God's Mysterious Love

Much to everyone's surprise, we're going to continue our study in the book of Jonah.

If you would like a sermon outline, didn't get one on your way in just raise your hand.

Our teachers would be happy to hand one to you.

We've got a lot to talk about today.

This Sunday will be our last message from the book of Jonah, sadly, but we must talk about things today.

First, after preaching to the Ninevites about the expectation of God's severe judgment for their sin and wickedness, surprisingly the people of Nineveh repented en masse.

As a result, god extended his mercy and grace to them and didn't bring his judgment.

And last time, the last couple of times, we saw that Jonah was not exactly thrilled with the fact that God let these Ninevites off so easy.

Today we're going to continue to explore what caused Jonah's great collapse.

By the way, jonah, chapter 4 is all about God and his relationship with Jonah, and so we're kind of probing in there and finding out what on earth is going on, what's wrong with this guy and what's God doing to help him in his great collapse.

Jonah 4 · chapter mention

Let me read the section we'll look at today, beginning back up in Jonah, chapter 3, verse 10, and into chapter 4, here, chapter 3, 10.

Jonah 3:10

When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which he had declared he would bring upon them.

And he did not do it, but it greatly displeased Jonah.

In fact, that literally says it was evil to Jonah.

He became angry.

He prayed to the Lord and said please, lord, was not this what I said While I was still in my own country?

Therefore, in order to forestall this, I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness, and one who does relent concerning calamity.

For now, oh Yahweh, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.

And Yahweh said do you have a good reason to be angry?

Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of it.

There he made shelter for himself and sat under it in the shade, until he could see what would happen in the city.

So the Lord, god appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah.

That word plant is translated in different translations differently.

It could be translated vine, gourd.

It's a plant that provides shade.

God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort.

And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant.

But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it withered.

And when the sun came up, god appointed a scorching east wind, and sun beat down on Jonah's head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die.

Death is better to me than life.

Then God said to Jonah do you have a good reason to be angry about the plant?

And he said I have a good reason to be angry, even to death.

Stop there today.

Wow, you see what's happening, right?

God's appointing these things.

He's getting these responses from Jonah.

He wants us to learn from this, because we do the same thing.

We do the same thing.

Jonah isn't glad that his ministry was a success.

He's unhappy and very mad that God ended up sparing them.

So why was Jonah so upset?

Well, today we're going to see that it wasn't just because God spared the Ninevites.

It was why he spared them.

God spared them because of his mysterious love.

We're going to look at two things today the conundrum of God's love and God's refining love.

Jonah is absolutely confounded when it comes to understanding why and how God let the Ninevites off so easily.

You know, you remember, the Syrian city of Nineveh was its capital for that country of Assyria and it was an extremely violent city.

Assyria itself was a violent nation, afflicting great pain on the entire world.

At that time they were the superpower, if you will and if you remember.

This pictograph found in Assyria depicted some of their brutality.

They didn't just kill their enemies, they tortured them to death, impaling them live on these stakes.

Some of them they would skin alive.

They were awful, ruinous and torturous people.

They laid waste to entire regions.

They committed genocide against entire populations and God forgives them.

How could he?

For a Jew, jonah, it would be like God forgiving Hitler and the Nazis in World War II.

You've got to understand.

This was personal for Jonah because the Ninevites had swept into the northern part of Israel where Jonah lived and just made raids and all kinds of things.

Probably some of his friends were hurt or experienced loss because of these assyrians.

This is personal, don't miss that.

And there's probably all kinds of complicated reasons why Jonah wants to die when God let him off.

We talked about that before.

But Jonah in a sense helps us by telling God why are you angry?

And Jonah said I'll tell you why I'm angry.

Isn't this what I said?

I know you are a gracious and compassionate of God, a loving kindess all over the place, and you just let people go.

Jonah is saying I am mad because you are a God of love and I can't figure out.

Your love makes no sense to me at all.

Now, jonah in a sense at least for me he represents us, he believes in God's love in general, but he has a fatally inaccurate understanding of how God's love operates.

As a result of not understanding how God's love, he gets upset when God does something he doesn't like.

Jonah falls apart because he does not understand God's love.

Is it possible that, in the same way, many, maybe most, of our own spiritual struggles are due to our own lack of understanding of how God's love operates?

That's what we want to look at today.

The first thing we'd understand is that God's love is like a fire.

Now, fire is very interesting.

Strange Fire is very strange, isn't it?

I'm a fire enthusiast.

I love having a nice bonfire, roasting marshmallows and all that.

On the one hand, you see, the properties of fire make it life-giving, it's warm, comforting, but on the other hand, the heat can also be dangerous and painful.

