Grace Alone: A Final Lesson in Grace
Grace Alone • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 44:00
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· 10 viewsSovereign grace that patiently comforts, exposes, confronts, and reorients His people to be on mission.
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5 Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city.
6 Now the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant.
7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered.
8 When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
9 But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.”
10 And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night.
11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”
This year we have been remembering a man like Augustine contending with Pelagius.
He believed man was born with the complete ability to choose good or evil.
He rejected things like original sin.
He believed that the Christian life was all a matter of human choice.
He thought of the grace of God like a vitamin that only merely helps a person.
“What is the desire for good but love? … For love is of God. Nor is its beginning in ourselves, and its perfection in God; but if love is of God, we have the whole of it from God. …
For what source is there in men of the love of God and of one’s neighbour but from God Himself? For indeed if it be not of God but of men, the Pelagians have gained the victory; but if it come from God, then we have vanquished the Pelagians.”
Love isn’t natural.
Love comes from God because God is love.
It obliterates the Pelagian view.
“A person lives a just and holy life when they see things as they truly are, and keep their loves rightly ordered — so that they don’t love what they shouldn’t love, and don’t fail to love what they should.
They don’t love lesser things more than greater things, nor love equally what ought to be loved more or less.
No one should love a sinner as a sinner; but every person should be loved as a person — for God’s sake. And God should be loved for His own sake.”
It’s not enough to just love something.
“He loves You too little, Lord, who loves anything along with You that he does not love for Your sake.”
We must love the thing for His sake.
“Lord, we love You too little when we love anything beside You that we do not love for Your sake.”
So to say that we love our “brothers” isn’t enough.
We must love them for Jesus’ sake!
According to Scripture alone we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone to the glory of God alone.
According to Scripture alone we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone to the glory of God alone.
Today we come to the end of the book of Jonah.
Sovereign grace that patiently comforts, exposes, confronts, and reorients His people to be on mission.
Sovereign grace that patiently comforts, exposes, confronts, and reorients His people to be on mission.
Now think to yourself watching a child that doesn’t get the toy that they wanted.
What do they do?
They pout.
They fuss.
They whine.
As we often tell our children, if we need to whine and fuss to get it, it’s become an idol.
Now some idols are bad because they’re good things that we try to hold onto too tightly.
Others are categorically bad and should never be pursued.
Ultimately we can say that fussing, pouting, and whining are bad because we don’t share our Father’s character.
We don’t love what He loves.
We try to take from Him what He delights to give us.
Like the father in the story of the Prodigal son, God the Father delights to see sinners repent.
20 And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.
22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.
23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate.
24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.
Jonah’s not sharing his Father’s heart.
28 But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him…
31 And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.
32 It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’ ”
Sovereign Grace that Patiently Pursues a Pouting Prophet.
Sovereign Grace that Patiently Pursues a Pouting Prophet.
5 Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there.
Jonah isolates himself in pride.
Jonah isolates himself in pride.
Like a sullen child that doesn’t get it’s immediate desire, Jonah sulks in his own self-pity and pride.
Jonah went out of the city.
Jonah sat down in the “east.”
Traveling east always has an echo back to fleeing even further from the presence of the LORD out of the garden (Genesis 3:24).
Jonah made a booth.
Like the booths that Israel made in the wilderness wanderings.
Jonah would prefer the wilderness outside of the city away from God’s kindness.
He’d prefer sitting in the dry heat of the wilderness day than in the favor that Yahweh has brought.
He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city.
Pouting and fussing until he should see this city destroyed.
Jonah sat in the wilderness longing and hoping this people would be destroyed.
God’s gracious appointments to Jonah.
God’s gracious appointments to Jonah.
6 Now the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort.
Appointment of the plant to bring comfort.
Appointment of the plant to bring comfort.
This covering Jonah happened while he was sitting outside the city pouting.
Despite his pouting and fussing attitude, God saw his discomfort.
His first move wasn’t,
“You sit in that discomfort till you learn your lesson!”
“I’ll get you yet! You need to see how miserable you are before I’ll help you.”
