A Painful Prison

All right, we're on the last one of Jonah last lesson.

Go ahead and turn to Jonah chapter 4.

Jonah 4 · chapter mention

Who thought 13 weeks out of Jonah it just it just goes to

prove that there's a difference between reading God's word and

studying God's word. You can read Jonah in an

afternoon and and be done. But to study Jonah obviously

took me 13 weeks. There's a difference.

And you can get a whole lot more out of the Bible.

And that's why the Bible says study to show thyself approved,

not read. And that's it.

It says study. But we're here.

We're at the end of Jonah, Jonah chapter 4.

Jonah 4 · chapter mention

We're going to start in verse. Well, we'll just start at verse

one. 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 Tarsus.

For I knew that thou art a gracious God and a merciful and

merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness and Rep and

repentance the of the evil. Therefore now, O Lord, take I

beseech thee my life from me, for it is better for me to die

than to live. And here's our our our text for

to the ending of today. Then said the Lord, dost thou do

well? Yeah, let me say that again.

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 till he might see what would become of the

city. 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, But God prepared a

worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd

that it withered. And it came to pass, when the

sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement E 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. And God said to Jonah, Doest

thou well to be angry for the gourd?

And he said, I do well to be angry even unto death.

Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for that

which thou hast not labored, neither made it grow, which came

up in the night and perished in the night.

And should I not spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are

more than six score thousand persons, that cannot discern

between the right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle?

We see in the end, Jonah hasn't changed.

Jonah's still the same selfish, scornful, bitter man that he

was. That when he started in chapter

1, being being disobedient as a as a prophet, not just a child

of God, but as a prophet of God. You, you've probably heard you

make your bed, you're going to lie in it.

You've heard that saying before. That's what we find Jonah.

We find Jonah that he's basically at the same place as

what he was at the beginning. He remains unchanged even though

countless souls have been saved around him and lies have been

changed. The one person that has not is

the one man of God that came to preach to that city.

And sadly, I would almost say that he's more miserable now at

the end than he was when he was in the belly.

He never called for for God to kill him and destroy him and be

done with this when he was in the whale's belly.

But now that he's been redeemed, now that he's been thrown up on

the on the ground, given a second chance, he sees a whole

city have a revival. He's more miserable now than he

was when he was suffocating and trying to stay alive in the

Wells Wells belly. I'm afraid that a lot of people

do the same thing that Jonah is doing here.

They make a prison around them without bars.

They get so, so enwrapped with hate, with bitterness that they

can't be used of God anymore. With that bitterness, God cannot

use you with that hate towards somebody, a group of people like

here in Nineveh, God couldn't use Jonah anymore.

And he tries to in the end, he tries to comfort Jonah, tries to

Jonah. I, I know it's bad.

I know what you wanted to happen didn't happen.

I can still use you if you get out of this hole that you're in.

With this bitterness, he, he grows A gourd for him to, to

help shelter him. And then he uses that gourd to,

to display what his mercy means and who God is and who really

Jonah is. And sadly, Jonah doesn't get it.

Jonah decides, I'm going to stay in this prison that I've made

myself into. I'm going to stay bound in the

bitterness that I've created. And that's where I'm going to

stay. And that's why we find nothing

else about Jonah. We don't hear Jonah too.

We don't hear about Jonah being talked about in all the other

prophets in their books. Jonah's done after Nineveh.

Let's pray and we'll we'll look at this painful prison that

Jonah puts himself into and why I think God puts this book in

his word for us to see and to reflect on.

Don't be like Jonah. Don't let the bitterness get a

hold of you so much that you can't get over it and you can't

be used to God anymore. Let's pray and we'll get into

this lesson. Heavenly Father, I thank you so

much for this morning for having a a place to come worship you,

open your word and and learn what you have for each and every

one of us. Lord, I just pray that your name

be lifted up and you be glorified through everything

that happens this morning. I do pray that you help us to

understand that Jonah is no different than us, that that

we're not above what Jonah has done and that we're not above

being just like Jonah, but that we need to change and, and put

our trust in and in our our lives and our emotions in your

hands and to not stay like Jonah.

I pray that you be glorified through it all.

Jesus name I pray, Amen. Look there in verse 4 of chapter

4 then said the Lord doest thou well to be angry and later on

Jonah replies and he says and he said, I do well to be angry even

unto death. It's it's amazing how God has

been merciful, gracious, slow to anger and plenteous of mercy put

on Jonah and yet he remains disgusted in spirit.

