began dating a guy in college who was not a Christian. And his thoughts really began influencing her. I mean, we could have a whole other sermon about not being unequally yoked and the consequences of it, right? So she begins dating this guy who has these completely different views. and it was largely his views of God's judgment that influenced her or upset her. And so Jennifer made the decision to take two weeks off work and lock herself in her room and read all of the accounts in Scripture that deal with the severest instances of God's judgment. Now, I can't tell you exactly what she read, but I would highly suspect if she was looking for the most severe instances of God's judgment in Scripture, She probably read those accounts that we have developed some familiarity with over the last few weeks. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the flood, the destruction of the Canaanites. We will be looking at the destruction of the Amalekites. And she read these passages and then this is what she said. I cannot worship a God like this. I cannot worship a God like this. And since then she's identified herself as an agnostic. And here's the thing, when we consider God's judgments, or his severity, you could say we all face that exact same choice that Jennifer faced. We all face the exact same choice that Rahab faced, the exact same choice the Gabianites faced, the exact same choice the rest of the Canaanites faced. The people during the tribulation, the question that they faced, will we humble ourselves and turn toward God, be drawn toward Him, or are we gonna be hardened toward God and turn away from Him? Are we gonna develop a healthier fear of God as we develop this familiarity with His judgments, or are we gonna reject God and we're gonna blaspheme Him? Now maybe some of you have the same struggle with God's judgments that Jennifer had. Maybe these accounts upset you. Maybe you don't understand how God could punish people like this. Maybe you have said things like, how could a loving God, or God seems so terrible, or he seems so harsh. Maybe you've even found it harder to worship God. Now as your pastor, I don't want you having any of these struggles in your relationships with the Lord. Worse, I wouldn't want any of you going down the path that Jennifer took. So instead, one of the desires I have for these sermons is I'm hoping that they can help you see the goodness and the mercy of God despite the judgments. I'm hoping that they can help you see that this mercy is available to anyone and everyone who is willing to do what Rahab, what the Gibeonites, those people in the tribulation are willing to do, to humble themselves, repent, look to the Lord. I hope as we read about these judgments that it can work in our hearts the way that it worked in Rahab's heart, in the Gibeonites' hearts, developing that healthy fear and developing that greater faith in the Lord. Now with that said, let me ask you to imagine something. Imagine you live in the Old Testament. So let's say that you know very well, you know firsthand the judgments of God that he unleashed on people. You know, people dispute the flood today. People did not dispute the flood in the Old Testament. They saw the effects of it. They knew people who knew people who knew people who have seen the effects of it, who lived not that long after it, who had been very close to the time of it. So let's say that you know God flooded the world. Let's say that you saw all the plain of the Jordan. which previously was actually described as being like the garden of the Lord before it was destroyed when Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed. And so you saw how lush and beautiful it was and then you saw how charred it was. And you've seen how all the burn marks or how scorched it was after. Let's say you know how God commanded certain people like the Canaanites to be destroyed and the Amalekites to be destroyed. You know all these judgments. So if you lived in the Old Testament and you knew these judgments firsthand, what do you think you would think about God? How do you think you would feel toward God if you were that close in contrast to being thousands of years removed as we are now? I suspect for myself, if I lived back there, I would believe God was severe. I would probably criticize God for his judgments. I might criticize God for being too harsh, too severe, criticize him for his lack of mercy. But here's what's really interesting. When you look at the criticisms of God in the Old Testament, not from Gentiles, but from his own people, those people who knew him best and knew those judgments best, the most common criticism of God does not seem to be that he was too severe. The most common criticism of God does not seem to be that his judgments were too harsh or too cruel. The very common criticism of God is that he didn't punish the wicked. The very common criticism of God is that he was too merciful. And this brings us to lesson two on your bulletins. Lesson two, in the Old Testament, God was criticized for being too merciful. Lesson two, in the Old Testament, God was criticized for being too merciful. We can be tempted to think that God looks terribly cruel or terribly harsh in the Old Testament, but believe it or not, the more common criticism of God in the Old Testament is that he was too merciful. God was not criticized for punishing the wicked too severely. God was actually criticized for not punishing the wicked. Say nothing about not punishing severely