"The Grace of God in Jonah" by Neal Pollard

Brian, it's never been more important than in 2026 to have a week like we're about to

have be greedy.

And that is the ability to get away from and disconnect from all the distractions that

we have in our daily lives and to be able to spend time together and to cultivate and

build relationships.

I'm excited on behalf of all that are having the opportunity to go and to volunteer as

adults and for all of our young people who are going to attend this camp.

And let's pray for their safety.

Let's pray for their spiritual development in this time which is about to happen.

Perhaps this is not the best thing for me to say as a preacher preaching, but there

are times when I can relate to Jonah.

Sometimes I think that I've struggled with some of the same things that Jonah dealt with

that are revealed for us in the scripture.

There have been times in my life when I have run away from the commands and the requirements

that God has for my life and I have skirted the duty that God had wanted for me to have

and to fulfill.

There have been times in my life where I have judged the faithfulness or the lack thereof

of those to receive the gospel, those who I believe would and who I thought sure weren't

going to.

And I have found myself in a situation where I've lacked compassion.

Perhaps there have been times if I'm honest with myself when I felt myself morally and

spiritually superior to others.

There's a sense in which Jonah is not a very sympathetic character when we read the book.

The book begins with him running away from the very will that God has for him to do.

And when he finally does go and do the will of God, he seems like he doesn't want to see

it accomplished.

And when the will of God is accomplished, he seems angry to see that it happens.

But that's not to say that Jonah is without redeeming qualities as we walk through the

book.

In fact, if you look in chapter 1, he puts the needs and the concerns of others above

himself.

When we look at the sailors whose life he saves by owning up to the fact that he's the

one who causes the storm.

He cries out to God with abject poverty of spirit and asking for God's help in his time

of greatest need.

And then when he does go and he preaches the gospel, he preaches the absolute truth without

any fear.

And then in the end of the book, he rightly defines for us who God is.

He has a good picture of God's nature and how to describe him when he says that the

Lord is gracious and compassionate.

He is slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness and he relents concerning calamity.

Jonah chapter 4 and verse 2.

Jonah 4 · chapter mention

And when he uses that word gracious there, he is using a word that means to show mercy

to those who are needy and yet who are penitent.

When Jonah lays out for us the grace of God, he speaks of it alongside of other qualities.

And the Old Testament certainly shows us this when it talks about the qualities and natures

of God.

In Psalm 111 and verse 4, God's works are done so that they can be remembered.

The Lord is gracious and compassionate, Psalm 111 and verse 4.

When we go to read the book of Jonah, we see the grace of God as it is shown to the Gentiles,

the people who have no covenant relationship with God.

God wants his grace to be seen and he extends it to the sailors in chapter 1 and he extends

it to the entire city which is the capital of a world empire that he has said is going

to be destroyed and he doesn't do it.

Jonah chapter 3 and verse 10, he shows grace to the Assyrians.

Jonah 3 · chapter mention

But throughout the book, God shows his grace to the only one in the entire book who is

in a covenant relationship with God.

He shows it to Jonah, the man we've already described who at best was uneven spiritually.

In fact, it's the only book in the Bible in which the main character and the writer is

the antagonist.

He is the bad guy in the book.

And yet God continually shows his grace toward him.

When we think about this, this is consistent with the message of the Bible.

Not only is the gospel for all, but the grace of God is for all.

What is it that Paul says to Titus in Titus chapter 2 and verse 11?

Titus 2 · chapter mention

He says, for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared unto all men.

In 1 Timothy 2 verse 3 and 4, this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior

1 Timothy 2:3

who would have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

This is who God is.

And in the Old Testament, we see in Ezekiel's day that God has no pleasure in the death

of the wicked, but that he would repent and live, Ezekiel chapter 18 and verse 23.

Ezekiel 18 · chapter mention

It is a fact that we need the grace of God unto salvation.

But it is much a fact that we will continue to need the grace of God after we come up

out of the baptistry.

For as long as we live our Christian lives, we are going to need God's grace abundantly

in our lives.

Not grace that will give us a license to use and misuse it.

