Amen, so we're up to the final chapter of Jonah, Jonah chapter 4, and in Jonah 3, if
you remember, it was a couple of weeks ago now because we had a men's preaching night
in between, Jonah sort of, you know, he now decides to obey God and goes to preach to
this huge city Nineveh, saying that it's going to be overthrown in 40 days, and if you remember
the people there, they fasted, they sat in sackcloth and ashes, and they even made the
animals fast and wear sackcloth, didn't they? They were a bit funny, weren't they, or at
least the king there was, and they're commanded by the king to turn from their evil way and
from the violence that is in their hands, hoping that God will not overthrow them. And
then if you look, verse 9 in Jonah 3, it said, who could tell if God will turn and repent
and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not? And we looked at the fact that
God does repent because repenting isn't automatically about sin, otherwise every time someone said
to repent and believe for salvation, they'd be preaching works, wouldn't they? As the
Bible's made clear that, you know, salvation is by grace through faith and not of works
that any man should boast. And then verse 10 says, and God saw their works that they
turned from their evil ways. So turning from your evil ways works and God repented of the
evil that he said that he would do unto them and he did it not. And just to remind you
again, we just talked about what a kind of useful verse, couple of verses that is when
you are dealing with the repent of your sins issue with people that just cannot get over
the fact, or at least seem like they find it hard to get over the fact that they want
to believe that they've done something extra for salvation other than just believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ to receive the free gift. So we, you know, and these verses are great
because it basically shows clear as day in verse 10 that turning from your evil way is
works and the Bible's very clear that salvation is by grace through faith and not of works
and not just, you know, in Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 in this verse is fine. Like we looked
at Romans 4 as well and just such a clear chapter that salvation is so clearly by grace
through faith, let alone all the many verses, which is clearly say, believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Nothing to do with turning away from your sin, from
stopping your sin, from turning from your evil way or any of the other many versions
of that that are preached out there. And look, you know, like I said, I think the other week,
when you preach that, when you have someone that's a bit hung up on that and you go here
and you go to Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, maybe you go to Romans 4 just to confirm it, you
know, if they can't really get it from that and they can't move on from that, it's not
that you need to go to all weird and wonderful analogies and explanations. It's pretty clear,
isn't it? And sometimes you just find you're just kind of wasting your time, you know,
vain janglings with someone that just doesn't actually want to hear what the Bible has to
say. And you've got to, sometimes it's hard as it was so when he just realised when that
time is to move on and sometimes it is time to move on. It can be frustrating. So God
changes his mind, doesn't he? He doesn't punish them like he was going to. And then we go
into Jonah 4 here, where it says in verse 1, but it displeased Jonah exceedingly and
he was very angry. Let's pray before we continue. Father, thank you for this last chapter of
Jonah. Thank you for this great book and all the many lessons we've got out of it,
all the many pictures we see in it as well and this final picture we're going to see
in this chapter. Please help me to preach it accurately, clearly, fill with your spirit
Lord. Please help me to preach what you want me to preach today and help those to have
understanding, ears and heart. Stay alert on what is a warm and tiring afternoon after
what was a busy morning and a lot of preaching. Help me to just preach succinctly and help
all these things to be done in your holy name. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
Okay, so why is Jonah angry? Well, it seems, you know, just on the outside, because God
didn't punish Nineveh, did he? He didn't punish Nineveh. Why does that make Jonah angry though?
Well, remember that he's just been preaching in Nineveh telling them that they're about
to get whooped. He's just been saying, you know, you have 40 days, you know, and God
will overthrow Nineveh, etc. And for me, just on the outside, it just looks like a bit of
a pride issue at first, doesn't it? Pride issue, he's preached one thing and it's not
going to happen. He doesn't want to be embarrassed to be wrong, right? Imagine I was up here
saying you mark my words, God's going to do this to whoever, to this place, whatever.
I would probably be a little bit embarrassed if that didn't happen. And often embarrassment
does turn to anger, doesn't it? And we, I think you could all probably think of times
in your life where when you're embarrassed, you end up angling it towards someone or something
in anger. And we should be careful not to do that, shouldn't we? And we have to, I think
like a good thing in life is to check yourself when you are angry and really think, why am
I angry? Because often our anger is a lot of the time misplaced and misdirected and
it can come from things like embarrassment, shame, things like this. Think of maybe all
the people that have tried to predict the tribulation recently. You can imagine maybe
some of them are a bit angry that it's not happening, right? All those people that stood
behind pulpits around the world or versions of it and said, you know, this time and we've
entered into it. And it was there someone, someone was telling me about someone recently,
was it you telling me about someone? Who was it? John Hagee, is that, was he preaching
that we've entered it? There was some, a lot of people have been, you know, preaching their
own version of events and preaching their own, you know, and these guys like, they really
stand up there and say, well, a hundred percent and then nothing happens. And then people
just kind of move on. The Bible says, if it doesn't come to pass, they're a false prophet,
right? And look, a lot of people like to predict things and everything else. Well, you could
imagine though, that some of those people, maybe the more, maybe the, I don't want to
say the more right. So maybe if someone's kind of quite adamant, something's going to
happen, they really feel like that. They might get a bit embarrassed. There might be a pride
issue. They might get a little bit angry. And the difference though with Jonah is that
he was honestly saying, thus saith the Lord, wasn't he? Yeah, he was saying that, thus
saith the Lord. And we, again, you might've done that before. You might've maybe told
people about chastisement that's coming and things like that, and then wondered why it's
not happening. And maybe instead of kind of looking for reasons and realizing that God
can be merciful and forgiving and things like that, maybe you've got angry. Maybe you've
got annoyed. Maybe you've, you've kind of questioned God. But I think there's maybe
another reason too. So Jonah spent however many days in Nineveh, didn't he? Probably
witnessing the wickedness of, I remember he walked through Nineveh for a day, didn't he?
