We continue our study in the prophecy of Jonah in chapter three. We would read for our scripture portion from verses five through nine for our present consideration. The word of God declares, so the people of Nineveh believe God, and proclaim the fact, and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least of them. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his noble, saying, Let neither man nor beast, heard nor flock, taste anything, let them not feed nor drink water, but let man and beast be covered with crackloss, and climb mightily unto God. Yea, let them, everyone, come, turn everyone from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not. Say the Lord blessed the reading of this section from his word, which indicates without any question of doubt the proper reception of the message of the prophet Jonah when he founded his message of judgment. We've already observed, and that very carefully, that when Jonah proclaimed his divine message, it was received so spontaneously that the divine record states, the people believed God. None of them seem to have doubted the authenticity of the proclamation. God has said, forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. Every person evidently acts accepted as absolutely true the message, and they were correct. Did you ever consider seriously the words of the beloved Apostle Paul which he wrote in First Timothy chapter one and verse fifteen when he said, This is a faithful and true saying and worthy of all acceptation, meaning that everyone should believe it. that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. How we can say everyone should believe the message that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. But unfortunately, the majority do not seem to do this. Some of them not even wish to hear the message today. What a vivid contrast between the people of Nineveh. From the highest to the lowest, the greatest to the least. They heard the message. They believed it. However, we do rejoice that all the people of Nineveh believe Jonah's proclamation. They may have virtually said to one another, We have only forty days to live, and then God will destroy us. This message reached their consciences. It pierced their hearts with deep conviction. Neither did these people wait for their king to decide what must be done. No one waited for orders from the king. It was a matter between their own souls and God, who had pronounced his judgment upon them for their wickedness. It was the people that first proclaimed a fact, it was the people that put on track last first of all, and indicated their sorrow and their repentance for their evil ways. Not just a few of them, but as we have read in verse five, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. All classes of society were participating in their display of sorrow and repentance for their sins. What a wonderful picture of a city wide and a universal expression of repentance for their wickedness. It would be a wonderful thing if any city, if any town, would thus corroborate the words of the living God in relation to sin and wickedness, and universally totally repent to turn from their wicked ways. in confession and repentance. When the message reached the ears of the king, he also reacted exactly as his people had. There was no delay. They gave no doubt regarding Jonah's message by seeking to minimize the danger. Neither did the king seek to calm the fears of his people, as would often be the case with many. for the king himself, and together with his princes and his nobles. They understood the message. They heeded the warning that it contained. They very quickly complied with all that the people had done, and gave commands that both man and beast should be covered with sackcloth, which is to be very carefully noted, that it was carried out. Please let us consider this great action of the citywide repentance. First of all, there was an outward acknowledgement by all of them being covered with sackcloth. This was the outward expression in biblical and Oriental days of their sorrow and their mourning, and particularly on this occasion, their sorrow and their mourning for their wickedness. One wonders today how many are willing to mourn and indicate outwardly their sorrow for their wicked sins. But then also there was not only an outward acknowledgement by the clothing of sackcloth and so on, but there was a Godward acknowledgement. There was a plea for mercy. They were told by the king to cry mightily unto God. That is a wonderful expression. Do not overlook it. To cry mightily unto God. One can recognize the intense earnestness that the king requires for the people to show in crying mightily unto God. In other words, God must be given their heartfelt acknowledgement as well as their earnest supplication, that he might have mercy upon them, to seek from him some manifestation of that mercy, as well as to please for deliverance, if it be his will, from the coming judgment. But then also there was not only an outward, there was not only a Godward expression, There was the practical evidence of this repentance. This is indicated by the words we find in verse eight. Please note them. They are solemn, but they are genuine. They give the evidence of true repentance. Yay, said the king. Let them turn everyone from his evil