Paul will remind us of this in Romans chapter 6 verse 1 and 2 when he says, what shall we

Romans 6:1

say?

Shall we continue in sin that grace may increase?

It never be.

How can we who are dead to sin live any longer therein?

Romans 6 verse 1 and verse 2, God's grace is not meant to cause us to give up and use

Romans 6:1

it as a substitute for our obedience.

And yet as we look at the grace of God in Jonah's life, we learn or we're reminded of

at least five facts about God's grace that can encourage us.

And let me suggest to you that if you think of yourself more like the sailors and more

like the Ninevites, that this still has application in your life.

But if maybe you find yourself on this side of the baptistry and you are in covenant relationship

with God, understanding the grace of God as it's unfolded in the book of Jonah can help

you as you grow and develop and try to look more like Jesus every day.

I want us to take just a few moments and see the grace of God and what it does in our lives

even if we can relate a little bit to Jonah.

The first thing we notice is that the grace of God pursues us when we run.

You think about how the book of Jonah begins.

The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, go rise and go to Nineveh

and cry out against it for its wickedness is great before me.

And Jonah goes to Joppa and he flees from the presence of the Lord and he pays passage

and he goes down into a ship to go to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

Jonah chapter 1 verse 1 through verse 3.

Jonah 1:1

God is telling him to leave and go up to Nineveh.

But he goes 2,500 miles west away from there.

He's 500 miles from Nineveh when he is there at Joppa and he gets on a boat and he goes

2,000 miles away from the place where God says, this is where I want you to go and preach

my grace to those who are lost.

I tried to give myself a way to appreciate that and this is still in the age of the modern

car but if you want to know about how far that is, how far he's going from where God's

telling him to go, get in your car, gas it up, gas is cheap right now, and go all the

way to Seattle, Washington.

That's how far away that it was.

Basically he is going as far from where God has told him to go than he is meant and supposed

to be going.

But I want you to see that God doesn't leave Jonah to himself.

He could have.

He could have let him go on in his rebellion and in his disobedience but God chases after

him.

He pursues him.

He causes a great storm to come up and a great wind to rise, verse 4.

And it's through that that God is going after Jonah but he's not going after him in order

to hurt him.

Do you see God's grace and his love as he pursues the prophets?

You know in 1 John chapter 3 and verse 4 the Bible tells us that sin is the violation of

1 John 3 · chapter mention

God's law.

But where else do you see it where the violated runs after the violator?

And where the offended one goes after the offender?

But that's God.

Here's how it works in our lives too often.

Somebody sins against us and we make it known that if you're going to make things right

you have got to come groveling back to me and if you do I'll think about whether or

not I may forgive you.

God shows us the pettiness of the rules that we make in those regards.

Jesus wants that to live in our hearts.

And so he says which among you if he has a hundred sheep and one of them is lost does

not leave the 99 in the open pasture and he goes after the one until he finds it and when

he finds the sheep that was lost he puts it on his shoulders rejoicing and he comes home

to his friends and his neighbors and he says to them rejoice with me for that which is

lost has been found and I tell you that there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner

who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no such repentance.

Luke chapter 15 verse 4 through verse 7.

Luke 15:4

Now Jonah is not going to extend the same thing to the people of Nineveh as he should

but he's getting this lesson from God that as he runs God wants him and he goes after

him.

Do you see that that's how God has been from the very beginning of sin in the world?

I mean you put two people in paradise and you give them a job to do and you give them

very little for them to do by way of obeying and disobeying and yet despite that in their

free choice they choose to rebel against the will of God and understanding what they've

done they go and they hide themselves from God and what does God do?

God walks after them and he calls to them and he talks to them.

Genesis chapter 3 verse 8 and verse 9 and from that moment to the very present moment

Genesis 3:8

God is saying that's what I want to do with you.

God's grace pursues us when we run.

When we're running away from what he wants us to do and what he has called us to do.

I know this is an imperfect picture but sometimes I find illustrations that really help me with

this and I don't know if any of you ever saw the movie Catch Me If You Can.

Catch Me If You Can is a movie about a young con artist and a counterfeiter who becomes

an FBI and a security consultant.