So what God wants us to know is God's love is like a fire.

It's at the same time warm and life-giving, but it's also refining and purifying.

Can't help it.

If you'll see in a minute, that's the way any of our love would be.

There are two extremes of God's love that God is trying to help Jonah understand to keep him from collapsing the next time God does something to disappoint him.

Two extremes His refining love on the one hand, and his accepting, nurturing, comforting love on the other.

God's love is both life-purifying and life-giving.

It's important we understand that Today we're just going to focus on I can't do them both.

We're going to focus on God's refining love today.

Next time we'll focus on God's life giving love.

So God's love is a purifying, refining love.

And you know why?

Because God is a jealous God.

He can't help it, it's his nature.

God's love is a jealous love because he's jealous for his people.

When he sees they're involved in spiritual things that are going to be harmful or destroy them, he steps in.

He will.

You know why.

He's love, god's love and his jealousy is not a sinful jealousy like our dealings would be with selfish motives.

God's jealousy is a holy and righteous jealousy to protect his people from false loves who will draw them away from him, who represents the source of their life, and end up harming them.

You say you love him.

Well, do you meet with him?

Tell him that.

Do you obey what his word says?

Jesus said he loves me well, obey my command.

Do you testify about him Because you're so in love with him?

God's jealousy for his people is triggered when God's people begin serving false gods and idols with the same devotion they once had for him.

It's triggered.

He can't do anything else.

He has to what he said to Israel in Exodus 20, the Ten Commandments.

He said you shall not make for yourself an idol.

By the way, anything can be a common idol, even good things replacing our ultimate love for the Lord.

Don't make yourself an idol or any likeness in heaven or above, on earth, beneath the water and under the earth.

You should not worship them or serve them.

For I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God.

That's who he is, and if you're one of his people, you're going to experience both kinds of love refining love and life-giving love.

He cannot do anything else but be true to who he is.

Verse 3414 continues with, for you shall not worship any other God, for the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God, so let's get that sticking in our heads here.

That means again, when our primary love turns from God to something else, a rival God or something that's captivated our heart and devotion more than our true God, something we want more than God.

God's love moves him to bring us back.

It moves him in the result as God's refining love, a fire that consumes.

I know we've all experienced this and you'll see in a minute.

Deuteronomy 4, 24 says for the Lord, your God, is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

Notice the connection fire, jealous.

Something's going to get burned up.

What does God's refining love consume to restore us to intimacy with Him?

Good question, you know what it consumes.

His jealous love is like a fire that consumes any threats to his blood-bought intimacy with us.

Most of the time there are sometimes very good things because our heart goes after them, our heart gets entwined at them.

We forget about God.

We can make it on our own.

There's no expression of love to God Most of the time.

What God will consume and take our little head and go.

Do you see me now?

Are you ready to love me.

Most of the time, it's these good things that really consume us, our hearts, the comforts, the comforts we rely on got to have, like wealth, success, relationships, health.

I could keep going More than God, wanting it, more than God, who is the all-sufficient, everlasting one, the fire of God's love.

Believe me, I've experienced this.

Years ago I memorized this verse when it was having a difficult time and I realized, wow, okay, so that's what's going on.

Years ago, god's love was going to consume the things that had become more precious to us than God himself.

Why?

To get our heart back, psalm 3911, david says when you discipline a man for rebukes of sin, you consume like a moth what is dear to him.

Surely, all mankind is a mere breath seal.

That's how intense he is.

He's a jealous God, a consuming fire.

It's life purifying fire.

God's love won't give you warm and comfort without the same time refining and purifying you.

That's the nature of fire.

That's what God is trying to teach Jonah in chapter 4.

Did you see, did you hear the words as I went through verse 6, 7, and 8?

The word appoint got appointed occurs three times.

Some translations have the word provide.

It's the same thing.

Verse 6,.

God provided a plant for Jonah's comfort Verse 7,.

Then God appointed a worm to attack the plant that God provided for Jonah, jonah's comfort.

God then appointed a scorching east wind that made Jonah absolutely miserable.

That's interesting, isn't it?

First, god's love provides comfort the plant, the vine for his shade.

Then God appoints an agricultural disaster worm and a nasty weather pattern the hot east wind to bring discomfort to Jonah.

See, don't skim over this too fast, because this is for us.

God appoints these things.

Don't ever forget this.

God appoints these things in love.

L-o-v-e.

I know this is what Jonah's problem was.

It's hard for us to get our head around this.

We don't understand God's love.

How can you bring love?

I thought love was just bring more comforts, bring lots of comforts.

Don't take away stuff from me that I really love.

We don't understand it.