way and from the violence that is in their hands. beloved there could not be a fuller expression, a more open manifestation of genuine true repentance, turning from their sins and the violent wickedness they had been perpetrating. Surely this practical evidence was of the strongest indication of their repentance before God. Would to God that we could see such evidence today in this world? and even in our communities of our own country, men turning from their wickedness, men manifesting by their outward demeanor, repentant, as well as acknowledging from their heart Godward, crying mightily that He might have mercy upon them, but then also forsaking their sins. I am reminded of the conversation that took place in a Sunday school class, as the Sunday school teacher was teaching the lesson concerning repentance. He asked the boys of his class if they could give him a definition of the meaning of the word. There was one young boy in the class that made an effort, and these are the words that he spoke. He said, repentance means being sorry for your sins, Enough to quit. How true it is. My beloved, there are many people that are sorry for their sins, but they don't quit them. Now that is not genuine repentance. But look at this great city of sixty miles in circumference, and perhaps across it too, in diameter. With its million of people, approximately, and from the king and the noble, down from the greatest to the lowest, They all repent. There's the outward manifestation of it upon both men and men. There is a Godwin acknowledgement as all the city cries mightily unto God. But then there is the practical evidence of it. They quit their sinning. They turned from the violent wickedness they were perpetrating. Beloved, this is true and genuine repentance. One says, very frankly, Would to God we could see this nation of ours do the same? Oh, the sad commentary that men in our country are so far away from God, no one desires at large to repent of their sins. Oh, how quite appropriately and completely did this young Sunday school scholar answer his teacher when he was asked, What does it mean to repent? And to say it means being sorry enough for your sin to quit. That was undoubtedly the King of Nineveh's command. Let us see, said he, our evil doings. Every one of us, received from our wickedness, they were sorry enough to quit. And quit they did. And surely we can recognize. that even today God would say to the sinner, Seize your evil doing. Oh, how many times people complain that the divine providence and judgment of God, when He visits in divine retribution the sins of a nation. One recalls even in the days of World War II, how many repeated the question again and again, why does God permit the war? Why does He let it go on? Many a times I answered over the radio ministry that I had in that day, why do not people quit their sinning? My beloved, if you and I and anyone has a complaint against the deemings of God upon the human race, let us raise the question. Why do we not quit sinning, instead of persisting in the downward path of disobedience and violence and crime and wickedness? Oh, yes. God says, cease your evil doings. But it is not improbable today to find people saying how sorry they are for their sins. The drunkard is sorry for his evil way. The fornicator may be sorry for him. The thief and the robber may be sorry for his and so on. But how many of them are sorry enough to quit. True repentance for sins. will not only be out with remorse, but mightily calling upon God for his mercy, and the willingness to stop the evil practices of sinning, whatever form those things may take. The heathen king of Nineveh said, Who can tell if God will turn and turn away, repent and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? My beloved, this was the only hope for the condemned king and for his people. The mercy of God, a merciful God, did not the sinner in the temple in the days of the Lord Jesus say, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. It was a prayer of contrition, repentance that the public enough had in Luke eighteen, and God in mercy answered the sincere request. for God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and live. So likewise, in the case of the King of Nineveh, and in the case of the people, it was a case of genuine, complete repentance right down to the last. Now as we go on in Jonah chapter three and verse ten, please note what the words say. and God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them, and he did it not. What words are these? Oh, in our preceding study, we learned of the repentance of the people of Nineveh, at the preaching of Jonah, and his message of judgment upon them. From the king upon his throne, with the princes and the nobles, from the greatest of the least, in no uncertain terms they believed the message, they immediately repented, long before the expiration of God's ultimatum. In forty days Nineveh shall be overthrown. They didn't wait until the thirty-ninth day. Neither did they wait till the fortieth. My beloved, the message reached their conscience and in their hearts and spoke immediately in conviction. Oh, my beloved, I do not know what you may think of that great physical miracle that God performed when he permitted the fish to swallow Jonah, and thus preserved him, and