enough. He was criticized for not punishing them at all. Let me remind you of an account that we recently discussed. And after I explain this, I want to ask you if God looks too severe or if he looks too merciful. Now first, if I say, tell me the names of the wickedest cities in history, what would you say? Sodom and Gomorrah, hands down. And that's what we're talking about. So we're not talking about some morally middle ground city. We're dealing with the wickedest cities in history here. Sodom and Gomorrah. And before God destroyed these cities, Abraham had a conversation with them. And Abraham wanted God to spare Sodom so that who else would be spared? His nephew Lot, right? And Abraham was able to talk God down from 50 people to 10 people. So first Abraham comes to him and says, will you spare the city if there's even 50 righteous people there? And he goes on and on and on. He finally talks God all the way down to 10 people. And then listen to this. Abraham said, let not the Lord be angry. I'll speak but once more. Abraham could obviously tell he was pushing it. Suppose there's 10 righteous people that are found in Sodom. And now listen to this and consider this for a moment. God said, I will not destroy Sodom for the sake of 10 righteous people. Now think about what he just said. Unbelievably, God would spare the city of Sodom, one of the wickedest cities in history, or arguably the wickedest, if it contained only what? 10 righteous people. Now there were thousands of people in Sodom. Thousands of wicked people in that city. That city had produced more wickedness than countless other cities combined. And God said that he would spare it for the sake of 10 righteous people. Now we know that Sodom ended up being destroyed anyway because there were not even 10 righteous people in it. But if you didn't know that and you heard that God was going to avoid judging all of those wicked people for the sake of 10 righteous people, what would you think? Would you think that God was too severe or would you think he was too merciful? And it was this merciful heart of God that got him criticized so often by people in the Old Testament. Many of the godliest people, especially the prophets, who really knew God, familiar with his judgment, spoke for God, who supposed him to be holy and supposed him to be just, struggled with him allowing the righteous to go unpunished. They would look at the wickedness of some of these people groups And they would say, how could a God who's holy or how could a God who's just not punish them? How could he allow them to exist? How can he allow them to continue like this? And I'll just insert this right here. I need to invite you to remember this for next week when we see the destruction of who? The Amalekites. I want this balanced against that. All of this is deliberate. We're considering the mercy of God so that it can be balanced against the severity of God when we see the destruction of the Amalekites. Now, I want to share a few examples of these criticisms with you, but it was pretty hard to keep this to a reasonable length. So I'm gonna read a portion. I'm gonna read a portion of the criticisms to you. And if you wanna read all of the criticisms of God, I put the verses on your bulletins. And so if you look on your bulletins under lesson two, we're gonna be filling in some blanks there, but after each blank will be the criticism in its entirety. If you wanna see how strongly God was criticized by people for being too merciful or for allowing the wicked to prosper. So look back at lesson two. Lesson two in the Old Testament, God was criticized for being too merciful by number one, Job. Number one is Job. Now Job is the oldest book in scripture. Job possibly or more than likely lived during Abraham's day. Now Abraham is like right after the flood. Now in my mind, if there was a time in history when people would not have thought God was too merciful, it would have been right after what? right after the flood. But here, going back to the flood, people were already recognizing the strong mercy of God because they saw how long he was giving the wicked to repent. So even in Job's day, he levies this terrible criticism against God in Job 21. Here's part of it. Job says, why did the wicked live on growing old and increasing in power? The rod of God is not upon them. They go unpunished. They spend their lives in prosperity and they go down to the grave in peace. I mean, did he forget the flood or what? They live nice long lives. How often does calamity come upon them? So he says they never experienced trials or trouble. The next part of lesson two, number two is Habakkuk. Number two is Habakkuk. Habakkuk. was a prophet of God who had to watch the behavior of some evil people, but interestingly, it was not Gentiles, it was who? It was Jews. Habakkuk saw the behavior, the wickedness of the Jews, and he was angry that God didn't punish them. Listen to what Habakkuk said. Invert Habakkuk 1, 2-4. How long must I cry out to you, God? Violence, but you do not do anything. Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me. There's strife, conflict abounds. Therefore, the law is paralyzed and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so justice is perverted. Why do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those who are more righteous than themselves? So he criticizes God for letting the wicked conquer or defeat the righteous. Now, I'm telling you, most of us probably would not even let our children talk to us this way, right? So one other way you happen to see the mercy of God in all of these examples is that he didn't wipe out these people when they were criticizing him. I mean, the way that God allowed people at times the graciousness or long-suffering nature of his, just allowing these sorts of criticisms of his nature and character reveals his mercy. Next, lesson two, number three is Jeremiah. In the Old Testament, God was criticized for being too merciful by number three, Jeremiah. Jeremiah had one of the most difficult ministries in the Old Testament. He spent 40 years prophesying to the Jews, nobody would listen to him, he faced countless false prophets who claimed to be prophets of God, and they would say the exact opposite of whatever he said. And making it worse for Jeremiah was he had to watch the Jews during this time, and they were very prosperous until Babylon came. But they were very prosperous up to that point. And in Jeremiah 12, when Jeremiah says to God, he says, righteous are you, O Lord. So he recognizes the righteousness of God. That's actually why he's having this struggle. He says, I know that you're righteous, I know that you're holy, I know that you're just, yet let me talk with you about your judgments. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are those happy who deal so treacherously? Why do the wicked have it so good? Why are these evil people so happy? Why are you merciful to them? Why don't you punish them? Next, number four, Asaph. We're gonna look at this psalm in its entirety next Sunday during Sunday school because this is a part I took out of my sermon. I studied Psalm 73, couldn't fit it in my sermon. We're gonna look at it in Sunday school next Sunday. It's a wonderful psalm. Asaph wrote this psalm. He had been a worship leader, a music leader, and he had a strong criticism of God. His criticism of God was so strong, he actually started to stumble or slip in his relationship with God. Listen to this, Psalm 73, 2. Asaph says, as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped, and he means in his relationship with God, and now he says why. Because I was envious of the boastful when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. There's no pangs in their death. They just die nice and old without any suffering. Their strength is firm. They're not in trouble as other men. They're not plagued like other men. Their eyes bulge with abundance. They have more than their heart could wish. They set their mouth against the heavens. They criticize God. They say, how does God know? Is there no knowledge in the most high? So they say that God has no idea what they're doing. Behold, these are the ungodly who are always at ease. They increase in riches. And now listen to this. Asaph says about his godly pursuit of, or he has tried to pursue God. He has tried to live a holy life. And because he sees the prosperity of the wicked, he actually says, surely I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocence. And so he says the wicked prosper so much, why am I even bothering? Why even bother serving the Lord when the wicked have it so good? That's how much it seemed to him that they went unpunished. That's how merciful God seemed to Asaph. Lesson two, in the Old Testament, God is criticized for being too merciful by number five, Malachi. I chose this individual because Malachi is the last prophet of the Old Testament. He is the close of the Old Testament canon. So this means you've got a criticism by Job, and you've got a criticism of Malachi, and it means you're looking at a criticism that largely stretches through the Old Testament. You've got God being criticized just as much as the end of the Old Testament by Malachi. Malachi 3.15, he says, we call the arrogant blessed. The arrogant get away with so much they can be considered blessed. Certainly, evildoers prosper, and even when they put God to the test, they get away with it. So he says people can test God, they can taunt God, but nothing happens. So you see that even these people who lived in the Old Testament, who are the most familiar with God's judgments, and have you ever heard people say this, or have you possibly ever said this before? Why does God look so angry in the Old Testament? Why is he always so mad? Why is he always destroying people and punishing people, all this judgment and wrath? Why doesn't he look more like Jesus, who's so nice and gentle and gracious, right? We'll talk about that a little bit in the future too. But the thing is, recognize this mercy. Recognize this mercy of God in the Old Testament. And why was he merciful? Why was he long-suffering? There's only one reason. He was allowing people time for what? Repentance. Repentance, that was it. Now there's one particular example of God being criticized for being too merciful. And it's one that really stands out in my mind because it's an individual who was so upset about God's mercy, so angry about it that he actually asked God to kill him. Who am I talking about? Jonah, let's turn there. And this brings us to the last part of lesson two. In the Old Testament, God was criticized for being too merciful by Jonah. I wanna look at this example in a little more detail. Please turn to Jonah 3.4. It's not the easiest book to find. You can turn past the major prophets, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and then Hosea, and then go right into the smaller prophets, and you'll encounter Jonah, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah. Now