Remember he said it was an exceeding city of three days journey, didn't it? And he walked
a day to then start preaching. Maybe Jonah witnessed some pretty horrific things in that
day because it had come up before the Lord, hadn't it? Their wickedness, their violence.
And I think this was pretty extreme because God was about to absolutely whoop this city,
this capital city of the Assyrian empire because of the wickedness of violence that had come
up before him. So I'd imagine that maybe Jonah was pretty angry about that as well. And sometimes
you could probably say you feel like that sometimes, don't you? I don't know if anyone's
been down to, for example, Brighton recently. Anyone been to Brighton recently? No, you
don't want to raise your hands if you have. Because you'll be kicked out. Well, we were
going to a church in Brighton, okay, before this church, up until just before this church
started. That is one wicked place. That is such a vile place. And I mean, in hindsight
now I've got a few ideas as to why this guy decided to plant the church in Brighton. Because
why would you plant a church? Imagine like planting a church in Sodom, which is really
what you're doing. I mean, absolutely ridiculous. Probably one of the most unreceptive places
you could ever plant a church. And this guy who was, in hindsight, pretty effeminate,
yeah, and pretty weird, and was a false prophet, so it kind of goes hand in hand, chose to
plant a church in Brighton. Now, we were in Brighton and we decided, well, we're in Brighton,
let's go soul-winning. So, I think once, although I was with what turned out to be
a reprobate Alex, but we didn't get anything door-knocking and we had a table. And we kind
of were just giving out a few tracks and things like that, and some gostles of John, I think.
And I've never had abuse like it for just giving something out free. So it's not like,
you know, sometimes you knock on a door and I go, how dare you knock on my door? You know,
that's part and parcel of it. Sometimes, oh, you know, I'm in a rush and I get annoyed
that you're trying to talk to me, sometimes. But this was like, we just had a sign up saying
free Bibles, yeah, and we're giving out some New Testament, free gospels of John, and people
just like shouting things as they went past. I mean, that place is vile. That place is
so bad. But you could imagine if you'd kind of felt like God had told you to preach at
somewhere like that, and I'm not saying this was as bad as that, yeah, but it sounds like
Nineveh was pretty bad though. And if you were in a place like that and you're kind
of, you know, you've been preaching and you've been saying, you're going to get done, you
get, and then it didn't happen. You'd be like, why God? Why? Well, it seems like maybe that's
part of it as well. Look at verse two, 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, a merciful, slow to anger and
of great kindness and repentance of the evil. So he's saying that the reason that he fled
in the first place is that he knew that you would forgive them, basically, saying, I knew
that you were going to forgive them. Yeah, for me, yeah, this makes me think of the amount
of people that reject God because he hasn't punished so and so. How many people, you knocked
on the door, not talking about God, I don't believe in God. You go, oh, okay, any particular
reason? Well, if there was a God, yeah, so they don't believe in God yet, if there was
a God, he would be in, he would do what they want him to do. He would have not let this
happen. He would have punished that person. He wouldn't have let this person get away
with that. He wouldn't have let my whatever it is, get away with whatever they did or
whatever else. And really, it's an anger, isn't it? Really, it's an anger with God because
he hasn't done what they want him to do. Right. Okay. And let's be honest, all those people
that say that it's not that they don't really believe in God, it's just that they're angry
at God. They want to make God in their own image. They want to have their own version
of God that punishes whatever version of sin they think is wicked and doesn't punish
that sin usually either. So you get those people, don't you? If there's a God, why does
this happen? You've had that one, haven't you? If there's a God, why does that happen?
And a lot of the time they like to go with children or babies. Anyone hear that vile,
disgusting, paedophile Stephen Fry with his one about, you know, if he was in front of
God at the pearly gates, I would say, how dare you? This is what this guy's, I mean,
unbelievable, isn't it? Then he starts going about children with bone cancer, you know,
and the usual sort of stuff these people come out with. Absolutely. It's one of the most
disgusting things you could ever hear, this guy acting like he would rebuke God. Wow.
Wow. But yeah, what's going to happen? And anyone ever just, I'm sorry, it's a bit disgusting.