He appoints these things in love.

God even brings troubles, discomforts and disasters into our lives as a way of refining our faith in Him and purifying us.

I've had a number of times where God has taken me through some nasty, nasty discomfort, nasty, miserable.

I can honestly tell you that on the other side of it, I've never been closer to God in my life.

He did it.

He refined me.

Now I'm a lot more circumspect and careful, but where I put my heart in, I am.

The Bible teaches us that evil and death were not part of God's original creation.

We're in a broken world because of the direct consequences of sin from the beginning.

This was not God's creation.

This is a consequence of our own broken, sin nature.

God didn't create all the disasters, but I'll tell you what.

He uses them and allows them when he needs to love us, to accomplish His good purpose in our lives.

It is a good purpose.

You may not believe it, you can't get your head around.

How is that good?

Oh, stay with Him.

According to Romans 8.28, god works all things together for good for those who love Him.

Listen to me.

That verse is saying God monitors.

He's monitoring the ebb and flow of pains and troubles in our lives.

He's monitoring that stuff, the timing of them, the portion of them and the nature of them.

That's how great he is.

All are under God's purposeful appointments.

He's going to use them.

He used them not for evil, but for His good purpose.

He, in John the 4th, provided these things.

The word providence, by the way, comes from the word provide.

The troubles you see God appoints in our life are given I can't emphasize this they're given as opportunities to reaffirm our love for Him and surrender to Him as our only Lord and Master.

Why does God allow that?

Because of His refining love.

I told you before.

Sometimes, to love us, he has to.

He has to.

He even said that to Jeremiah.

When people are really going downhill Idolatry all over the place they're not trusting God.

They're treating God's word meaningless, frivolous.

I'll get that out of here All through Jeremiah.

God is saying, jeremiah, I'm going to have to love these people by bringing something very tragic my discipline, my judgment.

At one point you hear the exasperation from God's mouth To Jeremiah 970.

He says Therefore, thus says the Lord of Hosts Behold, look at this, jeremiah, I will refine them and test them.

What else can I do because of my people?

What else can I do?

I have to do this to get them back.

By the way, when they came back after seven years, they were cured of any idolatry to this day.

How did he even talk to them about Jesus, who is God?

Wait, you guys serve three gods.

We only serve one God.

Where did they learn that Babylon Refined.

They were absolutely refined in terms of their monotheism.

What else can I do?

God says Maybe some of you know somebody or have had an experience with someone who continues to be in a drunken state, an alcoholic but you wanted to save them.

To do that, you're going to have to do and say things they're not going to like.

They will never interpret it as love.

You can't even reason with them.

If you say I'm sorry you can't drive home, give me your keys.

What do they say?

Do they say this?

Hey, yeah, I can tell what you're doing is because you love me.

I can't even walk straight line.

Hear my keys?

No, they're not.

Most people won't do that.

They're going to get mad and say give me those keys, jesus, my car.

You want to love them?

I ran across this.

Somebody said a definition of a child is someone who is mildly inebriated until they reach a certain age.

You know what A good parent treats their children, just like God did to Jonah.

If you don't want your kids mad at you, then give them whatever they want.

You'll be their friend.

But if your love has a future orientation, you won't mind the fact that they're going to be mad today because they're going to understand what you're doing in the future.

You know why?

Because your love has a purpose.

God looks at you and I and sees future growth as His children, what we can become, how we can be mightily used in His hand.

A purpose we would want too if we could see it.

So sometimes God provides great comforts in our lives.

We all enjoy great comforts, by the way, don't forget they're from His hand, and when he takes them away, check yourself.

Do you get upset Because you were relying on them, just as Jonah was relying on these other things?

Okay, this sad truth is like Jonah.

It's not pleasant, but God is going to try to wreck our vines if they substitute for him.

He's going to wreck them, those things in our life that become on our earthly life rafts.

These are the things where we find our great happiness and sufficiency, not in the Lord, in these things, but God knows how fleeting those things are compared to Him.

I'll never forget.

I've told this story many times, but it still cracks me up.

When my son Ryan was about 10 or 12 years old, we asked him what he wanted for his birthday.

He said Dad, all I want is a BMX bike.

So we kept asking him for a BMX bike.

Yeah, that's what I want BMX bike.

We kept coming back and we tried to suggest other things.

No, dad, let me tell you something If I get that BMX bike, I'm going to reach my highest potential happiness.

When I heard that, I literally think, wow, he really thinks that, whoa, I'm a failure.

No, we both were just dying inside laughing.

He really thinks he'll reach his highest potential happiness with a bike.

Don't laugh too hard, because that's what we do.

If I can just continue in this vein, I'll have my highest potential happiness.