Frank Abagnale is this young man who because of a broken home life goes and he tries to

scratch and call and make his way but it finds him on the other side of the law and he goes

worse and worse and he goes further away from things that are right and as a result

of this he's running from the law.

And a lot of the movie centers around an FBI agent named Carl Hanratty whose job it is

to catch him and throughout the movie and there's the name of the movie and where it

comes from Catch Me If You Can he's trying everything he can to catch him and as he learns

more about his circumstances and what's brought him to this point of desperation while he

knows it doesn't excuse him he has pity and concern for him.

It's one of the beautiful touches of the movie.

Now we have to understand that God is not fooled by the things that we do and God always

catches us but he has a perfect sense of love and mercy that causes him to run after us.

He's the perfect heavenly father, Matthew chapter 5 and verse 48 and he runs after us

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

much as the prodigal's father does when he comes home in Luke 15.

God's grace pursues us when we run.

But as we walk through that's Jonah chapter 1 verse 1 through 14 as we continue to walk

Jonah 1:1–14

through the book we also see that God's grace punishes us when we sin.

Now this is in the last few verses of Jonah chapter 1 and Jonah 1 15 through 17.

Jonah 1 · chapter mention

We get this picture that God's grace punishes us when we sin and I know that that doesn't

fit with the world's picture of grace.

When the world thinks about grace it paints this picture that we can live any way that

we want to and God indulges everything that we want to do without any need of repentance

on our part.

Jude warns that this was the mindset that many were going to take.

He says that some in the name of religion are actually going to come into your midst

and they're going to privately bring these destructive heresies and they're going to

turn the grace of God into a license to immoral living.

We understand that God is not pleased with what Jonah is doing and God's not going to

let Jonah continue to do what he's doing.

And so here's what happens in verse 15, he causes a great storm to arise and the storm

is going to continue until Jonah admits who he is and that he is the reason why this storm

has come in the first place.

And when he's thrown into the sea and the sea is calm and the storm is gone he's going

to bring a great fish and Jonah's going to have to spend three days and three nights

in that fish.

How can we say that God's grace, his undeserved favor, punishes us when we sin?

It's a mark of his goodness that he doesn't want to leave us in that sin but that he allows

us to suffer for the consequences of our sins.

Have you ever found yourself there that you have messed your life up so badly that you

have hurt friendships and relationships?

Maybe it's hurt you in your health, maybe in your economics, or maybe it has tarnished

your influence.

We can't get away from an immutable, unchanging law.

Be not deceived, God is not mocked.

For whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap.

He that sows to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption.

He that sows to the spirit shall of the spirit reap everlasting life.

Galatians 6, 7, and 8.

Jonah has made a conscious decision, I am going to rebel against the will of God.

And it is a sign of God's love, not his wrath and his justice, that he prepares this fish

in order to literally turn Jonah around.

The Hebrews writer helps us to get an appreciation for this.

He says don't despise the discipline of our Lord.

See what God does as a means of his love because he scourges those sons whom he receives.

Hebrews chapter 12 verse 5 and verse 6, and then he says in verse 11 that no punishment

Hebrews 12:5

seems joyful but sorrowful, but afterward it yields the peaceable fruits of righteousness.

God, his grace has punished Jonah in order to turn him around and to get him to go where

he needs to go.

He also is sending Jonah with a message.

We have no reason to think that Jonah makes up this message.

His message of grace is yet 40 days and none of us shall be overthrown.

Jonah chapter 3 and verse 10.

Jonah 3 · chapter mention

God is fully ready to exercise punishment against the Ninevites if they don't repent

and yet with that message of grace contained, God is extending a second chance because he

relents of what he is going to do.

It may be that there is some point in your life where you and your struggle and your

fleeing from the presence of God has something that comes along and hits you and knocks you

down.

As they often say, sometimes as we knock flat of our back to look up and to see God.

That's what happens to Jonah.

God's grace punishes us when we sin.

How thankful we should be.

But then third as we go on to the second chapter of the book, we see that God's grace pardons

us when we repent.

I think it's commonly believed that Jonah is at his best when he has spent three days

in that well motel as they used to say.