as you turn there, here's the context. Here's the context for this account, if by chance anyone's unfamiliar with it. God told Jonah to go to one of the wickedest cities in the Old Testament, probably like a real close second after Sodom and Gomorrah. It was a different type of sin that they committed there. They were just a terribly violent and cruel people. And that was the city of Nineveh. So God sends Jonah to Nineveh, which is the capital of Assyria. And Jonah basically decides to go the other direction. He boards a ship to Tarshish. And he's heading away from God, but God is not going to allow his prophet to escape so easily for Jonah's sake and for the sake of the Ninevites. So he attacks this ship with this terrible storm. It is made obvious through Jonah 1, Jonah chapter 1, that Jonah is the cause of this storm. The crew resists throwing Jonah overboard, but finally they realize they're all gonna perish, so they throw him overboard. And Jonah ends up being swallowed by this huge fish, and then he is spit up on the shore, and at that point, he decided he would do what God wanted him to do, right? So Jonah goes to Nineveh, and he preaches a message of judgment to them. Look at Jonah 3, 4. Jonah began to enter the city on the first day's walk. Then he cried out and he said, yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. Now, I don't know how many words that is exactly in your translation, but it is five words in Hebrew. I mean, this is like the shortest message of repentance in all of scripture. Five Hebrew words that he preached and he did not have to repeat them very much. He did not have to walk around very long before the people of Nineveh were ready to repent. And in this sense, I'll just tell you this. They rebuke a lot of people. The Ninevites rebuke a lot of people who receive a lot lengthier and longer message than they received and fail to repent from even their sins that they think are insignificant, like lying, like stealing, like disobeying their parents. Whatever it is, the Ninevites rebuke them. And I suspect that's why Jesus said that some of these people are gonna rise up in judgment and condemn them. on the day of judgment, because the Ninevites did something that a lot of people today will not do. And what's that? Humble themselves. Repent. Acknowledge that they're sinners. And just to let you know, that's why they're gonna be shown all this mercy. And a lot of other people who don't look nearly as bad as the Ninevites will not be shown the same kind of mercy. Now with that said, I lost my spot in my notes here. If you look back at lesson one, it says some people are humbled by God's judgments. Some people are humbled by God's judgments, and if you wanna see one of the best examples of that in scripture, you're looking at it right here. These people constitute one of the best examples in all of scripture at being humbled by God's judgments. Look at verse five. The people of Nineveh, they believed God, they proclaimed a fast, they put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. The word came to the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, and laid aside his robe. He covered himself with sackcloth and satin ashes. He caused it, he caused the fast to be proclaimed and published it throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles. And he said in the notices, he said, let neither man, don't even let beast, flock or herd taste anything. Do not let them eat or drink water. Now that is a serious fast when even the animals are fasting, right? That is a serious fast when you've called. So if you wanna be real spiritual in your home, when you call your family to fast, make sure the pets fast too. Okay? So apparently if Jim wants to be real spiritual, when he fasts at the farm, the cows fast. And that's what happened with these animals. I mean, this is, you don't see another fast like this in scripture where not even the animals are allowed to eat or drink anything. But it shows the seriousness of their humility and their desire to repent before the Lord. Verse eight, let man and beast be covered with sackcloth. So, they even covered the animals. I mean, these poor animals, right? Now they're being covered with sackcloth, just like the people were. and cry out mightily to God, and they said, yes, let everyone turn from his evil way and from their violence that is 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? Now, let me briefly explain something. Nineveh is the capital of Assyria, and the Assyrians, or the Ninevites, however you wanna say it, were known far and wide for their terrible cruelty. They were some of the cruelest people in the entire Old Testament. I was going over my sermon with Katie, and I had provided some examples of things that they did, and Katie said, do not put that in the sermon. That is far too graphic for you to say from behind the pulpit. But just know, these were a terribly cruel, terribly cruel and violent people. And more than likely, that's why the king, I mean, of all the sins that they've committed that the king could have told them to turn from, what did he say to get out of their hands? Take a look. They're stealing, they're fornication, they're what? He says, they're violence. They're violence. All the sins he could tell them to turn from, he says, turn from your violent ways. And he even says, he says, get it out of your hands. He doesn't say get away from the violence you were doing or that you have done. He says, it's in your hands now, describing how violent they are currently, terribly violent and cruel these people were. Needless to say, they were a very, very evil people. They were very wicked. And so guess what they can't do? Guess what the Ninevites can't do? They can't simply believe God. They can't simply do a little fasting. They can't simply put on some sackcloth and act like they're sorry about what they did and be forgiven for that kind of terrible wickedness and violence, can they? When people have done what these people have done, this sort of violence, this sort of sin and evil and wickedness against who knows how many other people, They can't simply fast, believe in God, put on some sackcloth, and be forgiven for all that, can they? 