Beloved radio friends, we greet you in the ever-precious and the worthy name of our Lord Jesus with gratitude and praise within our heart for the joy and privilege of bringing to you again the precious and the holy word of God. We consider all the word of God, His holy word. It is so properly on the Bible that you and I possess to read on the outside of it Holy Bible, for it is the Holy Word of God. Today we continue in the book of Jonah, chapter four, and we now read verse six, the words that Jonah writes concerning his unique experience. And the words declare in verse six, and the Lord God prepared a God and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow or a shade over his head to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the Gord. Now after Jonah had built this booth upon the hillside, God caused a Gord to rise up with miraculous rapidity. It indicated the tenderness of God's heart toward his own servant Jonah, for it ministered to his physical comfort. even though Jonah may have seemed to be completely unsympathetic to God's plan in sparing Nineveh. The particular plant that must have grown was native to the Middle East, one that attained a height of eight to ten feet, usually possessing large leaves and growing up within a few days. But it is easily withered by any injury to its tender stalk. Now because of the shade that the plant gave to Jonah, his disposition seems to have changed from one of anger to a note of gladness. For we read that Jonah was exceeding glad of the God. What a difference from his great displeasure and his anger that we read of in verse one. Now if you read this book through carefully, you will find that in this fourth chapter, this is the only place in the whole book. where it is recorded that Jonah was glad. And yet, unfortunately, it must have been a selfish joy because of his personal comfort. There is an outstanding truth in the Word of God that too few people take in regarding the record that God writes about his servants. And you say, what is it? It is this. Listen, where can you find a book written that accurately and faithfully and clearly portrays the faults and the virtues of the biblical characters. Name every leading character in the Word of God, and you will find that the divine record also reveals their failures as well as their virtues. There is but one exception, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ himself, when he was upon the earth. Many biblical characters are surely attracted to us and lovely, but of only one can it be said truthfully. He is altogether lovely, and that is Christ. Everything that is lovely in God's universe, whether in heaven or on earth, can be found in Christ. Do not expect in any other person such perfection there is none. but keep your eyes upon Christ. By Jonah's great gladness over the God, God intended to reveal to him his own great gladness in the repentance and the sparing of Nineveh. But let us follow the story in verse seven of our fourth chapter and read. But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day and it smoked the God that it withered. Now do you remember that in chapter one and verse seventeen, we read these words. Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. In verse six of chapter four, before us, the same God prepared a God for Jonah. But now in verse seven, we read that God prepared a worm, an insignificant creature of extreme contrast. between the great fish and even the gourd. According to some authorities, an insignificant worm was able to strip this tender plant of all its foliage within a single night. And it was a bitter disappointment for Jonah to lose his protection of the spreading gourd. But when the sun did arise, we read in verse eight, that God prepared a vehement east wind. and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah that he fainted, and he wished in himself to die, and said it is better for me to die than live. Poor Jonah, things seem to be getting worse and worse for him. The sudden removal of the protecting God was bad enough. But to add to the misery, the rising of the blazing sun was also accompanied by a sultry east wind. again significantly prepared by God, as was the great fish, the gourd, and also the worm. The word prepared means appointed. All these things were divine appointments, sent by God, but definitely not properly appreciated or even welcomed by Jonah. Are you and I any different, radio friend? Can we in faith and confidence trust God? and truthfully say, my disappointments are his appointments? If we do that, God will certainly bring us through them more quickly and for our great spiritual blessing. The scorching heat of the midday sun and of the morning sun beat down upon the head of Jonah that he fainted, and then the sultry east wind with its sultry air added to his discomfort. And once again Jonah wished to die. Did you ever see a fellow that wanted to die so much? What a Jonah he wants. But I wonder how many Jonas are like him today. Angry and displeased over their own personal condition and circumstances. My beloved, you can find folks like that everywhere. Every day. Angry and disappointed. over what they are going through. But may I repeat, it is through our adverse circumstances God is always seeking to teach us a profitable as well as an eternal lesson. Now if you think that Jonah was angry because God spared Nineveh, will you not notice in this fourth chapter he was more angry when God ruined the shady protection by smiting the God in one night. In slangular vernacular we could say that Jonah became madder than a wet hen. Now he was really angry, more so than ever before. And yet God continues to ask him another question about his anger. In verse nine, "'Doest thou well to be angry because of the God?' Now, how did Jonah feel about that question? In no uncertain words, he didn't even mince his words. He probably spoke out of the heat of his anger with bitterness and vehement, and he even dared to say, and he did say it to God, I do well to be angry, even unto them. He emphatically tells God that his anger was justified over the loss of the God. absolutely and positively insensible to the fact that God was trying to teach him a lesson. You know, it's a wonder that God did not shake the follow till his cheaty charred. He certainly deserved it. And sometimes so do we. Oh, beloved, let me raise the question. Have you ever resented what God permitted to come into your life? I'm going to make a flat, blunt statement. None of us have any right. I don't care who we are. None of us have any right to say to God, what do us now? The best thing we can do is to submit to the circumstances and say, Oh, God, what do you want to teach me? Teach me thy way, O Lord. What lesson the prophet is there for me? For our greatest adversities can become our greatest spiritual lessons. You know, radio friend, there was one thing. In all of this that Jonah never seemed to have realized, and God was trying and endeavoring to teach him. He did not learn it in the storm. He did not learn it even inside the great fish. He did not learn it even in the city of Nineveh. And it's evident he was not even learning it now. And you ask, what was it that God was trying to teach him, and that he did not learn? Through all these strange experiences in the life of this prophet, he never seemed to learn how much God loved him. And how much God not only loved him, but loved the people of Nineveh. Now, beloved radio friend, please let this sing into your conscience, deep into your heart. May I do it? to my own heart and conscience too. Don't think for a moment when things go wrong, God doesn't love you. Let me close with this incident that I once read of. Many years ago there was a farmer that placed a weather vane on the top of his big barn. He placed upon the weather vane these words from First John chapter four in verse eight. The last three words of that wonderful verse. Three words only that say, God is love. One day a preacher, a preacher friend of his, visited him. He saw the weather vane. He saw as it moved around with the wind and read the words, God is love. And he said to the Christian farmer, What do you mean by that weather vane? And with the words upon it, God is love, do you mean that God's love changes like the wind? No, replied the Christian farmer. I mean this, whichever way the wind blows, God is love. My beloved radio friend, do you and I believe that? For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourges every son whom he receiveeth. And to you, my unsaved friend, if you are angry with God for what has happened to you, listen a minute. God's trying to teach you a lesson. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. And if you want to read the love of God, go to Calvary. And whatever way, the wind may blow. From Calvary's cross the message is, God is love. Father, bless thy truth in the Saviour's name for his glory. Amen.