now we turn to Jonah CH
4 if you and I were writing the Book of
Jonah there wouldn't be any chapter
4 which shows how little we know about
the ways of God after all chapter 3
records Jonah's
success a million people plus their animals
animals
repented that's all the church is
concerned about today is Success some
good statistics to
report and no no that we've gone back to
the little phrase
but now we ran up against this in
chapter 1 God told Jonah to arise and go
verse three but
Jonah and then in verse four but the
Lord you butt up against the Lord and
he'll butt up against
you chapter 2 he chastens Jonah chapter
3 Jonah obeys and we go from but Jonah
in Chapter 2 then Jonah chapter 3 so
Jonah but now we're back to the butt again
but it displeased Jonah exceedingly and
he was very
angry and he prayed unto the Lord and
said I pray thee Oh Lord was not this my
saying when I was yet in my
country therefore I fled before unto
tares for I knew that thou art a
gracious God and merciful slow to
anger of great kindness and repentance
thee of the evil therefore now oh Lord
take I be beseech theee my life from me
now if he hadn't added that from me and
he'd meant it spiritually he would have
gotten someplace take oh Lord my
life but he wanted to die it is better
for me to die than to
live 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 a booth for himself and sat
under it in the shadow till he might see
what would be come of the
city hoping of course that God would
change his mind and destroy the enemy
and the Lord God prepared a
gourd and made it to come up over Jonah
this is a plant with large leaves that
look like the palm of your hand that it
might be a shadow over his head to
deliver him from his grief so Jonah was
exceedingly glad of the gourd but
God prepared
worm when the morning Rose the next day
and it smoke the gourd that it withered
and it came to pass when the sun did
rise that God prepared a vehement East
Wind and the Sun Beat upon the head of
Jonah that he fainted and wished himself
to die and said it is better for me to
die than to
live and God said to Jonah doest thou
well to be angry for the G G and he said
I do well to be angry even unto
death then said the
Lord thou Hast had pity on the gourd for
which thou Hast not labored neither mest
It Grow which came up in a night and
perished in a night and should not I
spare Nineveh that great City in which
are more than six score, persons that
cannot discern between their right hand
and their left hand that means little
children and also much
cattle and would you believe there is no verse
verse
12 it's not dropped out of any
manuscript it never was in any
manuscripts you know why you and I have
12 Jonah chter
4 finishes the book and shows us that
God is more concerned about the worker
than he is the work
God didn't say well this is marvelous
Nineveh has repented there's no judgment
Jonah is sitting there ping but that's
all right he'll get over it no no God
doesn't do
that after all Jonah was God's
missionary have you ever sat on a
committee interviewing a missionary
candidate I have it's interesting
interesting
difficult what I'd like to do tonight is
consider Jonah as a missionary camp
candidate all that we know about the
Book of Jonah now and I want to call
three witnesses to our committee we're
all going to become a committee of the whole
whole
tonight I want to call first of all the
witness of his
credentials now if you're going to go to
be a missionary you've got to have
certain credentials they they make you
fill out certain forms and they ask you
a lot of questions so first we're going
to talk about his credentials then the
witness of his companions I want to go
through this book and call out the
people who were with Jonah and see what they
they
know and then last of all and most
important the witness of his Lord his
creator his savior see what God has to
say about it let's begin now with the
witness of his credentials Jonah is now
seated before us the committee is
meeting and we're going to ask him the
questions that are asked just about
every missionary candidate Jonah number
one has God called you do you feel a
call of God oh yeah twice
twice
twice you really feel you're called of
God yes the word of the Lord came to me
saying arise go to Nineveh yes I've been
called God's called you yes because you
don't want to do anything without God calling
calling
you question number two Jonah is your theology
theology
Evangelical are you Orthodox in your
theology oh of course I am I believe in
the god God of Israel I believe in God
who is gracious and merciful and slow to
anger and of great kindness a God who
repents of evil I believe that salvation
Lord he said that you know back in chapter
2:9 all right you have a call from God
and your theology is
evangelical here's a third question
Jonah do you
pray do I
pray oh I have prayed in strange
places does God answer your prayers oh
does he answer my prayers let me tell
you about the miracle that I went
through now this story may sound fishy
to you but here is what
happened and so the committee would look
at each other and say this is good
here's a man who when he
prays god works
now there's always somebody on every
committee who's concerned about the Deeper
Deeper
Life and so the some committee
memb says to
life nobody's gone deeper than I've
gone I've been down to the bottoms of the
the
mountains I know what it's like like to
die and to be raised from the dead may