So that guy, like, I remember they started having all over the media a couple of years
ago his latest partner. I mean, it was like, it was, I mean, this is this, this just disgusting,
big, red-faced, just old queer. And this timeless, basically, boy, it's vile. Yeah, like, he's
like a, just some young, and they've got it all over. I remember they had it all over
the papers and this is the same guy, oh, what a surprise, God-hating reprobate. Well, but
this is the sort of thing they come out with. And then I've actually heard people parrot
this as well. So I've been in front of people who then said, well, if, well, if there was
a God, then why do, and then you're like, you've been watching Stephen Fry? You take,
is that where you're taking your sort of theological kind of lessons from? What is wrong with you?
You know, but obviously we don't get to choose on who God punishes and who he doesn't. Okay.
And people like to, like to make that decision because let's be honest, if, if we could go
that angle and go, God, why aren't you absolutely destroying Stephen Fry? But because we know
that Stephen Fry is going to be in the lowest depths of hell and he's going to be burning
forever. And you can't argue with that, could you? But we are fortunate, aren't we, that
we do have a gracious merciful God. We are fortunate, okay, that's slow to anger and
a great kindness, right? And he does repent of the evil, like we see here, or punishment
that we all deserve, doesn't he? Yeah. Because look, everyone here, not only for salvation,
not only when it comes to the facts, sorry, or not only when it comes to eternal punishment
for our sins that we all deserve, but how many days do you, do people here get away
with sins that God can and does sometimes, and it would be well within his rights to
still punish you here with, right? And look, praise God that we do have a gracious merciful
God. But turn to Psalm 103, because this isn't just Jonah's opinion due to God changing
his mind about punishing Nineveh. So in case you're wondering, you're thinking, well, you
know, this is just Jonah saying, either thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger
and a great kindness, repent of the evil, because no, is that really God? Well, yeah,
that is God. See, see, funnily enough, it sounds very similar to how David describes
God in Psalm 103. And of course, it's David under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
And he said from verse 8, the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous
in mercy. Now, Jonah just said, for I knew that thou art a gracious God and merciful,
slow to anger and of great kindness. He said he will not always chide, still in Psalm 103,
neither will he keep his anger forever. It says he has not dealt with us after our sins
nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth,
so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west,
so far they removed our transgressions from us. Like as the father pitieth his children,
so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that
we are thus. That's a great Psalm, isn't it? We were at a church a while back with Brother
Daniel, a member as well, and we all had to memorize this Psalm. That was a good Psalm
to memorize, right? Yeah, got some great verses there, but some great truths there
that the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy. That's something
that we're very fortunate about. Neither will he keep his anger forever. We saw very similar
wording in the book of Jonah there, because he does pity us as his children, doesn't he?
And he pitieth them that fear him. Now, let's go back to Jonah there, because verse 2 said,
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 for repentance
of the evil. Now, if God was fast to anger, we wouldn't have got to the point of hearing
the Gospel, would we? Yeah, if God was fast to anger, we wouldn't have done, right? And
look, we want to follow in the footsteps of God, and I talked a little bit about this
with righteous anger. We don't just want to be on a hair trigger, yeah? You want to try
and have control of your spirit, not to be so quick to anger, God slow to anger. If God
wasn't of great kindness, like it says here, of great kindness, he wouldn't have sent his
son in the first place, would he? So he wouldn't have had that opportunity. I mean, that was
some great kindness, wasn't it? Yeah, the Lord Jesus Christ, you know, God in the flesh,
he came to this world and did something that he didn't have to do, did he? He didn't have
to do that, he didn't have to pay for our sins. That's in great kindness. Again, we
wouldn't have had salvation without that. And thank God that he's gracious, because
it is by grace, are you saved, right? Yeah? So again, just, again, look, all of these
aspects of him are the reason that there's salvation anyway. But then even post-salvation
for everyone here, like I said, we'd all be getting much more regular chastisement, okay,
without those qualities of God. Because sometimes, look, there's obviously, there's a world side
of God, isn't there? There's a world's version of kind of sky daddy, you know, just forgives
everyone barring, you know, the worst people that it compared with you, that you decide
are the worst people. And then you've got the real version of God. And we sometimes
like to make a point that, look, God is, you know, he's a fearsome judge, he's, he's, he's,
you know, someone to fear, you know, we should fear the Lord, etc. But, you know, we don't
want to go too far and forget that he is still a gracious God, isn't he? He's a merciful
God, he's slow to anger, he's of great kindness. And we look, as much as we have to balk again,
against the fake Christianity, the false version of Christianity that sometimes makes a Christian
feel insecure, because they're not kind of walking around like the effeminate vicar and,
you know, with a limp wrist and everything else. But we, but we also don't want to go
too far and forget some of the qualities that we should be trying to live like as well.