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. Now can you find a better example in all of scripture of God's mercy than that? I mean, people of this sort of wickedness and violence being forgiven just like that as a result of their faith and their repentance. And this brings us to lesson three. Lesson three, God's mercy was shown by sparing part five, the Ninevites. Parts one through four from the previous two sermons that we've been building on. Lesson three, God's mercy was shown by sparing part five, the Ninevites. Now, in our previous sermons, there was a point that I've really been trying to drive home. There's a point I've really been trying to make with all of you, and we're about to find out if I've made that point or not. All right? Let me ask you a question to see if I've done what I want to do. Do people experience the mercy of God, and do people avoid the judgment of God by living moral, sinless, godly lives? Please tell me no. Do people experience the mercy of God and avoid the judgment of God by some number of good works that they do for the Lord? Tell me no. Is that how law, is that how Rahab, is that how the Gibeonites were able to experience God's mercy and avoid his judgment because they were such good, moral, godly people? Is that why the Ninevites experienced God's mercy and avoided his judgment because they were such good, godly, moral people? I hope I've made it clear that there are two things that allow people to experience the mercy of God and avoid the judgment of God, and it is faith and repentance. It is faith and repentance that allows people to experience the mercy of God and avoid the judgment of God. And the Ninevites are a tremendous example of this. If you write in your Bible, I wanna ask you to circle two things. In verse five, circle the words, the people of Nineveh believed God, and you can write faith. Circle the words in verse five, the people of Nineveh believed God, and you can write the word faith. In verse eight, circle the words, let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands, and you can write what word? Repentance. Repentance. It was faith. It was repentance that brought them mercy, that allowed them to escape the judgment of God. It was not their goodness or godliness or their morality or all the good things they had done for the Lord. They did about as much as a thief on the cross did, right? Now let me ask you to imagine you live in the Old Testament again. Take your minds back there. You're in the Old Testament. And let's say you're familiar with the violence of the Ninevites. Not the sort of familiarity we have. I mean real familiarity. You really know what these people have done. You really know how terribly evil they are. You're aware of the wicked things that they've done. You live You literally live in fear of the Assyrians. You have a constant fear of them attacking you, or your loved ones, or family, or your village, or your town, and what they will do to you, or to your wife, or to your children. You don't sleep as well at night because of them, literally. You don't have peace because of these people. Their very existence brings you turmoil, takes away your peace, and it fills you with anxiety and dread. And then one day something happens. One day something happens, your prayers are answered. God sends one of his prophets to Nineveh to tell them that they're gonna be destroyed. Now, how do you feel? How do you feel? Relieved, thankful, finally my prayers are answered. My family can live at peace. I have these beautiful children I see that I don't have to worry about any longer. And then something else happens. The Ninevites repent. and God spares them. They're not gonna be destroyed. They're not gonna receive God's judgment. They're gonna be spared. They're gonna receive God's mercy. And now, how do you feel? Let me be more specific. Now, how do you feel toward God? If you're anything like me, you would probably criticize God, and you would criticize Him for being too merciful. You would probably feel exactly like Jonah does in the next verse. Look at Jonah 4, verse 1. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly and he became angry. Jonah just sparked the greatest revival in history. He made Billy Graham look like a rookie. Okay, and now he's angry about it. He is really angry about it. And there's a number of parallels between Jonah and the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son. This is another portion of my sermon I had to remove. So I'm just gonna invite you to be an enjoyable homework assignment for you as a family, I believe. If you look for these parallels, and I'll try to establish a few of them. There's a number of parallels between Jonah and the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son. You could say that that older brother is the Jonah of the New Testament, okay? Here's one of the parallels. If you write in your Bible, you can circle Jonah 4, verse 1, and you can write Luke 15, 28. If you're in your Bible, circle Jonah 4, 1, and write Luke 15, 28, which says, but the older brother was angry and he would not go into the celebration. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. And so the way that the older brother would not go into that celebration is the same way that Jonah would not go into what later in this chapter? He will not go into Nineveh. He gets out of there. I deliver the message God wanted me to deliver. I am done. I'm not going in there and teaching Bible studies or telling anyone about Yahweh. I'll sit on this hill and just hope that God changes his mind and destroys everyone. So he removes himself from the city just like that older brother removed himself from the celebration. And then the way that the father graciously deals with that older brother comes out to Him and ministers to Him is the same way that God the Father deals with who in this chapter? With Jonah, right? And here's the question. Why does God in Jonah 4 look like the Father in Luke 15? Because they are the same Father. That is the same God. That is the same Father. It's a wonderful homework assignment as a family if you wanna read Jonah 4 in the parable of the prodigal son and look for that. Look for the parallels between the older brother and Jonah. Look for the parallels between God in Jonah 4 and the Father in Luke 15. Now look at verse two. So Jonah prayed to the Lord, and he said, now this is not a praise, this is a criticism. Ah, Lord, was not this what I said? Isn't this what I told you would happen? When I was, I told you you would do this. I knew you, I knew your nature, I knew your character. I know this is you, and I knew you would do this. when I was still in my country. Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish, for I know that you're a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger. an abundant and loving kindness, one who relents from doing harm. So when Jonah said, was not this what I said when I was still in my country, apparently there had been some dialogue between Jonah and God. Back in Jonah 1, before he went to Tarshish, when he had received that command, it's not recorded, gentlemen, there had been some exchange where Jonah told God, I'm not going, I'm not doing it, I know you. It might be the tiniest chance in history, but if they repent, you will forgive them, and I cannot have anything to do with that. And what else is interesting is in this verse, he says, that's why I fled. Just think about this for a moment. If God sends you to some of the wickedest and most violent people in history, you're supposed to go tell them that they're sinners and they're gonna be judged and destroyed. Do you think you might be afraid for your life? Do you wanna go talk to some of the most violent people in history and tell them they need to repent? So basically, if you didn't see this from Jonah right here, you'd have to suspect previously that he fled because he was afraid they would kill him. But now you find out he wasn't afraid of dying, he was afraid of them living. That was his greater fear. It wasn't dying, it was them being able to live. And what's really interesting about this, if you look in Jonah 1, don't turn there now, but when all of the men on that ship were gonna perish, what did Jonah say to them? What did he say? Throw me overboard. Throw me overboard. What does that reveal about Jonah? What kind of man was he? Compassionate. He was a kind man. He was a compassionate man. He said, I don't want all of you to perish. Throw me overboard so that you can live. No matter how compassionate he was, he could not muster any compassion for the Ninevites. And that just reveals, I mentioned that for one reason, so you can recognize just how evil these people really were. Now, verse three. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me. It is better for me to die than to live. And then the Lord said, is it right for you to be angry? So Jonah was angry about God's mercy. This is the criticism many people had in the Old Testament. You're looking at a great example of lesson two. Lesson two says people were angry at God, or people criticized God for being too merciful, and that's it right here. Jonah is the perfect example of lesson two. Now God is gently telling Jonah that he shouldn't be angry. He should be celebrating the repentance of the Ninevites. So you can circle verse four and you can write Luke 15, 32. Circle verse four and write Luke 15, 32, because that's when the father says almost the exact same thing to the older brother that God says to Jonah right here. In Luke 15, 32, the father said, it was right. that we should make merry and be glad for your brother was dead and is alive again and was lost and is found. So the father says, you should celebrate with us. You should not be angry about this. You should rejoice with us over the brother's repentance. Now, while it's easy to criticize Jonah and think that he's the worst prophet in history and criticize the older brother and think that he's the worst brother in history, I gotta be honest, I developed a lot more sympathy for Jonah this week. I developed a lot more sympathy for him. And I just wanna encourage all of us, this is not the main point of the sermon, I didn't make a