He he gets the the second chance out of the belly.

He gets all the second chances, all the mercy that God shows him

he could have again. God could have just left him in

the sea to drown. God could have left him in the

whale's belly to be digested and be done.

God could have had him thrown up on land and said I'm done with

you. But God continues to give Jonah

mercy and show him his mercy. And yet, through all the grace

that God gives me, Jonah Dota doesn't care.

Jonah is, he has an incorrigible attitude towards these people of

Nineveh and ultimately towards the people towards God,

ultimately because he blames God for see this.

I already knew you were going to do this.

Why did you send me and do all this?

Why'd you make me come here when I knew you were going to repent

of this? You weren't going to follow

through because you're a merciful God.

OK, we already talked about that.

You, you're on shaky ground, Jonah.

Just go do what God told you to do.

Fine, I'll go do it. I go preach in Nineveh, but he

has that spirit on him that attitude.

Proverbs 2027 says this the spirit of a man is the candle of

the Lord searching all the inward parts of the belly.

It's it's said that attitude determines your altitude and

here in this, this, this disgusted spirit, this this bad

attitude that Jonah has God had can't use him.

He has no value to be used by God.

He says I'm just let me die, I'm done.

I don't care about my life anymore, Just let me be done and

I'm out of here. And the most dangerous thing

about an evil spirit is that it's a contagious spirit.

It when we talk in the New Testament a little Levin

Lemonth, the whole thing. It's it's something that I think

that's one of the reasons why God grew the gourd tried to get

Jonah to get out of this state, because you just have an entire

city newly converted, ripe to harvest, ready to be discipled

and to be to be grazed up. And Jonah could have easily went

in there and made things go the wrong way.

And I think God uses this at the end, trying to get Jonah to say,

leave this alone. I'm going to try to help you.

I'm going to try to get you back out of this, but I can't let you

be by these new converts. A new Christian is the worst

thing a new Christian can do is go on YouTube and start watching

a bunch of videos because they'll find everything and

anything under the sun and, and they'll be they'll have one

verse for it. They won't have the whole Bible

for whatever they find. But all of a sudden they turn

into praying that God would kill all the the homosexual people

and kill all these heathens. And hold on.

It's not, not what the word of God talks about.

Well, that's what. And he'll, he'll go off on a

tangent. And that plant that was ready to

be grown is now not able to be used.

And I think God uses the ending of Jonah to try to pull Jonah

out, get him away from his new children before something wrong

happens. Proverbs 29 eight says scornful

men bring a city into a snare. James says it this way.

But if ye have a bitter envying and a strife in your hearts,

glory not and lie not against the truth.

The wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual,

devilish. For where envying and strife is,

there is confusion and every evil work.

Paul said it this way in Romans. Now I beseech you, therefore,

brethren, mark them which cause division and offenses contrary

to the doctrine which he have learned, and avoid them.

For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their

own belly, and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts

of the simple. He has the wrong attitude.

The other thing look at Well, we'll get there.

Jonah builds bars around himself.

That's why I this is a prison. Proverbs 522 says it this way.

His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall

be Holden with the cords of his sins.

Romans 6 says, Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourself

servants to obey his servants? Ye are to whom ye obey, whether

of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness.

The way Jonah's at, where he's at in this position is brought

on to himself. It's brought on to himself.

There's no, no reason if, if a normal person would come in and

say, oh wow, look at that city. And here comes a prophet and he

declares that the city is going to be destroyed because of their

evilness and wickedness. And then they repent and get

right with God. The reaction to a normal person

would be praise God, look at what God did.

But Jonah's here sitting so angry and stewing about this.

It's like you, you can play with Sin for a little while, and it's

like getting a Python. I don't know why anybody would

get a snake as a pet, but whatever.

A baby Python is fun to play. No, it's not.

But you can play with a baby Python.

A little, little thing doesn't do much.

But just like Sin, that Python is going to grow and it's going

to get to a point where it can wrap itself around you.

And Jonah is in the spot where, just like Acts says in 8/30/23.

For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in

the bond of iniquity. You can get so wrapped up in

your sin that you can't get out. You're so focused on yourself.

You're so focused on that bitterness inside.

His attitude was just beyond what a normal person should

think of as a Christian. Look at verse 5.

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 that city.

Through this book, we see one thing, even when when Jonah's in

the fox, I call it the the belly of the whale, he prays that

foxhole prayer of please Get Me Out of this.