We should try and be gracious to others, we should be merciful, we should be slow to anger,
we should be of great kindness, we should try and when possible, you know, and that
could be with our children, for example, repent, turn, change our minds about that punishment,
maybe we're going to give them when we see, you know, for example, here he saw them turning
from their evil way, right? Okay, so we can be like that as well, we don't want to be
just so ferocious and everything else, because we're just fighting against our culture, our
fake soft as you like Christianity. So, we would be getting, look, we would be getting
a lot more canings if God wasn't like this. And, look, there's something to think about
here, you can't have it both ways, can you? Because, you know, the people that kind of
are upset by sort of sometimes people that don't get punished and you're looking at life
sometimes and thinking, why is this person not getting worked at the same time, you're
probably often praying to the Lord going, please give this family member a chance. And
if God wasn't all these qualities, your family member wouldn't be getting that chance, he's
already rejected the gospel from you, etc. So, thank God that we have a God like this,
hey, thank God that we have a God that is slow to anger, that is penitence and mercy.
But we're going to see something in a second, I believe, in this chapter, a picture of something.
But here, Jonah, you know, he didn't want an inner vice to receive God's grace, mercy
and kindness. Now, look at verse three. Therefore, now, oh, Lord, take I beseech Thee my life
for me, for it is better for me to die than to live. So, Jonah is so angry that he wants
to die, right? What's that all about? Well, people can get like that, can't they? You
know that a lot of, you know, and again, I don't want to go into this topic too much,
because it is a grim topic, but a lot of people that do take their own lives, it's always
like just full on pits of depression. It can be out of anger. People do angry response,
do angry things to try and show or teach or make a point to people or other things like
that. And look, again, we have to have control over our spirit, don't we? Proverbs 25, 28
says, he that has no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without
walls. OK, and I remember quoting that verse not long ago. I really like that verse because,
look, we have to rule our spirit because it is, you're basically like without defences
if you don't have that control over your spirit. And, you know, even when it's righteous anger,
we need to make sure that we have control of it because people can do extreme things
because they're angry, can't they? Yeah, we have to have control over it. Yeah, there's
a time, there's a place for anger. Be angry and sin not. Yeah, let not the sun go down
upon no wrath. But look, there is a time for it, but we need to have control over it at
the same time, don't we? And here, obviously, he's just seems like he's raging here. Yeah,
he's raging, he's angry. But if there's a picture of the unsaved that flee from God
because they're angry at God not punishing on their terms, I would say this fits with
that. Now, it's a picture and you could say there's a picture of that here that maybe,
maybe he's just angry at God. He's like a picture of those unsaved people that turn
on God. And I think we're going to see that continuing in a minute. They get angry with
God and then what they end up doing, committing spiritual suicide, don't they? How many people
that you, like we just said, you knock on the door, what's the real reason they don't
want to hear the gospel because they're angry with God? What's the real reason they don't
want to get saved from anger with God? What's the real reason they won't even let you read
a verse of the Bible because they're angry with God? And ultimately, they're committing
spiritual suicide because there's only a certain amount of time, let's be honest, to have someone
knock on your door with a Bible, with a Bible who actually knows the gospel and is preaching
the gospel in this nation is pretty rare, isn't it? It's tragic, isn't it? Do you know
what I find really tragic, and we've obviously been getting a flavor of it around here, is
the elderly. When you knock on a door, it's an elderly person. They've got nothing else
to do. And you just think really like you had a final chance and you didn't even listen
to it. No, not really. They'll be like, oh yeah, I believe in God. Well, do you? Well,
I think, well, do you want to know? No, you just think, wow, final chance. What an absolute
tragedy. And so often though, it's because people are angry at God, aren't they? They're
angry at God, angry at the true God, and people do commit spiritual suicide because of that.
It's a really sad truth of life, isn't it? Now look at verse four, it says, then said
the Lord, doest thou well to be angry? So look, what are you going to achieve by being
angry with God? Anyone ever achieve anything by being angry with God? I don't think so.
And look, again, something to remember because people can get like that and get angry at
things are angry at what they think they should and shouldn't have got in life, et
cetera, get angry with God. They're not going to achieve anything. Verse five says, so Jonah
went out to 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. Now, a booth
is basically a temporary hut built with the branches of a tree. So kind of, you could
imagine, I don't know, imagine like some uprights and then bits across the top and maybe there's
some like they've been tied together with maybe some vine or something like that. Now,
it's not that it's completely enclosed. I mean, you'd have to have a lot of branches
to make something you could sit in, which is literally completely shaded. So a lot of
the time the booth itself would kind of maybe have gaps in between depending on how many
branches you could get. There's not like this complete shaded area. And we're going to see
what a lot of the time apparently people would try and use for shaders. They were like longer
term booths. I think from what I understand, you know, it sounds about right that there
would be sort of, you know, farmers and places where they're very exposed. They would actually
have booths to shelter them in the middle of the day because you can't just wander off.
You know, you're in the middle of somewhere very hot, the midday sun. And I'll tell you
about that in a second here. So Jonah's sitting under this. He's getting, I'd imagine, some
sort of shade. Yeah, but probably not much. So God helps him out. Look at verse six. 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.