then ultimately expelled Jonah, the prophet, out of the mouth of the great fish on dry land, which we have covered in chapters one and two. But I am fully persuaded that there are more people, perhaps, than I speak of Christians even, who are more concerned and interested in the miracle of Jonah in the great fish, and God preserving and bringing him out safely. That was indeed miraculous. But may we say, and I do it personally from my own heart, to declare that the complete repentance of a possible million of people in the city of Nineveh was a greater miracle than the whale-swallowing Jonah. The moral and the spiritual miracle of their complete repentance stands out unequally in all the biblical history. You cannot find in all of the history of God's Word and human history where such a complete citywide repentance of such magnitude has ever been known. There could be only one explanation for this. Jonah coming with a true message from God and his message authenticated by the power of the Holy Spirit to the hearts of the men of Nineveh, convicting them of their true condition and the deserving judgment of the Holy God. We cannot relegate out of this the power of the Holy Spirit. said the Lord Jesus in John, John sixteen, verse eight, that when he, the Spirit of God, is come, he will convict men of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. And we cannot disassociate that the preaching of this short message by Jonah was accompanied by the power of the Holy Spirit. God proves very definitely that he is interested, concerned, in the broken and contrite hearts of men. Not merely the royal purple that the king and his princes may have worn, nor even in the pauper rags that some of the others of the other generation lower may have possessed. But when in the hour of repentance the king on the throne and the people were on the same level confessing their sins and repenting, we read in our tenth verse, God saw their work, that they turned from their evil way, and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them, and he did it not. Now some friends may question, why men and beasts were both involved under the threatened judgment of God, as indicated in verses seven and eight? We may raise the question, if some do. What had the animals to do? What have they done to deserve such destruction? May we just say, there is a close relationship between man and me, whereby the animal creation has been affected by the sin of man. And according to the book of Romans, the epistles of the Romans, chapter eight, let me commend the reading of verses nineteen through twenty-five at your convenience. There it is significantly declared that the animal world also came under the bondage of man because of man's sin and corruption. The beloved Apostle Paul in that body of Scripture in Rome in plainly states that the literal creation, animals included, they long for their liberation from the bondage of corruption, which sin is brought, And that deliverance will take place at the glorious return of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, if God had overthrown Nineveh, he would also have been the doom of the animals of the city as well. But God himself has regained for both man and beast. May we not say in the coming days of our Lord's return, when he sets up his earthly kingdom upon this scene, Both man and beast will come under the blessing, and the literal creation too, will come under the blessing of his munificent reign. What a day that will be. But now we find that the city is spared. For we have read, when God saw their works of repentance, that they turned from their wickedness, he repented of the punishment that he had threatened to execute, and did not perform it. The sparing of Nineveh was a temporary thing. It was only of a temporary duration, which we would like to say was confirmed and can be confirmed, by reading the prophecy of Nahum. Nahum was a prophet that later came upon the scene. He later predicted certain judgment upon Nineveh, and the citizens of Nineveh in Jonah's day, they were spares. But we know that less than a century later, the city was destroyed by God. But the genuine repentance, through Jonah's message, brought a reprieve from God's judgment. Though again we state in later years, the inhabitants returned to their former ways of wickedness. One may well recognize, and this is true in the history of mankind, you'll find it true in the history of Israel. There may have been generations that repented and turned to God. But unfortunately, the history of man proved that succeeding generations get away from God again. Such is the failure of mankind. But later in the history of Nineveh, the city was destroyed with all of its inhabitants and the Assyrian empire brought to naught. But there is an obvious lesson in this book of Jonah for us to learn. concerning the value of repentance. First, with repentant Jonah. Jonah had to repent. Second, with repentant Ninevites. These things that were written aforetime, writes the Apostle Paul, were written for our learning, as God wrote through the Apostle by the Spirit in Romans fifteen and verse four. And the great value of repentance is clearly emphasized. both with Jonah as well as with Nineveh the city. Jonah was an individual, and today Gornan shall scream, awaits individual