Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, some of you have probably heard of the name Jeffrey Dahmer. Jeffrey Dahmer. He was a serial killer. A man who killed at least 17 men over the course of a couple decades. The things that he did were absolutely horrible. I'm not going to speak of them here, except to say that even decades later, he is still considered to be one of the worst murderers, one of the worst criminals of all time. As far as I understand it, if I have read the news correctly back when it came out, he was sentenced to no fewer than 16 life sentences for what he did. But friends, over the course of his time in prison, something changed. He asked for and received a Bible and some study notes. He began to read it. He contacted a pastor and was baptized. He began to attend the local chapel services. He began to read books on the Bible and on God, and he claimed that he was a believer, that Jesus had forgiven his sins. Now, I am not here to tell you whether or not he became a Christian. I don't know his heart. I do know that he declaimed he said that he was a Christian. And I know this too, friends, that if Jeffrey Dahmer did repent. If he did trust in Jesus Christ. Then I know this. that I will see Jeffrey Dahmer in heaven and I will rejoice to call him a brother in Jesus Christ. And that statement is incredibly controversial. People recoil at the thought that God should show grace to a monster like him that even there are even people who would say and people who did say, if Jeffrey Dahmer is in heaven, I don't want to be there. In these people's minds, God's grace is OK, only to a certain point. And we can usually add that point is them. Jesus' blood to them can only cover a certain amount of sins. Certain types of sins. And such is the case with Jonah in our passage today. Look over our chapter that we're reading from, and you'll quickly find that this is the case. His very first words here in the chapter is that Jonah was displeased exceedingly. And why? Because God was merciful. The situation ought to teach us something about God's mercy. And so therefore, for a few moments this evening, friends, we will study this God's mercy. And we'll see two things here. First, the anger of Jonah and second, the mercy of God. We begin with this friends, the anger of Jonah. The anger of Jonah, look with me at verse one through four. It says, but it displeased Jonah exceedingly and he was angry and he prayed to the Lord and said, oh Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life for me, for it is better for me to die than to live. And the Lord said, do you be well to be angry. Now friends, if you remember our passage from a few weeks ago, you may recall what was taking place in the context. If you don't, that's OK. I'm about to tell it to you. Jonah had preached to the people of Nineveh. We saw how Jonah was was spit out. After abandoning the calling that God had given him. After being thrown into the sea and swallowed by the great fish. He was spit out and God came to Jonah and told him, go, again, go to Nineveh. And when Jonah preached to the people of Nineveh, this people, they repented immediately. their repentance, it was immediate, it was widespread, it was powerful from the king to the smallest pauper. And you may even recall in chapter three that not only the king and the pauper and the great men and the normal people alike, not only did they repent, but they actively showed it. They agreed that they had sinned. They humbled themselves. They prayed to God. They left behind, and this is important, they left behind their sin. They even fasted. And we saw, too, how extreme their repentance was, that they weren't even content just to fast and sit in sackcloth and ashes themselves. They even forced their animals to do it. And right before our passage for this evening, it says that God saw their repentance and he turned back from the destruction that he was going to commit. Seeing that his threat had been listened to, that the people had truly turned from their wickedness, he did not destroy them as he said he would. We should expect that Jonah would be glad to see the people of Nineveh repentant. Wouldn't we? Wouldn't we expect that Jonah, after walking some 500 miles or so from the sea, after preaching to the people, after going through all of this, we would expect that Jonah would rejoice that the people of Nineveh had been saved. But no. Jonah's instead angry. Our passage speaks of his anger and more than an anger, a rage that burns inside his heart. He's exceedingly displeased. He is angry. And to translate verse 1 literally, it says that Jonah was angry with a great anger and it was hot for him. He smoldered. Where is this anger coming from? Why is he so mad at God? Jonah himself tells us in verse two. Is this not what I said when I was yet in my country? This is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish. For I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, relenting from disaster. Jonah's angry. Because God is merciful. Let's work through these words of Jonah for a moment. Jonah says, I knew, Lord, that you are gracious. Our God is a God who is gracious. And this word here, it refers to a person who who is quick to forgive. A person who is kind, when the person who has sinned against them does not deserve it. Jonah says that this God, our God, is a God who is gracious, merciful. This term refers to God as tender or kind or tender-hearted. At the heart of the word that Jonah uses here is the idea of motherly affection. The word here, rechem, is a word that is used to refer to a womb. And just as a mother's body fosters and cares for and raises and blesses for her infant, so also God is with us. Merciful. And Jonah says that God is a God who is slow to anger. that he's patient, that he is kind. He waits for those who have rebelled against him. He does not destroy immediately those who have sinned against him, but he waits