Now a gourd is likely the castor oil plant, which is basically a vine like plant with
very big leaves. Okay. And this is something which apparently is used to make these sort
of sheltered, shadowed areas, right? Now, apparently, and again, not that it really
matters because God prepared it or not, but it grows quickly. And when it's cut or injured
with us and dies quickly, well, I don't know if maybe people have claimed that just to
try and, you know, because they try and take away any sort of God involvement, anything
miraculous in the Bible, I'm not sure. But to understand, you've got to understand this,
you've got to understand this, right? Nineveh is modern day Iraq, yeah, which is the second
hottest country on the world on average temperatures of 21.4, average, average, yeah, year-round
average, second after Botswana. So in, in Basra in 2016, it got to 53.8 degrees, 53.8
degrees. That is enough to cook someone, isn't it? Brother Lucky's like, I still have a jacket
on. Well, that's hot, isn't it? 53.8, yeah? Well, look, you know, and, and it, you know,
according to the Catholics, you know, these guys have blonde hair and blue eyes as well,
so they must have been in real trouble, right? But I don't know the truth there. But what
I do know is that that's hot. So Jonah, he put some branches up to make himself shade,
right? And whilst angrily watching Nineveh, it seems, yeah, because he's still kind of,
it seems like he's still rooting for like, come on, God, come on, smash them, you know?
So he's like, I'm going to sit there and watch anyway. He might change his mind. He's hoping
to see some carnage. And then God prepares his plant to give him some shade. Now, remember
that the same wording was used for the whale, right? So Jonah 1.17, if you remember, said,
now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly
of the fish three days or three nights. So here God's prepared him the plant as shade,
yeah? Jonah's pleased, understandably. I mean, I don't know if it was the hottest time
of the year here, but it sounds like it gets pretty hot there. It's very exposed. He's
in like some hot sun. I mean, we were all crying and complaining at 40 degrees. I mean,
that is hot, isn't it? Well, okay. And he's exposed. He's out there overlooking the city.
So I'd imagine he's quite high as well. So he's just out in the elements there. The sun's
on him. Okay. So then it says, but God prepared a worm when the morning rose and next day and
it smote the gourd that it withered. So now he's prepared a worm to destroy the plant.
So notice it's all of God here, right? It's all of God. Verse eight, and it came to pass
when the sun did arise that God prepared, so again, God prepared, a vehement east wind
and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah and he fainted and wished in himself to die and
said, it is better for me to die than to live. So then he prepared, like here we see this
wind. Now, it's probably destroyed the remaining booth I'd imagine here too. I don't think
it's probably just the gourd that's withered. That's probably just been a vehement east
wind. That's probably just been blown away. Probably the rest of the booth. So he's just
completely exposed to the heat here. Now, what's the point here? Anyone read Jonah and
just thought, what is going on here? Jonah chapter four. Well, there's something I believe
here and look, I'm not at all dogmatic about this. This is what I believe is going on here
and what I think it's a picture of. This is what I think. I'd be interested again, like,
stuff like this, if you've got another thought, you want to chat about it afterwards, I'd
be interested. So, look at verse four. Then said the Lord, doest thou well to be angry?
Now, Jonah is angry with God. I believe he's picturing the angry God-rejector here. I believe
he's picturing someone that's basically rejecting God due to anger. Now, bear in mind, it's
a picture. Like, Jonah isn't Jesus Christ, but he was a picture of Christ. Jonah wasn't
in hell, but it was a picture of hell. There's a lot of pictures in the book of Jonah. I
believe this is a picture of the angry God-rejector. He's angry with God, like we talked
about, because God's not doing things out here he'd want him to do. He's not punishing
people how he would like. OK, so Jonah, 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 we might see
what would become of the city. OK, now, I do believe that from verse four to verse nine,
I believe is a picture of reprobation, but I actually believe it's a picture of end times
reprobation, but either way. OK, so bear with me, but I believe up until verse nine. OK,
so again, I'm not dogmatic. This is what I think. So, OK, so we saw that he's gone out
of the city. He's basically rejecting God and waiting to see what will happen, isn't he?
It's almost like he's rejected, you know, the truth of God. He's angry with God, but
he's just kind of biding his time here. And the Lord God prepared a God and made it to
come up over Jonah that might be a shadow over his head to deliver him from his grief.
So Jonah was exceeding glad of the God. Now, I think this is a picture of the offer of
salvation. So God prepared that. Now, look at verse 10 quickly where I say offer of
salvation, because verse 10 says, then said the Lord, thou has had pity on the God for
the which thou has not laboured, neither made it grow, which came up in the night and perished
in the night. OK, so again, for me, that's a picture of salvation. He is not laboured
for that at all. And because it is God that prepared the offer of salvation, didn't he?
OK, it comes from God. It's God that's prepared it. It's not of ourselves. Yeah, it's clearly
a gift of God. It's God that did it all. Yeah. God paid for it all. OK, so we see that. Then
verse seven. But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote
the God that it withered. Now, that offer of salvation is only there for so long, isn't
it? You don't have to turn up at 2 Corinthians 6, 2 says, for he saith, I have heard of thee
in the time excepted in the day of salvation. Have I secured thee? Behold, now is the accepted
time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. So I might be wrong here. I believe that this
is basically a sign of you get that offer, you have that chance, and there are people
that reject that. He's still there. He's still sitting there. He's still wanting to see this
punishment of God, et cetera. And then, well, God, God gets rid of that. There's a time
when you don't have that option anymore. It's gone. So God prepared the prepared the worm
there. Yeah, it said. But God prepared a worm when the morning was the next day, and it
smote the God that it withered. And you could maybe see maybe you could put parallels between
the worm and the serpent, et cetera. But there is I don't know. I see that as a picture of
then him taking that away. Now, look at verse eight. But it came to pass when the sun did
arise that God prepared a vehement east wind and a sun beat upon the head of Jonah that
he fainted and wishing himself to die and said it is better for me to die than to live.