you don't have to talk to me about
walking in newness of life I died and I
was raised I know the Deeper Life
wonderful we don't want any missionaries
who don't know the Deeper
Life well here's another question they
always ask you've done some preaching
Jonah does your preaching bring results
oh sure haven't you
heard I went and preached to a
city there were 20,000 children in it
and there were a lot of parents and
uncles and aunts nearly a million people
and the whole city repented the whole
the whole city even the animals
animals
remarkable oh yes I've had results from
my preaching
yes now there's always one like this on the
the
committee Jonah can you quote
scripture you believe in Bible memory
work oh yes I can quote the Psalms by
James back in Chapter 2 you've got Jonah
quoting scripture by the yard yes I I I
believe in scripture I quote scripture
in fact here in Chapter 4: 2 when he has
this statement I know thou art a
gracious God and merciful and so forth
he's quoting from from two experiences
in moses' life Exodus 34 and numbers
chap 14 on those two occasions when
Israel sins so Grievous ly and Moses had
to go up on the Mountaintop and
intercede these are the words that Moses
used oh I can quote the Psalms I can
quote from the law that's marvelous we
don't want any any missionaries who
can't quote
scripture Jan have you got any courage
it takes courage to be a missionary oh
I've got courage I was willing for those
people to throw me in the water to save
them I've got courage don't talk to me
about courage I have got enough
courage now Jan if you'll leave the room
we want to discuss this and so Jonah
leaves the room and you know what the
result would be they would look at these
credentials and they would say you know
this is this is the finest missionary
candidate we have
ever interrogated he's called of God
he's theologically sound there's no
liberalism he gets answers to prayer he
knows what it is to die to
self his preaching has brought results
he can quote scripture and he's a
courageous man we had better sign him up
he's the kind of missionary we're
looking for and yet
failure here he sits outside the city
angry at the very people he should be
pouting you know one of our problems
today folks is that we have the wrong measuring
stick the one question they did not ask
Jonah and by the way it's a question we
usually ask when we're interrogating
missionary candidates on the board where I
I [Music]
[Music]
serve do you have a love for the people
you're going to minister
to because if you don't I don't care
what kind of theology you have I don't
care how many times God has called you I
don't care how many miracles you've been
through I don't care how much preaching
you've done if you don't have a love for
the people you're ministering to you're
you isn't it too bad that we have so
many people who have good Theology and bad
bad
attitudes if you were to ask them about
their theology their theology would be
as orthod Ox as it could be and their
mean his credentials well he passes as
far as the credentials are concerned but
uh God just shakes his
head now let's call a second witness
let's call the witness of his companions
let's just go through these chapters and
find the people who knew Jonah let's
begin in chapter one now we have here
gentlemen and Ladies we have here the
sailors who were on board the ship where
Jonah was and I want to ask these
Sailors a question what do you know about
about
Jonah that man is a
troublemaker everything was going fine
on our ship till he got on he's a
troublemaker we were in danger he was
sleeping you're going to send him to be
a missionary he sleeps
we were praying to our Gods he didn't
come up and pray to his God when he did nothing
nothing
happened we finally had to cast some
lots and they pointed to him that he was
the Troublemaker you're going to send
him out to the mission field a
troublemaker like that he almost wrecked
our ship and we almost lost our lives
troublemaker now in the Bible there are
two kinds of troublemakers there are
people who cause trouble because they're
out of the will of God and there are
people who cause trouble because in the
will of
God Jonah caused trouble out of the will
of God David caused trouble out of the
will of God Abraham caused trouble out
of the will of God Jesus caused trouble
in the will of God remember one of the
indictments they brought against the
Lord Jesus when they brought in those uh
Witnesses they said he stirs up the
people that's an awful sin to stir up
the people because the people ought to
just sit and not be stirred up the same
thing was ACC the same accusation was
made to Paul these men who have turned
the world upside down have come
hither Vance havner has said whatever
wherever Paul went there was either a
Revival or a riot and sometimes there
troublemaker well let's moved to the
next chapter now folks if you'll just
move your chairs back a little bit I
want to call the great fish
in he had a rather close attachment to
Jonah we want to talk to him
him uh Mr
Fish what do you know about this
stubborn
stubborn he was called by The God Who made
made
me to go preach and he refused to do it
I am only a
fish but when my God tells me to do
something I I do it I do it gladly
everything in all of creation does what
God wants it to do except people and
especially Jonah he's a stubborn man he
could have confessed his sin and
repented on board that ship but he