sinners to repent. Please let me direct my questions to an individual listener who's hearing and considering the words that we speak. May I point out the words of Paul in Acts chapter seventeen and verse thirty and thirty-one in part. When Paul in the city of Athens was speaking in the Areopagus, he declared, God now commanded all men everywhere to repent, because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained. Oh, am I speaking to an unsaved sinner? Have you ever seriously considered that you will someday give an account of yourself? and you will face God in regard to your sins? God commands all men everywhere to repent. He commands them to turn away from their sins. He commands that they should genuinely, seriously forsake their sins, and in contrition, and Godly repentance, turn from them and seek His mercy now. Instead of meeting a righteous and a holy God in eternal judgment, when there can be no escape from the inevitable and the eternal consequences of one's sin. God, through the death of his beloved Son, commends his redeeming love and grace and mercy toward all. Listen to the words. Oh, the message that the gospel brings. Jonah did not have the message that we preach, though God did show love and grace and repentance to Nineveh. But in Romans five and verse eight, what a message today, the Spirit writing through Paul to say that God commended his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans chapter five and verse eight. The well-known gospel hymn that has been written concerning the death of Christ upon the cross has suddenly declared to us, Years I spent in vanity and pride, Caring not my Lord was crucified, Knowing not it was for me he died. On Calvary, Mercy there was great, and grace was free. Pardon there was multiplied for me. There my burdened soul found liberty. At Calvary, O my beloved sinner friend, if such you are, never having trusted the Savior. Why do you not sincerely repent of your sins, placing your faith in the blessed person of Christ and the redemptive work of his cross that he did for you? Repentance toward God was what the Apostle Paul preached and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. May repentance and faith be the portion of those and the exercise of their soul who have never yet come to Christ that they might be saved. Why not sincerely repent of your sins, and thus place your faith in the blessed person of Christ and his redemptive work? Now we can conclude this fact. In view of a city, and even a nation, when it may be wicked and corrupt, in its practices of sin, Whether it be a nation or a city that genuinely repents, God will certainly refrain from visiting with divine judgment. We have the example. Here's the wonderful example. God staying the hand of judgment when repentance is shown. But let it be clearly understood that if there is no repentance, His judgments will ultimately fall. His destruction will be executed upon the nation and people. This principle, in relation to a nation or in relation to a city, when manifesting repentance is an extremely necessary thing that is definitely required for our nation today. But where is it? May I say very frankly, faithfully, our nation needs to be called to repent. But when leaders in the highest offices of governmental responsibility and authority will reveal by their personal conduct, moral corruption, and likewise, the majority of the people follow the same pernicious practices, violence and corruption openly, break out, and in a cancerous moral soar. And when violation of moral principles manifested by rulers and people persist, then certainly we must say, we're upon the precipice of coming divine judgment. Surely unless the nation follows the example of Nineveh and repent, may I state frankly, the nation of this land of ours will come under the divine visitation of God's destruction. God is much more anxious to bless men than to judge them. How many care about this today? All make God the Holy Spirit work to bring men and women, boys and girls to repentance that they might be saved. Beloved, it would be a wonderful thing. If the Spirit of God were able... to bring sinners throughout our land, from the highest to the lowest, to manifest repentance toward God, and exercise faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. But it is the responsibility of every individual to hear the word of God, and his command saying, God commandeth all men everywhere to repent. My beloved sinner friend, If you have never repented of your sins, may the Holy Spirit in conviction cause you to do so, and put your cross in the mercy of God, which has already been shown you in the death of his Son upon the cross. Beloved friends, Before we leave the third chapter of this prophecy of Jonah, it would be a very interesting thing to present the dispensational picture of this prophecy in relation to the nation of Israel. But as we have stated previously in one of our messages, Jonah is a vivid picture of the nation of Israel. In the third chapter of Jonah, as even in the preceding chapters, We have prefigured the dealings of God with his chosen people. The nation of Israel. After Jonah's restoration to the Lord and to the land, he was recommissioned by God to preach the message that God intended him to give at the very beginning. His experience