Now, all of what I was saying there could also fit with with end times. Yeah. You could
say, look, you're given the option, given the chance, given the chance of salvation.
You reject it and it gets to a point where you can't take it anymore. Yeah. OK. And that's
going to be a very stark reality in the end times, isn't it? Because people are going
to choose to take that mark of the beast. Now, we're looking at the vehement east wind here,
and the east wind seems to be linked with the wrath of God in the Bible. So if you turn to
Psalm 48, while I read Ezekiel 27, 26 about the then coming judgment of God on Tyrus,
just to show this kind of picture of the east wind with the wrath of God, where it said,
thy rowers have brought thee into great waters. The east wind has broken me in the midst of the
seas. Talking about Tyrus here. And you've turned to Psalm 48, which I believe is a picture at the
beginning of God's end time wrath. Psalm 48 and from verse one reads a song and psalm for the
sons of Korah. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God in a mountain of
his holiness. Beautiful for situation. The joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion on the sides of the
north, the city of the great king. God is known in their palaces for a refuge. For lo, the kings
were assembled. They passed by together. They saw it and so they marveled. They were troubled and
hasted away. Fear took hold upon them there and pain as of a woman in travail. Thou breakest the
ships of Tarshish with an east wind. So again, we're seeing this east wind, the wrath of God.
I think that's a picture of end times there. Now, if you turn to Exodus chapter 10,
and obviously we see as well that strong, that destroying wind, I believe Jeremiah 51,
one is talking about with the destruction of Babylon where it says, Thus saith the Lord, behold,
I will raise up against against Babylon and against them that dwell in the midst of them,
that rise up against me, a destroying wind, a destroying wind. So again, God's punishment,
God's wrath coming out against Babylon. There's some different views as to what that possibly is.
Exodus 10, 13, God is pouring his wrath out over Egypt. And again, a lot of pictures of the end
times there in that wrath being poured out upon Egypt when Moses is trying to flee from Pharaoh.
And it says in Exodus 10, 13, And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the Lord
brought an east wind upon the land all that day and all that night. And when it was morning,
the east wind brought the locust. Now, this is interesting about the locust because look at
verse 8 where we were back in Jonah 4, it says, And it came to pass, verse 8 of Jonah 4,
And it came to pass where 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. Now you're thinking, well, what's that got to do
with locusts? Well, turn to Revelation chapter 9. I hope I'm not losing you here.
This is my trail of thought with this. I might be a bit off here. I find this interesting though,
because there are similarities between the plagues of Egypt and obviously, you know,
God spilling out his wrath upon the earth in the end times. And notice here, we just read him
saying, Jonah here, that we've got this east wind. And then 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. Now
in Revelation chapter 9, look at verse 1, And the fifth angel sounded. I saw a star fall from heaven
unto the earth, and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. We're in Revelation 9 and verse
1. Then verse 2 says, And he opened the bottomless pit, and there arose a smoke out of the pit,
as the smoke of a great furnace and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of
the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts, so those locusts that we've just seen, you know,
earlier picture of an exodus. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth, and unto them
was given power as the scorpions of the earth have power. I think that's obviously that sting ability
there. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green
thing, neither any tree, but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
Okay, so not those 144,000 there. And to them it was given that they should not kill them,
but that they should be tormented five months. And their torment was as a torment of a scorpion
when he striketh a man. So just if you're wondering what's going on here, this is at the
end times, this is one of the punishments of God, is these basically these locusts that are able to
sting like scorpions. And it looks like they're probably paralyzing people in pain. I mean it
sounds absolutely horrendous, praise God we're not going to be there for the wrath, right? But then
look at this, it says in verse 6, And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it,
and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. And we've just looked at Jonah 4
verse 8 where it said that Jonah wished in himself to die and said it is better for me to die than to
live. Now I think that's a picture of people there that then can no longer die. Now obviously there's
end times, you know, those people that have taken that mark, they're actually in this period just
saying like they want to die. They'd be stung by these scorpions. But also, you know, you could
kind of argue as well that that's a picture of just reprobation as a general as well.