and is patient. He is a God who is great in mercy, says Jonah. So not only is his patience great, not only is he longsuffering, but when people turn to him, He's quick to forgive, quick to leave his ire. Finally, Jonah says that God is a God who is relenting from disaster. This hardship, this trial, the disaster that was to overcome the people of Nineveh, God. He turned back his hand. This saying that Jonah gives here, this gracious, merciful, slow to anger, great in mercy, relenting from disaster, this is a phrase that the people of Israel all knew well. Jonah has heard this phrase repeated again and again and again throughout his entire life with minor variations. The idea of God's mercy is throughout the entire Old Testament and throughout all of scripture. And just to give you an example of this, when Moses is granted a glimpse of God in Exodus chapter 34, a passage that surely Jonah knew well. God declares this of himself. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. And we could continue through the Old Testament and find this passage used again and again. We won't go through them all, but I'll mention a few verses here. And if you can't write them all down in time, that's okay, you can ask me afterwards, I'll give you the rest of them. This phrase occurs in 2 Chronicles 30 verse nine. In Nehemiah 9, verse 17. In Nehemiah 9, verse 31. In Psalm 86, verse 15. In Psalm 103, verse 8. In Psalm 111, verse 4. In Psalm 112, verse 4. In Psalm 116, verse 5. In Psalm 145, verse 8. In Joel 2, verse 3. Our God is merciful. Jonah knew this. But Jonah did not want mercy for the Ninevites. Friends, God's mercy is the most beautiful thing that can exist. It is perhaps the foremost part of God's perfect goodness. It is something that should make every Christian weep when they think upon it. That Jesus Christ, our Lord and our God, would suffer on our behalf, that He would pay for our sin, that He would die in our place, that in Him we are washed clean of our sin. This mercy should be the fountain of our assurance, the fountain of our hope. We should not even speak of this mercy without our hearts thrilling. And Jonah himself, he should have known this. He should have seen the mercy of God better than anyone else. Because when he had fled from God, it was only by God's grace that had saved him from death beneath the waves. Jonah himself, only a couple chapters before, had ended his prayer with a victorious shout. Look, friends, at Jonah 2. Verse 9. But I, with the voice of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord. But here, salvation belonging to the Lord becomes Jonah's cause of complaint. because of his hatred of the people of Nineveh, his desire to see them destroyed. He knew their sin. He believed that they deserved death. So he was angry that the Ninevites would receive life from the hand of God. Now, congregation, let us apply this to our own hearts for a moment. There may be times in our lives when we, like Jonah, may forget that we have sinned against God, or forget. And we start to look down on another person as if that person can't receive forgiveness. Because of their sin, Friends, this attitude betrays self-righteousness, self-confidence, and pride. It can come to the point, friends, when we believe that God's mercy upon us is only right and fair. It's our due. We deserve it. But God's mercy on them, on others, that's a travesty. Let us fear self-righteousness in ourselves. Brothers and sisters, boys and girls, if you find this attitude growing in your heart, be afraid. It is the mercy of God that gives you life. It is the mercy of God that allows us to wake up every morning. It is the mercy of God that brings us Jesus Christ, the only Savior. It is his mercy that is the reason why Jesus' blood was shed for us. Let us fear self-righteousness. But on the contrary, friends, if we humble ourselves, if we see that we do not deserve salvation, Then look upon Jonah's declaration here with comfort. God is merciful. God is gracious. He is slow to anger. He is. He is quick to forgive. He is relenting from disaster. And that's wonderful because we are the Ninevites. Because we don't deserve that mercy, but he gives it. to everyone who is in Jesus Christ. These words ought to be a balm to the sin-torn soul. Something we rejoice in. Certainly not a reason to sin. But a reason to thank God. To hear that God reaches out his hand to us. That he should give us hope in him. that we might be able to say, when I look at myself, I cannot see how I could be saved. But when I look to Jesus Christ, I cannot see how I could be lost. In the second place here, friends. We ought to see the mercy of God. Maybe you say, well, we've already seen the mercy of God. God makes his mercy yet more clear to us. Look here at verse five through 11. Jonah went out of the city, sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade till he should see what would become of the city. Now the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah so that it might be a shade over his head to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a scorching east wind and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, it is better for me to die than to live. But God said to Jonah, do you do well to be angry for the plant? And he said, yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die. And the Lord said, you pity the plant. for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle? When Jonah finished complaining against God, he leaves the city. He sits underneath a booth to see what might happen. And he had heard that God would not destroy Nineveh, but perhaps the 40 days aren't up yet. It's possible here that Jonah is still hoping to see destruction. like a man who goes to a city and hopes to see a riot. And when there isn't one, he says, well, maybe I'll sit back and hope that a brick gets thrown. As if God might maybe change his mind, as if Nineveh's repentance was only a