The Wrath and Mercy of God

Today we are back in the book of Jonah, and if you didn't get a sermon online and would like one, just lift your hand right now or us just will give you one.

And so today, after shoveling out the snow in the puppet kingdom and waking up early to scrape off the frost on their puppet cars, my friends are back today to help us have a little recap of what we've learned in the story of Jonah so far.

These are the voyages of the prophet Jonah.

His one year mission from God is to leave Israel and go to the Assyrian city of Nineveh and preach against it.

At first Jonah decided he didn't want to go and warn the Ninevites of God's coming judgment.

So he runs away from God, getting on a boat to sail to Tarshish.

But God is one step ahead of him.

He sends a storm in Jonah's path.

I said a storm, no, no, no, a really big storm.

Then God sends a great fish.

No, no, no.

God sent a great fish to save him from drowning after the sailors threw him overboard.

The thing is that whale was hungry.

The whale swallows Jonah and inside that great fish Jonah repents and surrenders to God.

God commands the great fish to spit Jonah out on dry land and he gives Jonah a second chance to go and preach against Nineveh.

Here's how it happened.

Oh, I can see the love in your eyes.

Lay yourself down raising up the broken to life.

You take our failure, you, my puppet friends.

I'm sure they like it much better than me just repeating the story over and over again.

But in the book of Jonah, in the storm Jonah faced, he came face to face with God's wrath for his sin.

And in the fish Jonah came face to face with God's unmerited grace and deliverance from God's wrath for his sin.

And now Jonah comes face to face with how he's going to respond again to God's word and go tell others about God's wrath and grace.

Jonah, chapter 3, beginning, verse 1,.

Jonah 3 · chapter mention

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah second time, saying arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim it to you, claim it, the proclamation which I'm giving to tell you.

So Jonah rose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord.

Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days walk.

And Jonah began to go through the city and cried out and said yet 40 days in Nineveh will be overthrown.

Before going to Nineveh, jonah learned some important lessons about God's mercy and his wrath.

In fact, in the book we see God's dynamic glory and character displayed for us in real time.

Jonah discovered his goddess, sovereign over all creations.

You can't hide from God, you can't outrun him, you can't outthink him, you can't figure him out, but sooner or later you're going to have to face it.

Jonah also discovered not only his God sovereign over all, but God is very just and gracious in all his deeds.

He's ready to judge Nineveh for their awful wickedness, but he sends Jonah to warn them so they might respond, repent and be saved of God's judgment.

In addition to learning how God is just, he learned that God is a very compassionate deliverer.

When Jonah cried out for help in the sea, the Lord heard him, even though he disobeyed him.

And when we turn to him, the Lord is merciful, compassionate and, just like Jonah did, god saved him out of grace and compassion.

So I think the Lord wanted Jonah to experience the power of God's wrath and the presence of God's grace in his life before he would be equipped to go tell anybody else about it.

So now Nineveh is in trouble.

The extent of their wickedness got God's attention?

I don't know.

I mean I know some about the ancient city of Nineveh in Assyria.

They were, I think I've showed you before.

They are very brutal people.

They would like.

For instance, they've skinned their enemies alive and pale them on posts.

I mean.

It's like just unbelievable wickedness and Nineveh's sin.

We read in Jonah one had reached a critical point.

God is like saying okay, that's it, we're done.

Jonah one versus one and two.

The word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amitya, saying arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, cry against it, because their wickedness has come up before me.

Did you know that God has a line Concerning how much sin and wickedness he will tolerate in a nation?

He's got a line.

Scriptures are very clear.

I could show you many biblical examples of that.

I'll show you three.

Let's begin with the early human race, genesis six, five to eight.

Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of mankind was great on the earth, that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Lord was sorry that he made man on the earth.

He was grieved in his heart.

The Lord said that's it.

I will blot out man, whom I've created, from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things, the birds to the sky.

For I'm sorry, I've made them.

Why Wickedness sin.

But fortunately verse eight says but Noah found favor, grace in the eyes of the Lord, spared no one.

His family in the ark, of course.

Then let's move on Genesis 15,.

There was the sin of the Amorites that God told Abraham about.

Amorites lived in the land of Canaan that God was gonna give to Abraham's descendants, and he's telling Abraham what's gonna happen.

And here's what he says in Genesis 15, 15, 16.

As for you, abraham, you're gonna die okay, before this happened.

You're gonna go to your fathers in peace.