lesson about it. I don't wanna take too lengthy of a detour. But we should look at God's question to Jonah. In verse four, we should examine our hearts. And we should make sure that whenever there's repentance from someone, there's also what on our part? Forgiveness, celebration, rejoicing, thankfulness, appreciation, right? Otherwise, we look a lot like Jonah. And it's too bad. It's really unfortunate. People call it the parable of the prodigal son. It's the parable of the prodigal sons. Was the brother who left any further away really from the heart of God than the brother who stayed? No, there were two brothers removed from the father in that parable. And we so often don't want to look like the one who ran away. We don't want to look like that one who stayed with all that ugliness in his heart and would not rejoice and celebrate the repentance of his brother. And that's what happened with Jonah here. Now, the following verses, they reveal the way that God ministers to Jonah, but we don't have the time to read all those verses. But there is one more thing that I want to show you that God says to Jonah, and I want to show you it because of what it reveals about the Lord. God made a number of very gracious attempts to reach Jonah through the plant, and then even through that sun that scorched him. All these different ways God tries to reach him, and Jonah doesn't listen. Nothing seems to be working. And then, really, in one of the most personal and intimate moments in scripture. God reveals his heart to Jonah here. Take a look at verse 11. He says, Should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than 120,000 persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left, and much livestock? Interestingly, God even seemed to be concerned about the livestock who had fasted and put on sackcloth. I've never quite understood that, but God mentions the livestock there. So you have this very touching, you have this very intimate moment where God reveals his heart to Jonah. And I wanna make sure that we appreciate it. The Ninevites, they were terrible. They were people who lived in complete rebellion to God, but God still felt what toward them? He felt pity. He felt compassion. He did not want to judge them. And this is God's heart. Even when it comes to the wickedest people we can imagine, still God feels this. pity for them, this compassion for them. And I want to invite you to remember this account. Remember this account, please, because sometimes you meet people, or sometimes you've perhaps even said something like this, I don't know if God could ever what? Forgive me. You don't know what I've done. You are not familiar with my past. If you knew these things that I did at this time or this season of my life, or you even knew what I did last week, and I've been going to church all this time, Remember this, because there's two kinds of people who say things like, God can't forgive me. Two kinds of people. People who don't know scripture, and they just don't know how merciful God is. The people who say, I don't know if God can ever forgive me. I don't know if God can forgive what I've done. People say that because they don't know scripture, they don't know Jonaphor. But there's a worse group of people. There's a people who do know scripture, but they don't what? They don't believe it. They might read Luke 15. They might read about the prodigal son. They might read Jonah 4. They don't believe it. They don't believe that it applies to them. So take this with you. Remember it. Share it with others and share it with yourself. And this is far from the only account of this in scripture. Manasseh, one of the wickedest men, sacrificing his own children to false gods. What happened when Manasseh humbled himself and repented? God forgave him. restored him as king. One of the most tremendous examples of God's grace and mercy. Ahab, easily the worst king of the northern kingdom of Israel. Listen to this. When Ahab humbled himself, 1 Kings 21, 29, God said to Elijah, do you see how Ahab, I mean, just his name makes me cringe. He was such a terribly evil king. Do you see how Ahab has humbled himself before me because he has humbled himself before me? I will not bring this calamity in his days. So I don't want to sound insensitive, because I can understand people struggling at times with God's forgiveness. But I want to say this firmly, and I don't say it firmly because I'm upset. I say it firmly because I think it's so important. We should all recognize this tremendous mercy of God that is available to any people who are willing to do what the Ninevites did, what Rahab did, what the Gibeonites did, and what's that? Humble themselves and repent, and they can look forward to the mercy of God. Spurgeon said, there is mercy for a sinner, but there is no mercy for the man who will not own his sin. So recognize, like the Ninevites, that you're a sinner. Cry out to God for the mercy he affords. Humble yourself. Acknowledge your sin before him. and enjoy the wonderful mercy that comes from faith in Christ that God affords to each one of his sons and daughters. Now, if you have any questions about this, perhaps you've been listening to this, you wonder if you're saved, you wonder if you've surrendered your life to Christ, you wonder if you'll know the mercy and forgiveness of God. I'll be up front after service, Pastor Doug will be with me too. We'd count it a real privilege to have the opportunity to speak with you or pray with you. Let's pray.