I don't want to be in this situation.

Get Me Out. Save me.

The sad thing is, nothing's changed in Jonah's heart from

chapter 1 to Chapter 4. He's still doing that, which was

right in his own eyes. I don't want to go to Nineveh

because I hate them, because look at the wickedness.

I don't want to go there. Fine, God, I'll go.

There does goes and does it. Now God repents and they have

mercy from God and he decides not to destroy him.

And now Jonah's mad about it. Revival always brings joy.

Turn, turn to Acts, Acts 5, Hold your finger and Jonah turn to

Acts 5. No, Acts 8.

Sorry, Verse 5. Then Philip went down into the

city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them.

And the people with 1 accord gave heed unto those things

which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did

for unclean spirits, crying with loud voices, came out of many

that were possessed with them and lick.

Let's look at this. And many taken with palsies and

were lame were healed, and there was great joy in that city.

You know what I think Nineveh sounded like after they found

out God had mercy upon them? I'm I'm pretty sure everybody

was really quite happy. We're not going to get

destroyed. We're not going to be

annihilated and wiped off the face of the planet.

I'm pretty sure they were pretty happy about that.

Revival brings joy and that same spirit that was in with Philip

in Samaria. By the way, Philip going to

Samaria, same idea as Jonah going to Nineveh, who Philip was

a Jew. Samaria was a the enemy the the

city that they hated. Jonah was a Jew, Nineveh was the

enemy, the city they hated. But yet Philip still goes.

We don't ever read about Philip going into the belly of the

whale. We don't ever hear about any of

that. But no doubt there was the same

type of spirit of enjoyment of happiness in Nineveh after

hearing it's not going to be destroyed because of our our our

turning from our repentance, our changing to towards God.

God's showing mercy. There's joy in the joy in

Christian life does not come because of what we know.

First Corinthians says knowledge puffeth up.

The joy is a result of what we do with those things that we

know to be true. John says it this way.

If you know these things, happy are ye if you do them.

A lack of joy is always a result in a lack of obedience.

You you have a whole city revival and you have one man

pouting out on the east side. Not only is he upset in his mind

that God had treated them unfairly got God you, you, you

got basically they got off Scott free.

Proverbs 634 says, For jealousy is the rage of a man, therefore

he will not spare in the day of vengeance.

He will not regard any ransom, neither will he will he rest

content, though thou give us many gifts.

Song of Solomon says it this way.

Jealousy is cruel as the grave. The coals thereof are coals of

fire, which have hath a most vehement flame.

But then look at what? Turn back to Jonah, look at what

he does. He is just God has said that I'm

not going to destroy it. And even though Jonah has just

to me gotten bold and said stuff to God that he should never have

saved, should never say to God using God's attributes as that's

why it's bad. That's why you're doing this

because you're merciful. OK, thanks.

You're you're you're it just doesn't make sense.

But look at verse 5, even after learning all this, Jonah.

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.

Why? Till he might see what would

become of the city. Even though God has basically

told me that, that He's repented of the evil and he's not going

to destroy it, I'm still going to see if it's going to happen.

I hope it's still, I hope one thing comes down and does this.

Really, Jonah? You're so bitter and mad about

this. You pitch a tent, It says a

booth, a booth. That same word is the same word

that's used as the Tabernacle or tents.

It's, it's not that he just like finds a tree and sits under it.

He builds a tent. I'm going to pitch my tent here

and I'm going to watch this city burn.

Jonah, you're you're missing the point.

God's the the good thing is God's word is obey when it's

obeyed. God has a biblical track record.

Aren't you glad that he forgives and forgets?

He's not like Jonah where he proclaims and I'm still going to

come over here and watch and see if it's going to happen.

I hope it does man. I'll tell you one of them says 1

bad word. God's going to rain fire down.

I can't wait. God Forgives and forgets as far

as the east is from the West with this gourd.

Look, look there in 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 his of the gourd, But God

prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote

the gourd that it withered. And it came to pass, when the

sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement E wind.

And the sun beat up on the head of Jonah, that he fainted.

And he wished himself to die, and said, It is better for me to

die than to live. And God said unto Jonah, Doest

thou well to be angry for the gourd?

And he said, I do well to be angry even unto death.

Jonah's glad for the gourd. Don't don't.

He's it even says he's glad for having that gourd grown and

giving him more shelter and more shade.

But he never recognizes this from God.

He never, never sees it as a gift or a mercy from God.