You'll be buried at a good old age.

But I'll tell you what.

Then, in the fourth generation, they're gonna return here.

You know why?

Because the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.

They haven't crossed the line yet for me to kick them out, but they will, and then I'm gonna give it to your descendants.

This is basically what he's saying.

There's a line.

Even God's people, israel, crossed the line of wickedness where God decided to step in, I mean in so many places.

Well, let me give you this Second Chronicles 36, 15 and 16, which is terrifying to think about.

The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to the people of Israel again and again, again and again by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and in his dwelling place.

But they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets.

Until the wrath of God arose against his people, until there was no remedy.

The line is crossed I will tolerate no more.

There's a line God has of how much wickedness he will tolerate in a nation.

I want you to consider how many of those ancient nations are with us today Babylon, assyria I mean there's descendants, of course Amorites, jebusites, hittites.

They didn't even think Hittites existed.

I thought it was fiction and mentioned in the Bible until they found evidence.

Where are they?

They're gone.

Up until this point, nineveh had enjoyed God's mercy and lived the way they wanted to.

But that's now all in danger as God's wrath toward that great city looms over them for their great sins against God.

Fortunately, god also tells us something about himself that he's slow to anger, long suffering.

God doesn't immediately destroy him, but he could.

He could have very easily.

What's he doing?

He sends a prophet out of his own land to go warn them.

So in the thing we've been talking about, see, that complicates this whole thing is that Jonah hated the Ninevites.

Like I said, I described them they were murderous, torturous, wicked pagan people.

I am convinced that perhaps some of Jonah's friends and relatives were killed by them because they were swooping down the northern kingdom and raiding towns and villages.

He hated them.

He didn't think they deserved God's grace.

He wanted them destroyed.

They make it a lot easier for Israelites.

So when Jonah was asked to go to them because their sin had reached a critical point and God's going to warn them before he judges them I think that's his MO Jonah decides.

I would not like them to hear that good news that maybe you'll forgive them.

I'm going to run away.

We looked at this before.

So Jonah's big surprise was God's wrath was unleashed on Jonah Instead of the Ninevites or the pagan sailors on him for his sin.

Now, at this point, at that point, god could have sent somebody else.

I said goodbye to Jonah.

Okay, thank you.

You know why?

Because Hosea and Amos were both contemporaries of Jonah.

He could have gone to them and said, hey, I lost a prophet.

He's not coming out of that.

Well, I'm seeing no repentance.

That's it.

He could have sent somebody else, but he didn't.

He is not going to give up on you or me.

How many times is he going to send us?

Has to send us again and again, and again.

That's his MO.

He's not going to give up.

But God's mercy, you see, not only extends to the Ninevites, but they don't know him, but it also extends to people who do know him, like Jonah.

And so, instead of, instead of executing Jonah for his terrible, awesome sin, god just enrolls him in God's missionary boot camp for wayward prophets, his wayward messengers that he sometimes does for all of us who believe in him.

It's called his discipline Once mercy towards Jonah, the sinning believer, really is a kind of paradigm for how God works in our lives.

To believe in him, jonah was a failure, but God gave him a second chance.

He probably would have kept going too, I imagine.

Third chance, fourth chance, fifth chance.

That's God, in fact.

If you read through the Scriptures, you see that God has a merciful record of using failures and giving them a second chance to trust him and do what's right.

I'm amazed that this list would include many of God's primary important people in the Bible.

Let's start with Abraham.

He wants to lie to save his own skin and then, instead of trusting God for an heir, he took matters into his own hands to get a son.

That really was a disaster, but he gave him a second chance.

Samson, through great prophet of God, judged in Israel through his pride and lust, actually ended up losing his sight, went into bondage to the Philistines, but God gave him a second chance to redeem himself.

King David committed adultery and murder.

King Manasseh was an idolater and ruthless killer, and legends had it that he killed his father Hezekiah.

Apostle Peter denied Jesus Christ, swore he never knew him.

To save his own skin, john Mark, peter's protege, abandoned those in ministry and left them hanging and gave him a second chance.

Prophet John I could go on, he is sinless and perfect.

Prophet John had dissipated God and ran away, and God gave them all a second chance.

Not only does God give his people a second chance, but from Jonah we learn how God uses his discipline of suffering in our failures to equip us, equip us for good.

It's just amazing that God turns things around and actually uses the hard stuff in our life, the suffering, to equip us to do what he wants us to do.