is a very clear type of Israel. Have you ever realized what God's purposes were? for the nation of Israel, as a commencement of their history, as a nation? Have you ever known what God intends for them to be for him? Permit me to read to you from the word of God in the book of Exodus chapter nineteen, two verses in this nineteen chapter, the fifth and the sixth verses, where God commanded Moses to speak the following words to the people of Israel. Here are the words of God, saying, Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice in thee, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people. For all the earth is mine, and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. Unquote. This commission God repeatedly stated in regard to his people Israel, for example, in chapter forty-three in the book of Isaiah, in verses ten and twelve, God twice states to his beloved people Israel, these words, ye are my witnesses, best the Lord. Ye are my witnesses, best the Lord. The nation of Israel was to be a priestly nation, ministering God's revelation of truth, and representing the only true God amongst the heathen nations of the world. We confess, sadly, but truthfully, this great commission has never been fulfilled, as we well know, because like Jonah, their experience, as it was in chapter one, they have been very disobedient. Surely one cannot help but read the history of Israel, both in the historical record, well even going back even in the days of Joshua through the book of Judges, the books of history, and in the books of the prophets, where again and again and again God has to speak in denunciation and condemnation regarding the disobedience of his earthly people Israel. However, when, like Jonah, the nation of Israel will turn to the Lord, when the veil of unbelief will be removed from their minds and their hearts, when they cry in genuine repentance, in the midst of their distresses, the Lord will not only restore them to their land and their nation under the coming reign of our Lord Jesus Christ in the millennial kingdom, but he will restore to them his great commission, to be his witnesses for him throughout all the world. And this commission will be fulfilled in the future. My beloved may I state, and that with deep conviction as well as thankfulness of God's spirit, the day is coming when God will restore his people. and enable them to fulfill their commission that they have failed in such signaling in the past. Let me read to you the tremendous national change that will take place for the remnant of Israel in that coming day, when the nation will be restored to the land. I'm going to read from the book of Zechariah, that great prophecy of Zechariah, verses twenty through twenty-three. Thus said the Lord of hosts, it shall yet come to pass that there shall come people and the inhabitants of many cities, and the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts. I will go also, yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem. and to pray before the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, in those days it shall come to pass that ten men shall take hold, out of all languages of the nations, even they, shall take hold of the third of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you. What a wonderful change will be brought. Let me for the present, present to you the tremendous and the radical change that will be involved, when all the nations shall reverse their attitude and their actions toward Israel. Today the nations of the world hate Israel, and the day is past approaching when the words of our Lord will be literally fulfilled concerning his beloved earthly people. words that he spoke, as we may read them from Matthew chapter twenty four in verse nine. Note these words. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you, and ye shall be hated of all nations, for my name's sake. Beloved that this is the present, it may not be complete, but it is very nearly complete. This is the present attitude and conduct of the nations of the world toward Israel. But the tremendous reversal is described, as we can read in Isaiah chapter sixty-one, verses five and six, where the prophet declares and foretells that the nations will be working in that coming day for Israel. Listen to the words as we quote them from Isaiah sixty-one, five and six. The prophet writing to say, And strangers, meaning foreigners, each shall stand and feed your flock, and the sons of the aliens shall be your ploughmen, and your vine-dresses. The very nations that are now seeking Israel's destruction will yet be the servants of Israel in that coming day. Now someone may ask, What then will Israel be doing if the nations will be serving Israel? Let me read on in Isaiah chapter sixty-one and verse six. But ye shall be named the priests of the Lord. Then shall call you the ministers of our God. Ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves. Please note the reversal. Note particularly. the divine exaltation that God will bring upon his people as he calls them, as we have read, the ministers of our God. They are to be named the priests of the Lord. While the nations in that day will be servants to Israel, Israel will ultimately accomplish God's will. As priests of the Lord, and as ministers of God, Like Jonah Revolt in our story, they will proclaim the message of God in that coming day. But my beloved may I say, it will not be a message of just a few words. The knowledge of the Lord is to cover the earth as the waters cover the seas. But in that day they will minister the word of God throughout the world, and men will be taught of God through his service, the ministers and priests of Israel. And if Jonah was successful in converting and bringing the great city of Nineveh to repent, so in that coming day Israel will be used to accomplish that which has never been done before, the conversion of the world. My beloved, there's no question of doubt that there's been many Christian attempts to convert the world. And as far as the Scripture declares, In relation to our present age of grace, the age of the church, the conversion of the world is not assured by the preaching of the gospel. But when our Lord Jesus Christ comes and elevates an exalted people Israel to be the top glorious nation over all the earth, it will be the nation of Israel who shall be used instrumentally through their Messiahs. to accomplish that which none other has been able to do, the conversion of the world. We have today and in other days passed, uninterrupted and misguided Christians, very sincere, they may have been and are, who have been seeking the conversion of the whole world in our present age, without any sound scriptural basic order. But let us in earnestness seek the salvation of sinners, but not forget that worldwide revival and conversion is yet ahead, and God will do it through Israel, not the church, in that glory of coming kingdom of the Messiah upon the earth. I say this very earnestly, as well as in love and affection, towards many that even today believe they can convert the world under the gospel will bring the world to the feet of our Lord Jesus Christ by its message. No, my friend. God is not seeking the conversion of the world through the ministry of the church, but he is taking out of this world those who will believe upon the Lord Jesus and placing them in the body of Christ, which is the church, to be the pride of our Lord Jesus in the heavens of us in the coming day. We read in Romans chapter eleven and verse fifteen. The Apostle Paul refers to the future restoration of Israel as meaning life from the dead. Now what does he mean? He means just like Jonah, they will return to the land and to the Lord as from the dead. There will be national resurrection of Israel, accordingly described as you have it in Ezekiel chapter thirty-seven and on. and the world will yet see a spiritual resurrection of that nation of Israel, as well as a literal one. Then the message of this people will be empowered of God to turn the nations from spiritual death to spiritual life. It will be life from the dead for the nations also. For Israel will be a nation of Jonah, spreading the truth of God throughout the world. Then will be fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah eleven, and the words that are found in verse nine. The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. What a great day that will be. One earnestly prays, even so come Lord Jesus. But before passing further, we would like to exalt the mercy of God. through our Lord Jesus Christ even today, which will yet be shown to Israel, but regardless of the present condition and the perilous state that Israel may be in amongst the nations. Israel is still beloved of God, though hated by the world and Satan. Israel still can be called and is, in the word of God, the chosen people, though despised and rejected by the world and neglected, They are cherished of God, those burned and persecuted. But the day is coming when the whole world will acknowledge them. Note the title, priests of the Lord, ministers of God. What a tremendous change, what a transformation that's going to be for the Jews. After centuries of being chastened by the Lord. But in that coming day, they will be like Jonah, They will be successful for the Lord, disseminating the truth of God over all the earth. And God grants that that day you will be here very, very soon. Now we have read and studied in this book of Jonah the three chapters, one, two, and three. And we come now reaching the closing chapter of the book, which is chapter four. Very briefly and quickly. We would like to review the outline messages that we have touched on. In chapter one, God placed before us the disobedient prophet Jonah, revealing himself, fleeing from the Lord, and even in the midst of a great storm under the judgment of God. In chapter two, we found a chastened prophet, and we noted it in repentance Jonah was praying to the Lord out of the bowels of the great fish. In chapter three we have noted Jonah as the text of prophet, speaking for the Lord in the great city of Nineveh. In chapter four we find an instructive prophet, Jonah learning lessons that only the Lord could teach him and did try to teach him. It was a great lesson that he had to learn concerning the compassionate heart of God. one that was so necessary for him to know. When the Spirit of God writes the book, he completes the whole story and the complete lesson that is useful for us to understand. If the book of Jonah had been written by men, unaided by the Spirit of God, man would probably have concluded the story