He has seen the grace of God and as he is there in the belly of that fish, he spends

the time praying.

As you look at the contents of this prayer, you see a man whose heart has changed.

You see what Jonah can be and what Jonah wants to be.

Jonah acknowledges from the belly of this fish that the fish was brought about because

of what he's done, his sin.

He realizes his dependency upon God.

He realized that God has brought this to turn him around.

That in this, that God has turned his heart so that he is ready and willing to repent.

And he sees in this the need for him to show gratitude and to appreciate the thanksgiving

of God.

He knows the tie between his repentance and his salvation.

God's grace pardons us when we repent.

God's grace is provided in the fish and then that fish literally turns him around and it

puts him on the place where God can use him.

I don't know, did it take three days because he had gone so far?

That fish was taking him right back because when he gets out, he goes and he preaches

the message to the people of Nineveh.

How marvelous that God's grace pardons us when we repent.

Again he goes to Nineveh and that's the message for them, although he doesn't want them to

obey it.

But we see how God's grace is at work in them as he preaches the message to them.

They're going to fast and they're going to pray and they're going to repent and God is

going to change his mind.

Nineveh is going to exist for another 150 years before the book of Nahum comes along

and says, you've gone so far, you're not coming back and now you're going to be destroyed.

150 years of grace and an ability to be able to live and a pardon life.

But then forth, as we walk through the book of Jonah, we also see that God's grace empowers

us when we return.

Jonah goes and he preaches his message to them.

What God is saying to Jonah is, I'm not done with you, I'm not washing my hands of you.

In my life growing up in the church, I've seen people who have done some things that

were very hurtful.

Hurtful to their families, perhaps it cost them their families.

I've seen circumstances where these people, because of the sins of their lives, lost everything.

Sometimes there are consequences that we have to face and suffer as a result of what

we do.

But look at God's disposition toward Jonah.

He is telling him, you're still useful to me.

I still want to have you be a part of my plan, to take my message to those who need that.

And it reminds me of how God does this over and over again.

Go to the New Testament times and think about the life of Peter.

Peter is a man who has denied his Lord, and in Luke chapter 22 and verse 31, you have

Luke 22 · chapter mention

Jesus saying to him, Simon, Simon, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat,

but I have prayed for you that when you have returned, you will strengthen your brethren.

What God says to Peter is, I'm not putting you on the shelf.

Now that you have returned, I'm going to allow you to be the one to be the first one to preach

the gospel to the Jews and also to the Gentiles.

God is telling Jonah, I've not washed my hands of you.

I want you to be useful in my cause.

Whatever it is that you may be struggling with, maybe you feel like you've been in a

season where you're like Jonah, God is saying if you'll repent and you'll return, I will

use you.

I can maybe open doors for you, but I might not with others when you come back home.

You see when the prodigal comes back home, he is restored, Luke 15 and verse 24.

And I don't know because the parable doesn't have this purpose, but is he given a job to

do his son, the responsibilities of sonship?

We know that's how it works in the body of Christ.

We also see that God's grace is patient with us when we relapse.

You get to chapter 4 and you see that Jonah's attitude is as bad at the end of the book

as his actions were at the beginning of the book.

Jonah has now returned.

He has gone and he's preached to the people there in Nineveh.

They have repented and yet even though God has extended his grace to them, Jonah seems

to be hopeful that God's going to go ahead and destroy them anyway.

And so in Jonah chapter 4 and verse 1, he's upset, he's angry that he looks out over the

Jonah 4 · chapter mention

city of Nineveh and it's not being destroyed.

You might even say, looking at verse 3, that his response is somewhat pouty and it's dramatic.

God wants him to understand and to see things the way he sees things and so he draws up

an illustration for Jonah.

It's hot on that particular day and Jonah, a plant is raised up by God and it provides

shelter for him and the text says that Jonah was very happy about this.

On a hot day, to be able to have some way to get away from the sweltering heat, Jonah

has this but then the Lord prepares a worm and it goes in and it infests that plant that's

providing shade and it withers and then God allows a scorching east wind to come and it

brings down heat on Jonah so that he despairs of his life and he says, death is better than

me for me than life.