Because really those people, I mean that's why their suicide rates are so high and everything
else because these people are just absolutely desperately unhappy because they're just so full
of wickedness, right? But here obviously these people have taken, I'd say the majority of the
mark of the beast here, look at verse 7, And the shapes of the locusts were like under horses
prepared under battle, and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as
the faces of men. I mean these sound like some creepy locusts, right? And they had hair as a
hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions, and they had breastplates as it were,
breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was the sound of chariots of many horses running
to battle. And they had tails like under scorpions, and there were stings in their tails, and their
power was to hurt men five months. Now like I said, these are people that I believe have taken
a mug. If you turn to Revelation chapter 14, let's have a quick look at that. I do believe this is
a picture of this, Revelation chapter 14, and from verse 9, Revelation 14 says, And the third angel
followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast in his image and receive
his mark in his forehead or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God which
is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation. He shall be tormented with
brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the lamb and the smoke of their
torment that sendeth up forever and ever, and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast
in his image and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. Look, people who take the mark of the
beast cannot get saved, okay? It's too late for them. That's reprobation. Now the point being here
that I believe Jonah's a picture of this, okay? So, God says to Jonah then in
verse 9, back where we are, And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the
good? And he said, I do well to be angry even unto death. Now that's still a strange response,
don't you think? I think that's a strange response. That for me is a picture of the
reprobate, the reprobate God's hatred. It doesn't matter what happens, they still hate God and we're
going to see that that's going to be, or we're not going to see, well we might be watching it
from, you know, up in heaven on the front row balcony with our popcorn, but look at
Revelation chapter 16 because we seem to see that same feel. You're thinking they've just had like
the vials poured out. These people surely at this point are now just saying, yeah okay God,
right, yeah we're wrong, but no. Revelation chapter 16 and verse 21, Revelation 16 21 says,
And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, this is at the end now, every stone about
the weight of a talent, and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, for the plague
there was exceeding great. So I don't know, I might be off there, but I believe up until that
point we're seeing a picture of end times, reprobation, we're seeing people that are just
angry at God, they've been given that chance, they've been given that ability, they reject that,
and then God takes that away, they take the mark of the beast, they're done, and in the same way
we see that with reprobates, and you might be thinking brother Ian, you've just got reprobates
on the mind right now. Well I do a little bit, okay, and it has been a bit of a theme for the
last week or two, but I do believe that, that's what I believe, I think that's what that's a
picture of there, it's too late basically, it's that he's still, even at this point he's still
angry going, I'm better to die, yeah I'm better to die. Again a picture, Jonah was a prophet of the
Lord, okay, I don't believe that Jonah has become reprobate, but I do believe that he's a picture
of that. Okay, then we get to this verse 10, where I believe we, we move on from this picture now,
it then said, because it does begin with then said the Lord, then said the Lord, and we have
seen before that some, some ands, and, and I don't know, it seems like there's been a bit of a flow
up until this point. Now I do appreciate that it's not a new chapter here, okay, but I do think,
or at least a new paragraph, but I do think that we're then moving on from that,
then said the Lord, thou has had pity on the gourd for the which thou has not laboured,
neither madeest it grow which came up in a night and perished in a night. So I think we're moving
on to the final lesson from this now. Again, I might be wrong there, if you could see something
there in this final couple of verses which would fit with that picture, or you have a different
picture or something else, again, you know, I'm not offended, I'd happily talk about this,
this is something I was mulling over a little bit, building up to this sermon.
I believe that we move on then, and now we're on to the final lesson, yeah, so
we remember verse 10 was a, you know, it was just showing how that was a picture of salvation,
but we're on the final, final one where we're seeing that he's had pity on the gourd,
basically because it was useful to him, right. So the reason that Jonah and the sort of man's pity
that we have on people and things like that is often because of those things, those people,
those animals, whatever it is, have some use to us, whether it's their cuteness that we have,
you know, pity on certain animals, we might have pity on a dog, but we don't have pity on maybe
the mangy fox, or maybe you have pity on the mangy fox, but you don't have pity on the rat,
yeah, and everyone likes to have their level, don't they, right, and it depends on what sort
of effect it has on us, what use it has on us. The gourd, well, you know, that's the sort of pity
that we have, that gourd was of use to him, etc., and again, I'm moving away from the picture of
salvation here, obviously. Okay, as opposed to the great mercy of God, and the great mercy of God,
verse 11, we see where it says, and should not I spend, 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. So he's had pity, saying you've had pity on this gourd, and again, look,
you're thinking, oh, I need a pity on a gourd, really, saying, look, you actually cared more,
you cared more about this plant, because it affected you, because it offered you shade,
because it was of benefit to you, but not even on a hundred twenty thousand people,
who he's basically only just elevating above cattle almost, isn't he, look, they are above
cattle, okay, God, regardless, not, you know, the oxen, okay, God, okay, so he takes care not for
oxen, but, but it's kind of like he's just putting them a level up, he said, there's not so much
cattle, he puts them in the same sentence, isn't he, in the same verse here, he says,
