We're on. Good evening. Good to see you again. I forgot to say this morning, but your brethren in Kingsport send their love and greetings as always. I invite your attention tonight back to the book of Jonah, this time chapter 4. Jonah chapter 4. This morning we saw A wonderful miracle that God was pleased to perform in this great city of Nineveh. We saw wicked sinners, both small and great, turn and repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'll tell you, that's the greatest miracle that exists. when a wicked, sinful man like myself, by God's grace, would hear the Word of God and fall flat on my face in belief." Faith. It takes a miracle of God for that to happen. And that's what we saw that God did through Jonah, His prophet, in Nineveh to the saints there. Now, this evening I would like to look at the final chapter of this blessed little book And I'll just go ahead and tell you that if you just read it, it's very short but it's very confusing. So bear with me. I pray God's giving me a message. I hope so. I pray He'll give us something of encouragement. Alright, Jonah chapter 4. Look with me at verse 1. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly. And he was very angry. God had just had mercy on no telling how many people. He had just used Jonah to preach the gospel to them by which God caused them to hear and believe and be saved. And what was Jonah's reaction? It displeased him exceedingly. And he was very angry. It displeased him exceedingly that God spared Nineveh. It displeased him exceedingly that God destroyed them not. It displeased him, God's prophet, that God had mercy on the people to whom he preached. Now, you agree this is kind of confusing? My soul. I've had a few opportunities to stand and preach from God's Word, and there is no desire greater in my heart than for those to whom I speak to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. Paul said, this is my heart's desire and prayer to God for you, that you might be saved. And it's true of every true preacher. So how could Jonah feel this way? I don't know. I'll speculate for a minute. Studying this, Jonah was a Jew. He was a physical child of Abraham, child of Israel. Nineveh was a Gentile nation. You read all throughout the book, you got Jews and Gentiles. We know that not everyone that is of Israel is Israel. There's a physical Israel, some men that said, Abraham's our father, and our Lord said, you're of your father the devil. What he's saying is just because you're a child of Israel doesn't mean you're a spiritual child of God. There's physical Israel and spiritual Israel. But physically speaking, perhaps Jonah didn't like them because their country was the enemy to his country. Could be. Could be. But you know what? Christ died for his enemies. So that's a pretty foolish reason, ain't it? To hate them. Pretty foolish reason. Jonah, for whatever reason, he did not want God to save them. He did not want God to save them. And I'll, I have no conclusion other than this. He was wrong for feeling that way. And I thought about myself, is there anybody that could be sitting here or listening online or that might one day hear this message that I would not want to believe? Is there anybody you can think of who's maybe done you wrong, hurt you, that, well, nah, I'd rather God just not save them? If so, and I'm telling you, I think to an extent we've all been there. Anytime we truly wish ill on somebody, Any time we're truly angry at somebody, our Lord says, you're angry at your brother without a cause, we've killed him. Well, if that's how we feel about somebody, that's what I'm talking about here. Wishing ill on them. Oh, may God help us. May God help us. And just like I mentioned it earlier in the first message that Jonah had erred and God was going to correct him. Well, same thing for tonight's message. And I tell you this is true of us. If we belong to Him, we sin. It's what we are. This flesh is still evil and wicked. We're going to keep sinning against Him. By God's grace, we're going to loathe ourselves all through it. Until one day He delivers us from the body of this death. But all along the way, all along this journey, our God will lovingly correct us. Trials come our way. Well, there you go. We need them. And Jonah's about to go through another one. We're to love our enemies. We'll start right here. Let's love them. Love them. Pray for them. Let's love him. By God's grace. Verse 1 again, But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. And he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish. For I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. Now, we didn't look at it this morning, but if you recall Jonah's prayer in Jonah chapter 2, it was quite different from this prayer right here. If you can even call this a prayer. And I can't imagine more than just a couple days have gone by how quickly things change. Think about yourself for a moment. How hot we can be one moment, just on fire for the gospel, and so cold the next. I don't want to go through this looking down on Jonah. Just like Peter, they're our brethren. And I hope we can see ourselves in them. I'm not looking down on them with self-righteous eyes. But see ourselves in them and pray what God did for him that he'd do for us. Nonetheless, Jonah utters this sad, sad prayer, murmuring against God. And notice he's defending himself. He said, this is the reason I fled to Tarsus. This right here is why. You told me to go here and preach to him. I knew you were going to save him. I knew you were. You'd think that made him want to go, wouldn't you? Oh my. He thought God shouldn't save him. Here's the first lesson for us. We don't know better than God. We don't know better than God. And here's another one. I am no more deserving of God's mercy than anybody. Now I know we can all immediately think of some people right now, first name and last, who we think, well, God ought to just leave them alone. We despise them. There's nobody less deserving of God's mercy than me. I pray we truly feel that way. Now how did Jonah know? How did he know God's gracious? How did Jonah know God's merciful? How did he know He slowed to anger of great kindness and repented sin of the evil? How did Jonah know that? Well, he experienced it. And yet he didn't want God to do that for them. Amazing. Amazing. I tell you this, God's going to correct him. He's going to change that attitude real quick. He sure is. And look with me here, verse 3. Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live. Now honestly, when I read that, I kind of want to laugh, thinking, Jonah, come on. You're being so silly, Jonah. Honestly, this is so hard to understand. This is one of those things you read and it just doesn't make any sense. How could he be mad? This is a child of God. This is a prophet of God. And here he is, mad at God and wishing to die. Now again, in reading the context here, it was a serious matter to be considered a false prophet. And I think that may have been one of Jonah's concerns is that, well, you sent me to preach 40 days and you're going to destroy this place and you didn't. Well, they're going to kill me. They're going to stone me. They're going to accuse me of being a false prophet. Let me ask you this. Do you think any of those people God saved through Him would accuse Him of being a false prophet? Oh no. Now again, I realize this is speculation. I'm just trying to find something. Whatever the reason, Jonah felt this way. It was inexcusable. Inexcusable. And I tell you this, sometimes we'll think or sometimes we'll foolishly say, well, the child of God would never do that. Well, he's a pastor, he wouldn't do that. Let me tell you something. Think again. Think again. There's something that I, the chief of sinners, would not do. Are you kidding me? But for the constraining love and grace of God Almighty, there is nothing, no thing I would not do. Nothing. Nothing. Verse 4, Then said the Lord, Doest thou well to be angry? Jonah, are you right to be angry at me? Let's ask ourselves that question. Are we right to be angry at God? At God who is on His throne? At God who is in control of all things and does all things well? Are we right to be angry at Him? Let me ask you this. Is God angry at you? Then what right do we have to be angry at him? Jonah needed to be asked this question. There's times when we need to be asking things. Just like in Jonah chapter 1 when he's down here sleeping in the ship and these men come up and they're casting lots trying to figure out who's responsible for this mess we're in. And they start questioning Jonah. He needed to be asked those questions. He needed to own up to who he is and what he's done. Jacob, what's your name? Adam, where are you? These are important questions. Jonah, are you right to be angry right now? Are you right to be angry with me? As believers, we know this. Everything God does is right. Perfect! Let me show you a verse. Turn over to Psalm 145. Love this verse. Psalm 145, verse 17. Psalm 145, 17 says, The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy, and my center margin here says merciful or bountiful, in all His ways. Now what are we going to complain about? We're back at our text. Verse 4, Then said the Lord, Doest thou well to be angry? So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city. Did you notice something missing there? What did Jonah say in response? Nothing. Silence. Yes, I'm right to be angry. That's what he's saying. And he just goes out of the city all sad and pitiful, finds him a spot, makes him a little booth, and he sits there to pout. You know, actions speak louder than words, don't they? What he did speaks volumes. And it's a sad testimony to how we are in this sinful flesh, even as believers. Perhaps especially as believers. Jonah, after the wonderful works God had done on the ship, in the whale's belly, and in Nineveh, after all that he had just done for Jonah, through Jonah, with Jonah, he should have been praising God. Right? Anything else would have been reasonable for him to do than praise God? Oh my, that's all he should have been doing. And yet that was not what he was doing. Nowhere on his mind was, you know what, I think I'm going to praise the Lord for this. The exact opposite. And consider our life. How often do we do what he's doing? Now I realize we may not go up on a hill and make a booth and sit there and watch and wish ill on folks, but every single day, when I'm not praising God, when I'm finding fault with God through anything that upsets me, that I think should be done differently, we ought to praise God. Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, It is well. Jonah was angry at God. Not only that, he wished to die. Honestly, he said, I wish to die. I think he says it three times in this chapter. Two or three. And you know what? He wanted nothing to do with those people of Nineveh who were his brethren. With like precious faith. They had all things in common and he wants nothing to do with them. You know, it may as well say he fled from the presence of the Lord again. Honestly, might as well. Here he sits hoping God will destroy them after all. He who knows God is true, he changes not. He knew God saw their works, that they were real, that God really saved them, and yet he's hoping God will change his mind. Oh my. God's about to correct him. Now watch this with me, and I pray God, I truly pray He'll bless this to us, alright? I really do. And look with me at verse 6 here, Jonah 4 verse 6. And the Lord God prepared a gourd and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. God prepared a plant, a giant plant, to come up over him. to comfort him. You think, well why