didn't do it he could have done it on
the way from the ship to the water but
he didn't do it and my God instructed me
to go swallow him and on the way down he
could have done it he didn't do it took
three days and three nights before he
finally was
broken he's a stubborn man
and quite frankly Mr committee
three chapter 3 let's call on the people of
of
Nineveh you heard of Jonah oh we heard
of Jonah he came walking through our
city he was a weirdest looking fellow we ever
ever
saw and we found out he had been
swallowed by a great f and he had been
vomited out in the land he'd gone
through a miracle and he preached a
message to us he said
repent 40 days Nineveh shall be
overthrown really he came to be our
savior he came as an ambassador and he
led us to repentance but we don't
understand this fell you know he should
be in our city praying with people and
teaching people and encour passing out
follow-up literature enrolling people
and you know where he
is he's out there sitting in a booth
pouting we found out he really would
have been happier if all of us had gone to
to
hell and quite frankly he's a problem to
us we love him because he brought us
God's message but we we don't know what
to do with him he's he's an enigma he's
problem well we move to chapter
complaint the worm comes
in and we say to the worm you know Jonah
yes the great Creator called me and said
man what do you know about him he is an
immature person
now he may be 40 50 years old I don't
know how old Jonah was he was old enough
to know
better but he's a child he's immature
look at the evidences of his immaturity
he's living by his feelings not by
obedience to God he doesn't feel like he
ought to do something and so he's
sitting there in that Booth
pouting he's
angry he's angry at
God he's angry at God because he didn't
get what he wanted I meet people
people
regularly whose lives are filled with
bitterness because they're angry at
God I've been receiving strange letters
from a radio listener who's angry at
God and now she's angry at
me and this is tragic God didn't do
something she thought he should do and
he didn't do it the way it was supposed
to be done according to to her
Blueprints and she's angry and this
bitterness just shows up in her letters
and the worm says you know he's an
immature fell he's angry living by his
feelings he's immature because he's
bigoted and
Prejudiced as a Jew he did not want to
see Nineveh spared because Nineveh is
the enemy of Israel he wanted to be able
to go home and say to his Jewish
congregation see God destroyed Nineveh
for her sins now we had better repent or
he'll destroy
us he wanted to be a good Patriot and he
was so bigoted and so Prejudice you know
childish you put dinner in front of a
child and on that plate is
liver I heard a song on the radio some
quiver frankly I like liver
it saved my life when I was a little boy
I had to eat it
regularly and so the child gets liver
put in front of
him I'm not going to eat that why I
don't like it that's no good
reason last time I took medicine I
didn't like it there no good reason Prejudice
Prejudice
bigotry and the worm says you know he
doesn't have any burden for the loss
you're going to send him out of as a
missionary he has no burden for the Lost
he's sitting there in that Booth hoping
that the city will be
destroyed now he was shown Mercy by God
God showed him mercy God brought him up
out of the depths God's God was merciful
to him but he won't share that Mercy
with anybody
else he doesn't have a burden for soul
oh sure he can quote he can quote
scripture but he's quoting scripture
from men who love souls he quotes from
Exodus has he forgotten that Moses went
up there and said dear God pardon the
sins of the people of Israel and if you
can't pardon them take my
life judge me but don't judge them
that's the way Paul prayed Paul said I'd
rather go to hell than see my own people
not get the
gospel so says our witnessing worm he
has no burden for the lost and he goes
on to say he is very unlike the God that he
he
preaches God is great gracious this
man's not gracious God is merciful he's
not merciful slow to anger why he loses
his temper like that great kindness he
doesn't know the meaning of kindness
repent us thee of the evil his heart is
so hard he will not
repent how can you send him out to Bear
witness of a God that he really
doesn't live
like this last week or so I've been
rereading some of Dr aw toer essays if
you've never read toer you have robbed
yourself you get a hold of aw tozer's
writings and read them and every essay
every little message has the same
message same
emphasis it's not important to know
about God we have to know
God a lot of us know about God we know
about God's character and about God's
creation and about God's word we don't
know God and the more we know God the
more we become like God and Jonah got
A's on all of his theology exams but did
not really know
God and our worm continues he told you
he had answers to prayer he did but his
prayers are very
selfish well that prayer back in Chapter
2 he prayed that to save his own
skin but in chapter one he didn't pray
to save anybody else's skin and here in
chapter 4 instead of praying for these
dear people who are repenting he's
praying take my life take my life I want
to die I'd rather die than go back home
and have to face my Jewish friends
Nineveh his prayers are selfish if he
doesn't get what he wants he gets
angry to put it in one simple sentence he's