Or if I just have that or this, or if this relationship was better, I'll have my highest potential happiness.

Well, he did get his BMX bike and, interestingly enough, didn't take long for him to want something else to help bolster his highest potential happiness.

Is it possible that the reason you're struggling right now is because of God's refining love?

Maybe you've lost a comfort he once provided.

Is God shaking your tree or rucking your vines?

We may be asking why do I have this physical trouble?

Why do I have this financial trouble?

Why do I have this relational problem?

All God is saying is hey, don't rely and rest in those things.

Rest in me, the rock of ages, unshakable.

I know some of you are probably saying this is a hard saying.

Who can endure it?

I thought God was a God of love.

Oh, he is Beyond our comprehension.

We must listen to what God is teaching us through Jonah because I'm guaranteeing you, this is just a foreshadowing of our own lives, our own relationship with the Lord.

What he's trying to do, god's refining love, is proof that he really does love us, just like a parent who disciplines his child.

Hebrews 12, 5, and 6 makes that point.

The writer says have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

My son, don't regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when we prove by him.

The Lord disciplines the one he loves.

That's his refining fire and chastises every son who he receives to himself.

Listen, if we learn anything from Jonah, we need to learn to watch this when we get upset.

God is probably dealing with our vines.

He's probably dealing with our vines.

You know the old King James Version of the Bible in Jonah, chapter 4 translates the word plant or vine as gourd, a plant with big leafy leaves.

Jonah 4 · chapter mention

And back in the 1700s John Newton, who wrote Amazing Grace, wrote another hymn about the suffering Christians go through, and it's actually a meditation on Jonah 4, where he calls Jonah's vine a gourd.

Listen to it.

I ask the Lord that I might grow in faith and love and every grace might more of his salvation know and seek more earnestly his face To us.

He who taught me thus to pray, and he, I trust, has answered prayer, but it has been in such a way as almost drove me to despair.

I hope that in some favored hour at once, he'd answer my request and, by his love's constraining power, subdue my sins and give me rest.

Instead of this, he made me feel the hidden evils of my heart and let the angry powers of hell assault my soul in every part.

Yes, more.

With his own hand, he seemed intent to aggravate my woe, crossed all the fair designs I schemed, blasted all my gourds and laid me low.

Lord, why is this?

I, trembling cried.

Why thou pursueth I worm to death Tis in this way?

The Lord replied.

I answer prayer for grace and faith.

These inward trials I employ from self and pride to set you free and break your schemes of earthly joy that you may find you're all in me.

That's it.

That's Newton's meditation on Jonah 4.

How can I trust God for the troubles he allows?

Look at Jesus, look at him.

That's how God took away all his comforts, all of them Just for us, just for something greater than good his far-reaching love on the cross, god was able to show his anger for our sin, but not take his anger out on us.

God was able to judge our sin and save sinners at the same time in Jesus Christ, our Savior.

Oh, the wisdom of God.

Imagine the day he's on the cross, the day he died.

Do you think his followers were standing around that cross and said now there is the most wonderful example of the wisdom and love of God.

Do you think they said that?

No?

No, they did not.

Did they see then what we see now?

No, they did not In their minds at that time.

It didn't fit the way things ought to be.

We think that sometimes too, don't we?

Do you need to have a degree in medicine before you go into surgery?

No, you trust the surgeon and he's going to do a painful procedure and you're going to come out better.

Just because we don't understand God's perspective doesn't mean he's incapable to do good to us through a painful procedure.

Now listen, there's a whole book, a whole book written to explain the good that God was doing when Jesus died on the cross Whole book.

Unfortunately, we don't have a book for you.

You need to trust that the same as God is dealing with you, as he does everything else in love for good.

You may not be able to see it now, but you will.

We don't have a book for you.

We only have the testimony of who he is that we can trust and rest in.

Jesus suffered to give up his glory for us.

We suffer to give up our idols for him.

In his suffering, jesus lost the intimacy of his father.

When we suffer, we actually draw closer to the father.

Jesus died a torturous physical death so that we could receive God's gift of eternal life when we believe in Jesus, our Savior.

To close, I just invite anyone here who has not done this to express in your heart to God I believe in Jesus.

He's my Savior.

He died for my sins.

Welcome Him into your heart.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for all the comforts in life you provided us.

Please help us to identify and repent of the vines of comfort in our life that we've made more important, more of a comfort than you, and then get angry at you when you may take them away.

Forgive us.

And Lord, we need to help us learn this lesson.

And, lord, if you do take a comfort from us, help us to worship you like Job did when he lost everything and ended up saying the Lord gives, the Lord takes away.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.