would God do that after what Jonah just did? I'm telling you, He's about to teach him something. He's about to teach him something. I pray He'll teach us something here. Now this gourd represents God's grace. Did Jonah deserve it? Did God freely give it? I love how it says God prepared this gourd and He had it come up over Him. You know, we sing a psalm, marvelous grace of our loving Lord, grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt. Grace that is greater than our sin. He covers us with that grace. Completely covered us with it. And it said that gourd delivered Him from His grief. I'll tell you what, when we're grieved, there's one thing we need, and that's God's grace. When Paul was grieved with that thorn in the flesh and he prayed three times for God to take it away, finally God gave him peace with it and he said, my grace is sufficient for you. And Paul said, alright, I'm going to glory in my affirmatives that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Thank you, Lord, for this thorn. Thank you. Thank you. God's grace, I tell you, there's nothing like it. Nothing like it. There's a lot of things we think we need in this life. As long as we have His grace, all is well. There's a verse in the hymn that says, He giveth more grace, though the burdens grow greater. He giveth, He giveth, He giveth more grace. And it says, Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. He rejoiced greatly over that gourd. Now, the problem here, and we'll see this in a second, the problem here, I'm telling you this is a picture of God's grace. Now Jonah was rejoicing in that gourd, not in God's grace. But God's going to teach him to rejoice in His grace. Look at verse 7. But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. I told you this was going to be a teaching moment for him. You think God's just going to let him go? It's kind of like God let him go. He let him get on that ship. Let him get fast asleep. Well, who was going to have his way with him? God was. Here he goes. He accomplishes God's will in Nineveh. And here he turns right around thinking he's going to do his own thing again. Rebel against God and have his way. God gives him that plant. He thinks, alright, I've done it again. Oh my. That gore lasted one day. One day. And God took it away. It's made me think of the manna that the Lord sent from heaven. There were some people that gathered a lot of manna. We're going to get some extra manna. What happened to it? It rotted. You know what that tells us? We need God's grace every day. I've experienced a lot of grace today, but if the Lord allows me to wake up tomorrow, I'm going to need grace tomorrow. I need grace for today. I love what Jeremiah said about his compassions failing not, his mercies being new every morning. We need it, don't we? What good would it do me for God to have mercy and grace on me every day for 80 years, but then the next day it's gone? I'm telling you, this gourd's a picture of God's grace. Now when He gives His grace, He doesn't remove it. He gives it in abundance. He doesn't take it away. God prepared the gourd, and He prepared the worm. God prepares the storm, and He prepares the calm. I, the Lord, do all these things. Sometimes He lets us wander. But if we belong to Him, He's never going to let us go. Never. Jonah needed that gourd, and he needed that worm. He sure did. He needed to be reminded. When we go off and sin like this, aren't you glad God doesn't just leave us there? He'll painfully remind us and teach us and bring us back to Himself. And we're glad every time, aren't we? As painful as it is, we know we need it. Not in the moment, but afterwards. Hindsight's great, ain't it? You look back on the trial and can truly be thankful. All these trials that He employs for us are to draw us nearer to our Savior. To His feet like Mary. That's where we need to be. Look with me here, verse 8. And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind, and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live. Jonah's a hard case, isn't he? Warm wasn't enough. He needed the wind and the scathing heat. Here's what's taking place. God is bringing His child to the point of despair, just like He did a few days ago in the whale's belly. And I don't think any of us here are going to endure trials that compare to these that we're reading about. But whatever we endure, may we remember it's for our good. We belong to Christ, it's for our benefit. Here Jonah is, fainting and wishing to die again. But I am so glad God wouldn't let him. Because had he, then there's no hope for me. Doesn't matter how many times Jonah might have wished to die, I'm sure there's some that we don't read about. God wouldn't let him. How many times did he observe lying vanities and forsake God's mercy? I don't know. But what about me? Has God forsaken me? He's not going to forsake His people whom He foreknew, whom He chose, whom it pleased Him to make His people. He won't. He won't. Well, here in verse 9, God asks him another question. And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? Asked him again, and he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death. I don't want to make light of what he's going through here. I really don't. I believe he truly was grieved, truly was troubled. But he was in the wrong. We need to acknowledge that. And we need to acknowledge that for ourselves when we're being a Jonah. God asked him again, are you right to be angry? He made sure Jonah knew what he was angry at. God. God's mercy. God's grace. God's will. Jonah knew better. He knew better. Doest thou well to be angry? And notice this time he did utter some words in response. Look at it again. He said, I do well to be angry even unto death. Now I don't want to harp anymore on Jonah. I just want to say may God teach us something here. God still saved Jonah. He