he's
pampered he's
pampered he likes to have Creature
Comforts when he was sitting out there
in the booth and and the gourd came up
he was so happy for that gourd because
it shaded him from the
Sun and our worm says to the committee
you know folks the thing that makes you
happy shows what your character is he
wasn't happy because Nineveh repented he
was happy because he had some shade from the
Sun but our worm doesn't leave much of a
witness left does
he according to Jonah's credential
he's got it made he's the ideal
missionary according to Jonah's
companions he
flunks he's the worst possible candidate
what are we going to
do well there's one more witness we need
to call that's the witness of
God Jonah's Creator and
Jonah's god let's ask God what he knows
about this now far be it from me that I
should ever interrogate God
but let's use our imaginations tonight
did you call Jonah yes I did called him
twice did Jonah obey
you yes he obeyed me outwardly but not
inwardly what do you mean by that his
heart wasn't in
it in Ephesians chapter 6 and verse six
it says doing the will of
and Jonah did my
will but not from his
heart he did it because he had
to are the statements true that these
Witnesses gave yes they're all true
every one of
them well then Lord what do you suggest we
there's another lesson he has to learn
from me that he hasn't learned yet let
me teach him that lesson I'm glad God
doesn't give up on missionary candidates
or preacher candidates or Deacon
candidates or Saint
candidates I'm glad that God didn't give
up on Abraham the first time Abraham
fell flat on his face down in Egypt I'm
glad he didn't give up on David when
David ran
scared I'm glad he didn't give up on
Jeremiah when Jeremiah was ready to quit
I'm glad he didn't give up on Peter when
Peter denied him three times I'm glad he
didn't give up on John Mark we wouldn't
have the gospel of Mark if he'd given up
on John
Mark I'm glad he hasn't given up on you
and un given up on me now this is no
opportunity to tempt
God but it is an encouragement not to
quit and God says to the missionary
committee let's give him another
opportunity he has some more lessons to
learn and I think after he's learned
these lessons he will be just the
missionary you
need I notice how God deals with Jonah
up till now he's been dealing with Jonah
with big things
storms and seas and great fish lots of
noise and
pressure but now he's not doing that now
he's dealing with go with Jonah very
gently he's using things like um gourds
and worms and wind now the wind he's
talking about here is that hot Oriental
wind that is so stifling and so
smothering that you can't take it when
this kind of a wind begins to blow in
the desert areas people run for cover
they find any cool place they can find
because this wind just almost buries you
in the stifling atmosphere and the sun
was beating down upon Jonah nothing
noisy nothing huge and
cumbersome but it was there God had to
deal further with Jonah but he dealt
with him so gently and so patiently and
so graciously because he had to teach
him one more lesson
you see in the first three chapters of
this book Jonah had learned three very
important lessons about God chapter one
he learned the lesson of God's
Providence you can't run away from
God wherever you go God's going to be
there and he'll keep backing you into a
Corner chapter 2 he learned the lesson
of God's pardon if you cry out and say
Lord forgive me God will forgive you
chapter 3 he learned the lesson of God's
power you obey God God will do something
something God powerfully worked through
his word in chapter
3 but there's one little word In Jonah
410 that shows the fourth lesson Jonah
had to learn the most important lesson
not the lesson of God's Providence and
not the lesson of God's pardon and not
the lesson of God's power but the lesson
of God's pity Jonah had to learn how to
souls now how did God teach him this
this is a truth I picked up from Phil
Lassie he and I have been working
together for a long time we haven't
gotten it written yet but we're working
on a book on Jonah and Phil said to me
you know did you ever notice that the
first time God dealt with Jonah he stuck
him down in the in the sea down in the
fish way down where it was dark and
dismal and damp
damp
dangerous the second time he dealt with
Jonah he had him right out in the open
with the sun beating down on him that
hot wind blowing against him from water
which was cold and clammy to heat from
Darkness to
sunlight I said tell me why did he do it
that way Phil said I think that the
reason God did this was to remind Jonah
of what it felt like to be a Lost Sinner
and I think he's
right what what's it like to be a Lost
Sinner it's like being down in the
bottom of the ocean Dark
Dark
Death Jonah said I'm in a dungeon I've
me where are unsaved people tonight
they're in darkness they're in death
they're in
dungeons then he went to the Other
Extreme what's it like to be unsaved
that awful heat that awful to torment
that constant [Music]
[Music]
torture I wonder if In Jonah chap
4 God wasn't giving Jonah A Taste of
hell I firmly believe that if tonight
every one of us dreamed that we went to
hell and came back it would change our
attitude toward lost souls it would
change our attitude toward giving toward
praying toward obeying toward
missions and God said let me just take
one more opportunity of dealing with
Jonah but Lord what is it you want from