of Jonah at the end of chapter three. that God doesn't conclude the story there. The climax of the story, humanly speaking, seems to end with repentance and deliverance of Nineveh. However, the record is not terminated there, and particularly why? Because there is a greater climax and a greater objective in this whole book that is revealed in chapter four. For God had to teach his servant, Jonah, an objective lesson, and redeem to him certain facts about his own character and his own great heart, as well as to reveal to Jonah his own narrow mind and narrow heart. And it was a boundless lesson of the greatness of God's heart that he had to know. My beloved friend, let me just say briefly, The greatness of God's tremendous heart is beyond your comprehension and mind. But you and I by nature must confess how narrow-minded, how narrow-hearted we really are, in contrast to the great mind and the heart and the compassion of our God. Now please notice very carefully how chapter four begins in verse one. And we read the word saying, It displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. Now what was Jonah displeased about? What was he angry over? There are some people that would tell us that the prophet was more concerned over his reputation as a prophet. And because his prediction of judgment was not fulfilled, he was fearful of being ridiculed by his fellow countrymen on his return home. for Jonah was given a message. And he was concerned whether the message would be fulfilled. And as some would suggest, he was questioning what would be his reputation if God spared none of us. Well, this could be a possibility. For it is written in Deuteronomy chapter eighteen and verse twenty-one and twenty-two. God had said that any prophet whose word did not come to pass was not a true prophet. Let me speak of that again without reading the scripture in Deuteronomy. Chapter eighteen, verses twenty-one and twenty-two. God said if the words of any prophet did not come to pass, then he was not a true prophet. And Jonah might have been thinking of that. And thus it was displeased and angry. But however, the reason for Jonah's anger may more definitely be stated in the second verse of this fourth chapter, where we have referred to it before. when Jonah prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled unto Tarshish, for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, and slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of evil. The words clearly revealed the unfortunate attitude and the condition of the prophet's own body. He actually repented that the Ninevites had mercifully been spared by God. Now this is an unfortunate spirit to be possessed by any servant of God. And what a contrast between God's attitude towards the people of Nineveh, after its repentance, and thus to see Jonah's attitude toward the same state of repentance. Jonah had received pardon and mercy and deliverance and forgiveness from God. But he was not willing for Nineveh to have the same. Oh, beloved, how inconsistent we are in our attitude and character. Our Lord Jesus in a parable that is recorded in Matthew eighteen, twenty-three through thirty-five tells of a similar fact. When there was a certain man who owed a great debt which he was unable to pay, he was completely forgiven, and his debt was cancelled by the credit of. But in turn, following that forgiveness, he forced the law upon one who owed him much less money, showing that though his master is compassion on him, yet he would not show one ounce of compassion upon another. This clearly reveals the deceitfulness of the human heart, and magnifies the truth that was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet. In Jeremiah seventeen in verse nine, the hard it is people above all things, desperately wicked, who can know it? Jonah was like many today. They think they can take care of the world better than God can. Recognize the solemn condemnation that was upon Jonah's attitude, one who was the prophet of God, being angry beyond measure because of the pardoning grace of God. He was not just displeased, but he was angry, beyond measure, because of the pardoning grace of God upon the Nineveh. Very angry, it is said, and he was more anxious to see Nineveh and his people destroyed than to have them spared. I wonder if many of us are not like Jonah today. We would prefer to see the world of sinners destroyed. and how careful we should be about this matter, rather than to see the world pardon. Let us be very careful to judge ourselves and never forget that we who have tasted God's mercy upon our own minds and in our own souls should be willing to manifest mercy and show compassion toward others. What a great responsibility this is. We cannot sit in judgment when our God has pardoned us. And these words come very vividly to the conscience and to the heart of the one speaking. When we look at the wickedness of this world, we are so quick and ready to condemn it, and the Word of God does that, we know. But oh, let us not forget, where would we be if our God had not shown mercy to us? And when God shows mercy to us in compassion, God grants that we shall emulate him and have compassion and mercy in our hearts toward the others. But in spite of Jonah's feelings, the second verse tells us he prayed unto the Lord. He