temporary thing. And so therefore maybe, maybe, maybe God will smite them where they stand. But while Jonah is angry at God, God is merciful even towards Jonah. And so God sets out to teach Jonah a lesson. And verse six tells us that he prepared a plant in order to shade Jonah. And earlier in the book, Jonah had been swallowed by a big fish that was prepared for him. Now, so in the same way, God prepares this plant. And Jonah was in certainly a place with a little shade, a place that was very warm, and so as soon as God shades him, he's glad because of it. Jonah, who had been so angry for God sparing the Israelites, is happy that a single plant lives. Soon after, however, God also prepares this worm to attack and kill the plants. And we see here, too, the sovereignty of God. Know that God could prepare a fish, that God could prepare and cause repentance on the people of Nineveh, that God could prepare a plant, that God could prepare this worm, and this worm, he kills the plant, and the plant dies, and therefore, the next day is torture for Jonah. In the desert, the shade gone from him. And worse, God uses the sun and the weather to make it even more difficult, the sun beating down upon him, the wind and the heat and the sand suffocating him. And at last, Jonah cries out in his heart and in desperation again, God, kill me. If you're not going to kill the Ninevites, at least let me die. And again comes God's question. Is it right for you to be angry over this plant? Before, Jonah would not answer. But here he feels himself justified. Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die. Here, God springs the trap. He says he has much more right to care for Nineveh than Jonah has a right to care for the plant. Let's do a brief comparison here. Let's set the plant on this side and let's set Nineveh on this side, friends. And what about this plant? This plant's life, it was unasked for. At least on Jonah's part. Jonah, he didn't toil to make it. He didn't plant the seed and the water and give it nutrients. But God had, on the other hand, cared for it. appointed every event in the life of Nineveh, that great city. The plant's life, it was a brief life. It was a plant that lived for a night and was killed in a night. But Nineveh, however, was an ancient city. Genesis 10 tells us that it was built by Nimrod only a few generations after the flood. And so God had blessed countless generations of people in this city. And this plant's like, well, it was individual, a single vine, a single plant. And when it died, that was it. But in Nineveh, on the other hand, there are hundreds of thousands of people The plant's life, it was weak, destroyed by a single worm. But Nineveh, a place of strength, blessed by God, and nothing but an act of God could destroy it. You see, God's mercy here, congregation, Jonah didn't care for the Ninevites, but God did. He had toiled to bless them. He had given them life. He had made them strong. He is merciful. He would not see these people destroyed without first giving them an opportunity to turn from their sin. So consider God's words here. There are two things I'd like us to think upon here. First, let us have a concern for who and what God cares about. In our passage, Jonah, he was angry over the death of a plant, but he couldn't find care in his heart for the people that God loved. In the same way, friends, there are times when we major on the minors. when we become concerned about things that are not important simply because they touch our comfort or our particular peculiar interests. If I can give a few examples up here, and I hope that I don't step on any toes, but if I do, well, there are times when precise theological debates may be this. There are certainly times to stand firm and say, no, this is what God's word says, absolutely. But there are also times when that is not the case. When someone argues over something that is not a major issue. Or when it comes to minor disagreements in our lives. This person wants to do that thing, the other person wants to do the other thing. Or slights that someone has committed against us. Things they may not even notice that they've done. These things can become reasons that we use to turn away from what God cares about. Instead, congregation, keep your eyes upon Jesus Christ. Keep your eyes upon salvation in him. Have mercy for the lost. Pray for them. Weep for them. Plead for them. Speak to them. and related to this in the second place, congregation, let us remember that when we speak to people around us, we are not talking to people who live a day, who are raised up in a night and who perish in a night. When we speak to others, we are speaking to everlasting souls, not dealing with plants, but with people, C.S. Lewis puts it this way, there are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, art, civilizations, these are mortal and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit. Immortal horrors and everlasting splendors. So when we consider the sins of others, and when we look out at the world, there is great sin. But when we consider the sins of others, and when we are tempted to pride, to self-satisfaction. Remember this. God will not carelessly destroy the wicked. The time of destruction comes. The time of Christ's return and everything to be set right, it does come. And we should wait for it, and certainly we should hope for it. But as God declares in Ezekiel chapter 33, He does not take pleasure in the death of the wicked. And on the other hand, Christ says there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents. And friends, I ask you, having heard all this, Do you see the mercy of God? Who would care for a people like Nineveh? And who would still be loving to a man like Jonah? Do you see the mercy of God who would love and serve for and save a wretch like me? Look to Jesus Christ. Trust in Him. because he is gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster. Amen.