At the beginning, as you've heard, Jonah blatantly disobeyed God, but after the storm and his near drowning, something changed in Jonah.

We've read it the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time and the rise went to Nineveh.

So Jonah arose and he went to Nineveh.

According to the word of the Lord.

Something changed, it seems to me.

Jonah learned obedience through what he suffered, and I believe God uses our suffering to teach us to obey him.

If we'll let him, it's kind of like a child who touches a hot stove.

I learned something?

Hmm, probably don't want to do that.

So God uses our suffering to teach us to obey him.

In fact, what's amazing to me is the same as said of Jesus Christ himself in Hebrews, chapter 5, verse 8.

Hebrews 5:8

It says although Jesus was a son, he learned obedience from the things which he suffered.

What does that mean?

It means this complete surrender, complete trust in his heavenly Father, no matter what.

But don't think that suffering and trouble will automatically make us obedient servants of God.

Some of us are pretty proud and stubborn, like Jonah was.

It can only do that.

Some can only do that if you let the suffering and trouble draw you out of yourself and closer into the Lord.

Suffering will either make you more self-absorbed or less self-absorbed, but it will not leave you where you are.

If you listen to God, it will make you a better person.

If you don't listen to him, it will make you a bitter person.

I know, I've lived on both sides of that one.

What is the lesson for us?

When they came out of Egypt they're not in the wilderness very long and they don't have any water they just watched God destroy the Egyptian army and redeemed them.

God decided to make that a lesson for them and for all of us, because we have this in Psalm 95.

Here's the lesson Today.

If you would hear God's voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Maraba, what they were doing, as in the day of Masa in the wilderness, when your fathers tested me.

You know how they did that.

Because things were so bad.

They started to say things like is God really among us?

Why is he all in us?

Does God exist?

That's testing.

They tried me.

Even though they saw my works.

They knew better.

I did miraculous things for them.

I exist.

Maybe I have a reason for your thirst, so don't harden your heart.

The lesson comes out of that.

Forty years ago, god says I loathed that generation.

They are a people who err in heart.

They don't know my ways, my ways, including using suffering for good.

Anyway, he's sworn his anger.

You know what?

They're not going to enter my rest here meeting the Promised Land, and they did Listen to me.

Suffering can neither make you a better person if you listen to the Lord, or it'll make you a better person if you don't.

Let me ask you this who are the change agents serving our society?

You know who they are.

They are people who suffered.

Who is changing society to help the handicapped?

It's the parents of handicapped children and even the handicapped themselves.

You're going to make it better.

Okay, where'd that come?

They're suffering.

They're hardship.

Who's changing society to clamp down on drunk drivers?

It's those who've had a loved one killed by a drunk driver.

They're change agents.

They're going to produce good.

Somehow, this tragedy, suffering it takes suffering and trouble, unfortunately, to shake us out of our self-centeredness and humble us and make us a servant it does.

Jonah's suffering and failures show us that amazing thing God can actually bring life.

What is a certain death Looked like Jonah was going to drown.

Jonah describes it in chapter 2 as he scooped me up and gave me life.

He resurrected me.

Jonah was locked up in the belly of the fish, but God lifted him up.

In a sense, he resurrected Jonah.

I say that because Jesus applied the same principle to himself Matthew 12, 39, 41.

Jesus answered wicked and adulterous generation asked for a sign.

None will be given, except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

What's that sign?

As Jonah was three days, three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of man will be three days, three nights in the heart of the earth.

You know what happened before the Son of man was three days, three nights in the heart of the earth.

He died.

He died and then there was a resurrection, just like with Jonah.

You know what Jonah had to do.

He had to die to himself, his selfishness, his pride, to become God's servant and accomplish good.

So God's life conquers death.

If we'll open our heart to that God's resurrection.

Life the scriptures tell us is the fruit of what happens when we actually begin to die to ourselves, put to death, that these are the flesh.

In fact, jesus mentioned that as a principle that applies to everyone who follows him John 12, 24,.

To his disciples he says truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

Or Mark 8, 34, 35,.

If anyone wishes to come after me, jesus said, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.

Whoever wishes to save his life, we're going to lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake in the gospel will save it.

So I think, to understand God's ways, which was the failure of the wilderness generation.

They don't understand my ways.

They don't see how possibly trouble could mean that God is still with us and they're helping us.

They missed it by a million miles and they missed his blessing.