And God says, this is a plant you didn't even provide for yourself.

I did this for you and look at how you feel toward that plant.

And God says, shouldn't I feel the same way about the people of Nineveh, verse 11?

People who are made in his very image, Genesis 1, 26 and 27, who are possessed of never dying

souls, Matthew 16 and verse 26, here are people who God loves so much that he wants them to

have that opportunity.

But I want you to focus on the fact that while God is pitching a defense for the Ninevites,

he is also showing his patience with Jonah.

Here's Jonah, an unreasonable man and God spends chapter 4 reasoning with him.

He doesn't punish him, he doesn't strike him dead, he patiently explains things.

Aren't you glad that God does that with us?

Because we're going to struggle with one sin problem or another for the rest of our Christian

lives and as we conquer one thing, it seems that something else comes along and God is

not ready to just be done with us.

He's patient with us.

Think about the disciples.

Jesus is 12 as they're walking with him and they have the most intimate relationship with

Jesus and they keep missing the point and they keep falling short and despite that,

Jesus continues to want to use them and to encourage them and to develop them and that's

what he's doing in our lives.

God continues to show his patience even when we fall short again.

That's because God is not willing that any of us should perish.

Jesus gave his life in order to prove that that's the case, 2 Peter 3 and verse 9.

He's ready and willing to use us.

Now, that doesn't mean that we could stay in a state of rebellion.

I've heard people oftentimes distort God's grace by saying that maybe they're in a marriage

that the Bible would call adulterous and they say, I can stay in this because God's grace

is going to cover that.

Or maybe it's a circumstance where somebody says, I know that I'm feeding this sinful

addiction and I'm not trying to do anything to break that but God's grace is going to

cover that in the end.

Or maybe somebody looks at the plain plan of salvation and they say, hey, God's grace

is going to cover that in the end.

That's not what we're talking about.

We're talking about individuals like Jonah and like those individuals in Nineveh who

are confronted with the word of God and are striving to live according to it.

But here's the great thing, God continues to be long-suffering and patient because we're

not going to ever fully get it as we strive to live.

We're going to be walking in the light, we're going to be trying to be more like Christ

but John says in 1 John 1 and verse 8, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves

and the truth is not in us.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us of our sins and to

cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.

But God will continue to be patient as we fall down but as we get back up and serve

him.

Some years ago I preached a sermon entitled, Heals on the Roadway to Hell or Barriers Between

a Person and Being Lost.

Have you thought about that?

That God has placed the Bible as a barrier between us and being lost.

That God has placed the church as a barrier between us and being lost.

That God has placed our family as a barrier between us and being lost.

That God has given us our conscience, if it's properly trained, as a barrier between us

and being lost.

And God has given us his wonderful love as a barrier to keep us from being lost.

And so what God is saying is, I'm placing barrier and heal one after the other to stand

between you as a barricade and being lost.

That's God's grace.

If we're lost on the Day of Judgment, it's because we will have climbed over all of these

things that he's put between us and being lost.

Don't know from Jonah what all or none of us have been doing, man, but we get a front

row seat to a man that we can all relate to more.

If we've been walking with Christ and living the Christian life, we realize that we are

a constant picture of relapsing.

God won't allow us to stay there, but as we turn away from it, he will continue to

use us.

God pursues us when we run.

In his grace, he punishes us when we sin, but he pardons us when we repent.

He empowers us to do his work when we return, and he continues to be patient with us as

we relapse.

How could we refuse a God like that?

No wonder, from the king down, they responded to his grace in that way.

God continues to offer that to us.

If we're not children of God, the grace of Calvary is for us to respond to, and in our

faith and in our obedience, to have our sins washed away in baptism.

But once we come out of the watery grave to walk in newness of life, we're going to continue

to need his grace.

Maybe we've stumbled and fallen, and we need to come back home and be restored.

This song to encourage you is, if you need to do that publicly, to give you the opportunity

to do that.

Or if you are a child of God who just needs prayers and strength and help and the support

of your brethren, we give you that opportunity too.

If you need to respond to heaven's invitation, why not come right now as we stand and sing?