was still in touch with God by prayer, even though he certainly was not in harmony with the will of God, and with the heart of God regarding the Ninevites. The good thing he prayed, we read in chapter two that he prayed, from the powers of the great fish. But if we pray this will be more in evidence toward the close what it meant, and this will be more in evident what was his trouble as he prayed to the Lord concerning this. But now let's consider very carefully the words that Jonah spoke to the Lord. Jonah tells the Lord what was the dominating thought in his heart and mind from the very beginning when God first commanded him to go to Nineveh and preach. Was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country, I knew that thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness and repentance be of evil? How did Jonah know this? Well, the Old Testament with which the prophet was very familiar stated this fact many, many times. God had frequently in the past manifested his mercy. Upon his creature, man, that Jonah, as we noted in studying chapter one, fled from the Lord because he did not wish the city of Nineveh to be spared, if the city were to repent. Whether Jonah realized it or not, he suddenly reveals the terrible motive of his heart without any feeling of shame. It is by these words he seeks to justify his life. And now he has to quarrel with God because he has spared none of us. He must have had the same attitude of the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son. When that prodigal son came home, repentant, welcomed by his father in Luke fifteen, you remember the unfortunate attitude of that older brother. And suddenly Jonah and his elder brother, they seem to be identical twins. But as we read further and as we go along, so as Jonah was peed and angry, he closes his conversation with God by asking what to do. He wanted to die. In chapter two, please know what a change we can make, how different we can be in the circumstances. In chapter two we have thanked God for deliverance from death. Now in chapter four he says, I want to die. Have you noted those words? And as you read, you have Jonah saying in verse three, Therefore now, O Lord, God, O Lord, take I beseech thee my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live. You know, God's got a lot of queer people, and every one of us are queer without questioning his health. And Jonah tells the Lord that he wanted to die. And these words thus reveal his anger and his deed condition, as he closes his conversation with God seeking death rather than life. One fact is certainly sure about all of us, we are so inconsistent and we are certainly queer creatures, never satisfied to let God run this world, and especially not willing to let him manage our lives. How often we really think we can tell God how to do things, and what he should do. Oh, poor Jonah, what a lesson and a hard one he has to learn. Sometimes we think that God has to knock some spiritual sense into our hearts and minds to know we dare not tell him how we should live, what we should do. We cannot dictate to God, and we should not. and seek to run its business. Virtually what Jonah is saying, God, you should have punished the Ninevites. You should have destroyed the city. Again, let me say, how great the error, when thus we complain against the mind and the mercy and the will of God. We can think of those words that Paul appropriately has written then in the book of Romans. Nay, but, O man, who art thou that repriest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it? Why hast thou made me thus? As we read in Romans chapter nine and verse twenty. We may well realize that it is unfortunate that instead of praising God and sharing his joy over the repentance of sinners, we can sit in condemnation upon the same sinners that God has saved. We think of the words of the Lord Jesus, saying there is joy in heaven over one sin of the repentance. More than over ninety and nine just persons who need no repentance. May we say in closing, let us not argue with God. Let us never be displeased nor angry because of the events that may cause us to become fetish. That's just the time that you and I can say the wrong thing to God. There is a verse in Psalm eighteen verse thirty that says, that's for God. His way is perfect. May the Lord enable us, who belong to him, always acknowledge this, though we may not always clearly see it. My beloved Christian, are you and am I leading all things in his hands, and to its perfect control? And my unshake friend, if there be one listening, how much you need God is more than you can realize. Do not go any further on your life's road. without coming to God through Christ his beloved Son, and believe in the death of the Son of God and his sacrifice upon the Son, as your only means of salvation to bring you into light eternal. Although we may understand more harmoniously these little hearts of ours with all their weakness, the ways of God, surely we can agree with the prophet's word, when God said through Isaiah, Your ways are not my ways, and neither are my thoughts yours. But God helps us to always say, Ask for God. His way is perfect. May we not be appeased to Jonah. Father, we thank you for thy words. The entrance of it can give life. May it bring blessings of the heart and