Jonah I mean after all he did go preach oh
oh
yeah but you know when I made Jonah
here's what I gave him says God I gave
him a
body I gave him a mind I gave him a will
and I gave him a
heart and I called All of Jonah to serve
me and over in the first chapter I said
arise go to Nineveh I wanted him to
understand my will with his mind I
wanted him to love my will with his
heart I wanted him to do my will with
his will controlling his
body but instead Jonah had my will in
his mind but not the rest of him and he
picked up his body and went in the
opposite direction so I had to track him
down and in Chapter 2 he said I will I
will so in chapter two I got his will
chapter one I got his mind chapter two I
got his will chapter three I got his
body he took his body and went to
heart and I want to get his
heart well how you going to get his
heart I'm going to show him how dumb he
things and so up comes this plant and
shelters Jonah he say oh I'm so thankful
for this plant plant dies Along Came the
worm that's the end of the plant and
Jonah's very unhappy about the plant and
God says you know Jonah you're a
fool this plant came up in a night and
it perishes in a night here's a whole
city of people who are going to live
forever someplace Heaven or
Hell Jonah this plant you didn't have
anything to do with that plant it just
came and it went and you were sorry when
it left I made these people over here
I'm concerned about them there's just
one plant there's a million people the
only issue here is your comfort over
here the issue is eternity now Jonah
what kind of a person are you do you
love creature comfort so much but don't
you have any pity for lost [Music]
[Music]
souls he had to teach
Jonah the lesson of God's pity God wants my
my
heart give me thy heart keep thy heart
with all diligence for out of it are the
issues of life if the Heart Is Right the
will will be right if the Heart Is Right
the mind will be right if the Heart Is
Right the body will be
right and so the last lesson God had to teach
Jonah I want your
heart if you love
me you'll love my people
I made these people they need
you and so when you get right down to it
doing the will of God is not a matter of
knowing it in the mind
uh-uh it's a matter of loving it in the
heart Ephesians 66 doing the will of God
from the
heart and if I am faced with something I
have to do and I can't honestly say Lord
I love this I love you for this I've got
to stay on my face before God until he
has my heart that's why when Jesus spoke to
to
Peter at that breakfast
meeting he didn't say Peter do you know
my will he didn't say Peter do you
understand my word he said
me so the most important question we
have to answer tonight is we are on
trial not Jonah his trial is over we're
on trial do we do the will of God from
our heart do we love the will of God no
matter what it may cost us no matter how
people may criticize us no matter what
discomfort we may encounter do we love
the will of God from our
heart that's the way Jesus
lived I Delight to do thy will oh Lord
he said thy law is within my heart I do
that's why there's no verse 12 here you
have to write verse 12 now some of
you would not agree with God you'd say
well Jonah did his job leave him alone oh
oh
no verse 12 ought to read and Jonah said
oh God I Repent of my selfishness and my
immaturity forgive me now go with me
we're going back to
Nineveh and let's get the work done I
think that's the way it would read and I
think that's what Jonah did
I firmly believe in my own heart that
Jonah came to the place where he saw how
foolish he was he confessed his sin and
God gave him a Compassionate Heart for
the people to whom he was
ministering the name Jonah means
means
Dove Jonah didn't turn out to be a dove
turn out to be a
hawk when you think of a dove you think
of Peace he brought a storm when you
think think of a dove you think of
disobedient he was grieving the Holy
Spirit who is the
dove well Jonah we have uh interviewed
you your credentials are
marvelous your companions don't have
such a good testimony for you but God's
on your side Jonah God's is going to
give you another chance learn the lesson
of God's
pity when you've learned that when you
can do the will of God from the heart
Jonah God can really use you and you'll be
be
blessing gracious
father how many times we have
counterfeited obedience by outward action
action
when our inward attitudes were very very
selfish and
sinful and for this we are
sorry we are not here tonight oh God to
search each other you must search our
hearts you must try us let us know if
there be some Wicked way in
US father we like to excuse our sins
because we have good
theology old Lord help us to see tonight
that our theology is only as good as our
living that our believing is worthless without
behaving gracious
father Deliver Us from sins in good
standing sins of bitterness and
criticism sins of anger sins of inner
disposition that are
ungodly and help us tonight to begin to
learn the lesson of your
pity and may the love of Christ
constrain us and may the love of God fill
fill
us and may we do the will of God from the
heart not of
necessity not of
compulsion but out of
love I pray for the one who may be here
who is not saved May that one come and
Trust Christ I pray for that believer
who is rebelling May that one surrender
do something to all of us
tonight so that we'll not be
be
unloving for Jesus
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