wasn't going to say, alright Jonah, that's enough. I'm done with you. You know, we say that to each other, don't we? I'm done with you. Get out of here. Now you think about what we deserve. You think about our thoughts. I think it was just read. He knows our thoughts. And you mean to tell me if He chose me in Christ and Christ died for me and He's loved me with an everlasting love, He'll never let me go no matter how foolish I act like Jonah? Oh, what a comfort. What a comfort. May we learn from this. Look at verse 10 here. Now look at this. And should I not spare Nineveh? that great city wherein are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle." Now I want to close this message by giving you four lessons from the Gourd. Now here's the first one. Jonah, don't pity yourself. Don't pity yourself. He said, Jonah, here you are pitying this plant that you didn't labor for. You didn't make it grow. I gave it to you. I took it away. It came up in the night. It perished in the night. And here you are so sorry for yourself over this plant. And he said, there's over 120,000 babies in that city and you don't have the slightest pity for them. And you have pity over this plant." What he's saying is, stop feeling sorry for yourself, Jonah. Stop feeling sorry for yourself, Cody. He was more concerned with himself, his desires, his wishes, his feelings, his reputation, than the salvation of that city. Paul told us, he said, think not on your own things, but on the things of others. Why? Look what Christ did. He humbled Himself. He came to redeem you. Stop being so concerned with you. Oh, that God might teach me that. Me, me, me. The second lesson here, We don't save ourselves and we can't keep ourselves. God doesn't start it and then I finish it or vice versa. I start it and God finishes it. From start to finish, Jonah told us, salvation is of the Lord. Now Jonah knew this, but how soon he forgot. God told him, Jonah, this gourd right here, He used that gourd to teach him these things. This gourd, I gave it to you. You didn't labor for it. You didn't earn it. You didn't work for it. It was a free gift. Free gift. And I took it away. What's he saying here? Concerning this gourd, which represents God's grace and salvation, what's he saying? This was my work alone. It had nothing to do with you. I gave it to you, you didn't deserve it, and now you're mad at me for taking it away. I prepared the gourd for you. I prepared the worm for you. I prepared that wind for you. Now he told him all these things to remind him of this. I prepared a place in heaven for you. I prepared a perfect salvation for you. And look at you. Oh, does this crush us? How about this? I'm running this whole world for you. The psalmist said he performeth all things for me. And I'm going to sit here and act like this? What a slap in his face. For me to be so sinful, so full of myself. May we look to Him. May we trust Him and praise Him. Salvations of the Lord. We need to be reminded of this. Now the third lesson here, he asked Jonah a question. He said, should not I spare Nineveh? That's the title of my message. That's my focus here. Should not I spare Nineveh? What he's saying is, I save whomsoever I will. And you don't need to have a problem with it. You should be thankful. Be thankful for it. Jonah, in light of what I've done for you, should I not spare Nineveh? What makes you any better than them? Who made you to differ, Jonah? What do you have that you haven't received, Jonah? I pray this will really sink into us. We're nothing. We have nothing that God has not freely given us. Nothing. Especially our salvation. We don't deserve it. Now, I already read it, but if the end of this chapter puzzles you, and I've got to be honest with you, it puzzles me too. I think this will make some sense to you. What happened after this? Well, he was God's child. He's God's prophet. God's correcting him, and his corrections are effectual. Remember what happened after the whale's belly? Well, that was effectual, wasn't it? That was effectual. We don't read what happens next, but we know something that happened next. Who do you think penned the book of Jonah? God the Holy Spirit, I don't know when, at some point, moved upon him to sit down and record these things. I can't imagine how humiliating and humbling that must have been. And you know, I can see God's goodness in it, because He's given this to us, and we can see ourselves in Jonah, sinful, foolish rebels. Even after experiencing God's grace, I have nothing to commend me to God but the blood of Christ. I have no hope but the mercy of God in Christ. He said there's one sign that's going to be given, it's the sign of the prophet Jonah. The Lord Jesus Christ was cast out in my place. He died in my place. And He fully satisfied the justice and judgment of God. Aren't you thankful for Jonah? Oh my, I'll leave you with this. The last lesson here, and this is the lesson from the Gord, lesson from the book of Jonah, lesson from the Word of God. God's mercy endureth forever. I think it's Psalm 136, reading, "...His mercy endureth forever and ever and ever." Our sin can never undo God's mercy to us. How many times we got to read something foolish Jonah did, and then God turns right around and meets his sin with His mercy. Every time. I don't know how many more years I have left, but by God's grace that will be true of me too, and of you. That doesn't make me want to sin. That makes me want to fall down at His feet and worship Him. Praise His holy name. His mercy is saving mercy. His mercy is my only hope and His mercy endureth forever. Should not I spare Nineveh? If we could read his response, I want to tell you what I think he would say. Spare Nineveh and spare me. Oh God have mercy on me, forgive me for Christ's sake. Amen. It's been good to be with you today. God bless you. Yeah.