He just great, there's a gourd here.

So happy there's a gourd here. I don't know why you would just

randomly think I'm sitting in this plot and a gourd fully

grown and a big leaf comes out of nowhere.

Don't recognize that's from God, but he doesn't care.

He's so focused on his hate for the city, but he was not

grateful for the gourd or God who provided for it.

He's the missing characteristic of Jonah is thankfulness.

He's not thankful for what God has done for him.

Again, I disobey, flee to Tarsus, totally against what God

wants me to do. God puts a storm that's going to

destroy the ship. God saves the me out of the

storm, puts me in the belly of the whale.

I get out of the belly of the whale on dry ground, still

alive, still breathing. God gives me a second chance to

get to Nineveh and to proclaim what He wants me to do.

And even though I am so mad about doing this, I do it.

I go and declare. And then God sees a miracle

happen. Or no.

Jonah sees a miracle happen and they repent of their evil.

They're there. They change and are lit

insurance. Technically they're saved.

They change, they repent. They were going this way and

they repent and go a different direction, not knowing if they

got if God was still going to destroy him.

The king didn't do it because, oh, if we do this, we'll get

away and then we go back to doing what we want to do.

Oh, they repented not knowing if that was going to save them.

And God shows a miracle to Jonah that the entire city has

revival. I don't, I don't remember quite

many other parts in the Old Testament of a whole city having

revival and Jonah gets to be a part of it.

But he's missing that characteristic of being thankful

for what God's doing. Check through the entire book

of, of Jonah, find anywhere that he's thankful or he says, thank

you, Lord, thank you. It's not in there.

He wasn't thankful for God's will in his life for being able

to be called a prophet. He wasn't thankful for the

chastisement that God brought his way because of his dis, his

disobedience. He's not thankful for the second

chance that God gives him after he's been thrown up out of the

whale's belly. He's not thankful for the

revival of Nineveh. And then we see a gourd

instantly grow and shade Jonah, and he's not even thankful to

God for that. If we don't have a gratitude

attitude, all we have is an attitude.

If if we're not grateful for what God has done in our life,

the good, the bad, to bring you to where you are, you're not

grateful for what God's done for you.

God puts things in your life. The fact that you're sitting

here in America, you should be grateful for the fact that

you're sitting in a church that preaches what this Bible says

and not what I think and what I just want to say, and pastors

leading it to just come up, get baptized and all the false

stuff. That's all in this country, in

this shallow Christianity. But you have a solid church that

you're in. You should be grateful for God

for that. Be thankful that you have what

you have, even when it comes to you have cancer, your loved one

passed away, this happened. God, I thank you for what you've

done in my life because if you don't, you're going to end up

like Jonah so many times. And I've watched it where

somebody dies in the family and the family, the kids get so

bitter to God, so mad that God took them away from me.

And they changed their entire life in the trajectory that God

had for them because they can't understand God has a plan and

God's will is perfect, but they don't understand that and they

won't get out of being bitter. And so they are in the same

position that Jonah's in. They can't get out of the

they're wrapped up in their own iniquity.

I can't get over being mad at God.

Romans one lists some pretty despicable sins in verse verses

26 to 31 and the people that says this, they describe these

people who knowing the judgment of God that they which commit

such things are worthy of death, not only do the same but have

pleasure in them that do them this.

These people have gotten so much that they they know who God is.

They know what God says don't do this and then they laugh in the

the punishment to scorn. How does that person get to that

condition? How do you get so bad that you

understand I shouldn't do this, but boy, I love doing it.

I don't care what the consequences are.

I love doing this sin. It says it in that earlier in

that verse because that when they knew God, they gloried him

not as God. Neither were thankful.

Just knowing God and knowing what his books says doesn't do

anything for you. There's a lot of people that

know of God and know of what the word of God says.

And no, I know the 10 commandments and I shouldn't do

these things, but I still do them and I still hang out with

those guys that curse and takes God's name in vain and do

everything in this book that says don't do.

And I, I have fun with them. How do you get to that point?

They know God, they glory him not as God, neither were they

thankful without a thankful heart of what God has done for

you, what God's put in your life, how God's used your life.

Be careful, Christian, because you're going to end up just like

them. You're going to backslide so

much that you're going to know what you should and you

shouldn't do. But it doesn't matter.

I'm still going to do whatever I want to do.

God's mercy will cover it. Do you know who God is?