there should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, where are more than six score thousand persons,
that's 120,000 people that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand,
and also much cattle. Jonah, at this point, is willing for, for Nineveh just to get destroyed,
just to get burnt up for them to, whatever it is he feels that God's going to do,
it's pretty strong, isn't it, it's pretty strong, and maybe he's got his reasons for that,
like I said, it could be pride, it could be that he witnessed a lot of wickedness,
but we want to be careful, don't we, yeah, look, we, we should, yeah, we should want God's judgment
on God haters, okay, there's nothing wrong with that, we should desire God's wrath on the enemies
of God, we should hate them that hate God, okay, the Bible's very clear about that, but we have to
be careful and we have to be making sure that they are that, yeah, and, and look, when I say making
sure, yeah, you can't know everything 100%, but we've got to be pretty sure of that, you know,
and sometimes if I'm praying against people, I will be putting a little caveat in, look, Lord,
show me if I'm wrong on this, you know, and I'm sorry if I'm wrong on this, when you feel like
people are clearly just enemies of God, but for the vast majority of people, they aren't that,
okay, now look, that might change in God's wrath, yeah, but for the vast majority of people,
they're people, some are pretty carnal people, some do some pretty bad stuff, yeah, some are out
doing some pretty fleshy things, and again, in case you're thinking, I'm not talking about
reprobate church infiltrators, okay, that's clear as day, but I'm just talking about the vast
majority of people in the world, and we should want God's mercy on them, shouldn't we, yeah,
we should want God's forgiveness on these types of people, we shouldn't be just wishing for them to
get punished for everything they've ever done, and I think that's what we're seeing a comparison here,
that the contrast between Jonah's kind of lack of that and God's, because they're of no use to God,
he's saying they cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, unlike the
gourd which is of use to Jonah, yeah, saying that they, look, they cannot discern that,
but the Lord is, we saw, merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy, yeah,
and again, praise God for that, because look, everyone here, you weren't of use to God,
yeah, when God, and talk about spiritual salvation here, okay, look, but God was still
plenteous in mercy to all of us, wasn't he, and that's the difference between our mercy and God's,
isn't it, God's mercy isn't based on our use, yeah, God's mercy isn't based on that,
you know, here it's obviously physical salvation, we're here, but it's based on his mercy,
and I think like this passage here, it's a good reminder of our helplessness without God as well,
isn't it, because look, you and I, look, maybe it was a pretty bad place, but we're not that
much different from the Ninevites, cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand,
I kind of feel like I can, but you know, maybe, maybe some of us can't here, I don't know,
but what I do know is that, look, it's God, isn't it, it's God that we rely on for mercy,
it's not ourselves, it's not because of how great we are, and we have to remember that,
yeah, we have to remember that with those outside, it's easy to go hard-hearted on people,
because you're just, oh, they don't live like us, they don't do, look, still, look, we want to go
out, we want to get people saved, we want to still get people, you know, try and not just get them
saved, get them in a church, not just cast off the ones, oh, I don't even come to church, you know,
carnal Christian type, look, we want to try and encourage them, we want to pray for these people,
we want, we want to be able to get out and get more people saved and have a care and a love
for those outside of here, but still have the right hatred for the people that God hates as
well, and not go so far with that where we just start, you know, rolling out a red carpet to
sodomites and everything else, right, and that for me is what that is, again, that, that's my
opinion, I'm, you know, I'm like, I'm happy to hear some other opinions on that, I find that a
hard, hard passage of scripture, that's what I believe that's talking about there, I do believe
that's a picture of end times there, with that vim and e-swim, with that men designed to die, etc,
that's what it looks like to me, but again, if you've got any other ideas on that, love to chat
about it afterwards, and that is a shorter sermon, we did have a long one this, long one this morning,
and that was the Book of Jonah, and I hope you enjoyed the Book of Jonah, I thought that was a
great, great Bible study, and we're going to be, yeah, I'll be looking to do something else
from next week, could do a series on church infiltrators, I don't know, you know,
really tempting, it's going to be a while before I get out of my seat, I need to preach this out
with my sister, yeah, and if any of you guys need to preach out your sister, we've got Men's Preacher
Night coming up, so if you just want to, between you pick one of these people, I'm joking, I'm joking,
we don't want to give them, because then they get to the point where these people, they're such
narcissists, oh I forgot to mention, such narcissists, yeah, that they really, even being
preached about, they love really, okay, so we don't want to go too far with this either, okay, so on that
let's go to the Lord in the word of prayer, Father, I thank you for this great book of the Bible, thank
you for all the lessons we've learned about this book of the Bible, and thank you for, you know,
just, just not only just giving us that clear picture of salvation, but, you know, and just showing
us, you know, in probably the worst kind of example you could give in the world of how bad
hell is with the being burning in acid in the belly of a whale, wow, I mean, what a horrific
thought, and we know that that hell is much worse than that, and help us to just, you know, not want
people to go there, barring those worst types of people, but to, to want to go out and save people,
to want to, to not want them to just be, be destroyed by you, both physically and spiritually,
but, but want people to get that chance to, to be more in line with how you think, Lord, because
that's, you're, you're the benchmark, not what the world says, not what we say, but what you say,
that's the benchmark, help us to, to get in line with that, and help us all to, to now go away, and
you know, have a great week, hopefully edified by the preaching today, edified by the word of God,
edified by the singing and the hymns, and help us to return on Wednesday for the Bible study,
and the, and the prayer night, in Jesus' name, pray all of this, Amen.