They missed the resurrection life.

So part of the thing that we need to understand about God's ways is he uses suffering and when he disciplines us, it's for a purpose.

We don't like it.

Hebrews 12 says no discipline for no one is joyful, but let it have its effect.

Don't check out.

He allows it.

That's his way so that we will learn things like how do I die to myself here?

Let God have his way and experience his resurrection life and produce good.

Now the thing of it is, all of us could forgo all that suffering and learn obedience.

That God's going to take us through.

He has a Christian boot camps for all of us so we learn what he wants us to learn.

We could forgo all of that suffering to learn obedience if we would just die to ourselves now, confront no self.

That is too selfish.

I'm going to serve.

I'm going to put that person ahead of my own interests.

If we could just do that, do what God's told us in the first place, that was Jonah's mistake.

He could have foregone all the storm that thrown in and scared out of his mind.

Think he's going to die of drowning and then the fish grabs him.

How am I going to get out of this?

I'm going to die in the fish.

The thing of it is the other thing you learn here.

God's not going to send somebody else.

He's not going to send somebody else.

He's not done.

You think, well, I told God that's not what I'm going to do, so probably he's done.

No, he's not.

Jonah teaches us here don't miss these things.

We all sin and fall short of his glory in many different ways.

We just say no to God.

We know what he wants us to do and we're just more interested in pursuing what we want.

We're all going to fail, even believers.

See, because of that we all need God's grace.

We do.

He knows that.

And when we repent, god gives us all a second chance, third chance, tenth chance, hundred chance keeps going with us and God uses all of that discipline, suffering, to shape us.

Teach us how do I die to myself so that we might have new life, functioning, producing fruit in us, equipped, ready to serve Him?

That's really the journey of the Christian life.

We're not perfect.

Sanctification and becoming more and more like Christ and learning to follow Him closely is a process through our life.

We start with baby steps and baby truth, and we respond and we move forward and we keep going.

You're never going to graduate until Jesus returns.

There's always something God wants us to see and work on.

Just the thing to remember is don't do not say no, I've got one, I'm just not going to do it.

Well, you just said in motion the boot camp.

So some of us though it's interesting the word Lord came to Jonah's second time, and this time Jonah rose and went and said so we're just starting chapter three, and boy, god has a lot more to teach Jonah.

He's not perfect yet.

See, he's got a lot more to learn that we're going to share with him in his life.

But some of us, though, are still back in chapter one.

We're still running from God and afraid of what he might ask us.

He won't ask you to do something without giving you the grace to do it, and the first thing he asks us to do is believe in his son, jesus, to receive the forgiveness of our sins that Jesus blood was shed to take care of, to atone for and then give us eternal life when we believe in him.

This is an important point about the gospel.

See, that, I think, is terrible, heretical.

I don't know if it's preached so much as people think this way, and it's a reason a lot of people don't come to church.

Even they think.

Well, for God to accept me, I got to clean up my act first.

I'm not holy, I'm not worthy.

Exactly, he's not asking you to clean up your life first and then maybe he'll give you eternal life.

He's asking you do you see my son?

He died for you, for all your sins.

All you have to do open your heart, receive him, believe in him.

I'll forgive you and give you the gift of eternal life.

But many people think I'm just, I got to clean up my life, I got to stop this and stop that and stop that.

I've talked to people like that and unfortunately, most of the people that I've tried to help understand this gospel reject it.

They don't believe it.

They believe they got to clean up their act first, forgot to be acceptable to God.

Jesus died for your sins.

You don't have to atone for them.

He already did, and he's going to give you a chance to live for him.

Now, when you believe in him, receive his grace and let him come in Love you and show you what he purpose he has for you.

So if I could leave you with this, stop running from God.

Turn your heart and life over to him.

Ask him what do you want me to do now?

I'm here for you, lord.

Let us pray Father, thank you that you didn't just send your son to die for us.

Scripture says you gave us your son so that whoever believes in him would not face your wrath but be given eternal life.

I pray, lord.

Maybe there's somebody here today that still never crossed that line of believing in Jesus and really sensing your spirit in them.

I pray that you'd help them open their hearts today to believe in Jesus.

And you tell us in your word that you're near to those who suffer, to the brokenhearted crushed in spirit.

Well, lord, help us to draw near to you when we suffer, and not away from you.

Help us that we might learn to do the good works you've prepared already for us to do.

I pray in Jesus' name, amen.