Is he the God in your life? Or like Jonah, are you trying to

be your own God? I'll end it with this look at

verse 10 of Jonah. Ford then said, the Lord, thou

has had pity on the gourd, for the which thou has not labored,

neither made us that grow which came up in a night and perished

in the night. And should I not spare Nineveh,

that great city wherein are more than 6 core score thousand

persons that cannot discern between the right hand and their

left hand, and also much cattle? God close closes this book with

a reminding to us and to Jonah of who God is and what his mercy

is. Perhaps we're like Jonah, we

know. And yeah, did Nineveh deserve to

be destroyed? Most definitely.

Did Nineveh not deserve God's mercy?

No. And I think that's one of the

biggest reasons why God has preserved this book in here

because I mean, of all the books, this is the an odd 1.

You have a prophet of God that is basically the most

disobedient and and almost reminds me of it.

If Samson almost almost like Samson, you're a judge.

OK, I'm going to do everything I'm told not to do and take a

vow. Then I'm going to do everything

against it. Jonah's the same way, because

God's trying to show you and us God's mercy is available to all.

Even in the end, even after Jonah has spoken to God the way

that he has, he still tries to show mercy.

Then Jonah still tries to draw his child to him.

The truth is, Jonah didn't deserve mercy.

Nineveh didn't deserve mercy. We don't deserve mercy either,

Titus 35 says. Not by works of righteousness

which we have done, but court according to His mercy.

He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the

Holy Ghost. Lamentations says it is of the

Lord's mercy that we are not consumed.

First Corinthians says by the grace of God I am what I am.

This little book. 4 chapters God's trying to point out and

show us there's two ways you can be as a Christian.

You can either be a bitter Christian or you can get better,

but it's your choice. God gave Jonah many

opportunities all right Jonah, what what's the best thing that

could happen to you as a prophet?

What what's the best thing as a preacher that that could happen,

that you would just be ecstatic with joy.

Every person you just preached to get saved, an entire city

turns to God. Wow, I'll get him out of this.

He's been disobedient. I'll give him a second chance.

Just watch Jonah just get ready to be wowed and it happens.

And Jonah's decides I'm going to stay bitter instead of being

getting better and going to say they didn't deserve that.

Me going through a ship with that's about to have a

shipwreck, going into the whale's belly, getting redeemed

and getting mercy every. I deserve that.

That's what I'm I'm a prophet of God.

I'm supposed to have that. We can get to the point where we

think we deserve stuff because we're a Christian, because I

dress right, because I act right and I say stuff right.

You don't deserve anything because you're a heathen.

That's what Jonah's like. Don't be a Jonah.

Be somebody that understands, like Philip.

God calls him to a city that as a Jew, no, no, thank you, Lord.

I'm not going there. I'll stay with the I'll stay in

Jerusalem. I'll preach to them.

God calls Philip to go to Samaria and to tell them about

him, and he does it, and he obeys.

And look at the joy that happens because of it.

The song says. Marvellous grace of our loving

Lord, grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt.

Yonder on Calvary's mount out poured there where the blood of

the Lamb was spilled. Grace, grace God's grace, grace

that will pardon and cleanse within.

Grace, grace, God's grace, grace that is greater than all our

sin. He died on the cross for you,

but he also died on the cross for every single person out

there. Every person that hates what

God's done, every person that hates everything this church

stands for, God died for them. Don't get bitter at them.

Be like Philip and preach to them because they need

salvation. And if we have the same idea as

Jonah is and we're like Jonah, we have the bitterness in US.

God can't use you. God couldn't use Jonah anymore

because Jonah wouldn't get out of being bitter against Nineveh

and against God. Don't be like Jonah.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you so

much for your word for for all the examples that you've

preserved for us to see and to read God just to to show the way

that we should not be, but more importantly, to show us who you

really are and to show us who we really are in in accordance and

against what everything that you've done.

You still loved us enough to save us.

God, I pray that we just take the mercy that you've given us

and show it to others and not be bitter about the what you choose

to do in this world. And that we trust that your will

is perfect and and that your will will be perfect in coming

out to be what you need it to be.

And that we just be obedient and be thankful for what you've done

in our lives. I pray that you be with Brother

Brian as he brings the message this morning filling with your

spirit and I pray that our hearts be opened and our ears be

opened to be hearing from your word and Lord that we change not

the same way that we came in, but we changed.

As we leave closer to you and getting things right with you to

be able to be used by you and to please you.

I thank you for all that you do. In Jesus name I pray.

Amen.