6 Now the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort (raah).
God’s purpose was to save Jonah from his “discomfort” or his (Lit in Hebrew: raah).
The “raah” that Nineveh got rid of…
The “raah” that Yahweh got rid of because of their repentance.
Then Jonah was filled with “raah” because of the perceived evil.
Now Yahweh will seek to remove even Jonah’s “raah” caused by the heat.
We should see Yahweh’s purpose here to be both the physical discomfort and the “evil attitude” that he has been bearing toward Yahweh.
So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant.
This “fair whether” follower rejoices when things are “good” and whines and fusses when it’s bad.
Could it be that some of the afflictions that Christians experience is God’s Fatherly discipline for wrongly ordered loves?
Jonah here is finding great joy and delight in the plant.
This isn’t wrong in itself.
But he’s got screwed up loves.
He loves the wrong things.
He should be loving God, which would have compelled him to go to Nineveh.
He should have loved the sailors and it would have compelled him to protect them.
He should have loved the Ninevites and sought their well-being.
Yet here Jonah is loving a plant that he did nothing to create.
God loved Jonah.
He loved him so much that he wouldn’t stop wrecking the wrongly ordered loves in his life.
7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered.
Appointment of the worm to remove the comfort.
Appointment of the worm to remove the comfort.
Again we see Yahweh appointing the worm to act as a form of judgment upon Jonah.
Yahweh went after the thing that brought Jonah great joy.
The gift that Yahweh gave Jonah became the thing he loved.
Yet he neglected the giver and sustainer of all life.
He loved the gift, but despised and hated the giver.
8 When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint.
Appointment of the wind to expose a bitter heart.
Appointment of the wind to expose a bitter heart.
God will destroy Jonah’s sense of comfort.
Happiness vs. Holiness
Happiness and holiness are not opposites.
It would not be fair to say that God is taking away something that is making Jonah happy to make him holy.
We need to see that God is going to destroy the thing that is making Jonah temporarily happy for his ultimate happiness.
Jonah thinks he’s happy.
But the problem is that Jonah is too easily pleased.
Sovereign Grace that Unmasks our Misplaced Loves.
Sovereign Grace that Unmasks our Misplaced Loves.
8 When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
We often end up with misplaced loves.
We love things we should hate.
We hate things we should love.
Jonah thinks that his life was better off taken than left to see the salvation of his enemies and be deprived of his comfort.
God’s questions reveal Jonah’s anger.
God’s questions reveal Jonah’s anger.
9 But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.”
Jonah is essentially saying…
“I am as angry as I could possibly be!”
“It thoroughly burns me” about this little plant!
It’s essentially Jonah saying,
“I loved that plant so much that I would rather die than lose that plant.”
“I loved that little plant more than I love my own life.”
Or rather we could say,
“I love the comfort associated with the little plant more than I love my own life.”
10 And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night.
God’s questions reveal Jonah’s self-pity.
God’s questions reveal Jonah’s self-pity.
What exactly is self-pity?
It’s to think of oneself as deserving of compassion.
On the surface it may sound good, but it’s actually extremely insidious.
Self-pity is always sinful.
It’s always sinful because it believes that nobody else cares.
It perceives a need or a hope, and the self-pity seeks to alleviate it by having compassion for oneself.
Self-pity is often a deep hole because it is really a person turning inward.
And the good news for you and I today is that God does not leave us in a place of self-pity and sorrow.
His questions pull a person out of themselves by awakening them to the petty foolishness of self-pity.
Self-pity for a Christian is especially sinful.
Like the older son in Luke 15:29
‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.
Observe how sinful it is…
Jonah has finally gotten around to showing compassion…but it will be compassion toward the plant.
And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
9 But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.”
God’s questions reveal Jonah’s selfishness.
God’s questions reveal Jonah’s selfishness.
Jonah’s priorities and his loves are out of balance.
Instead of loving what God loves, he hates what God loves.
Loving our pets more than we love people…
The pagan captain is concerned that his sailors may perish in the storm (Jonah 1:6).
The sailors are concerned that they will perish in the storm that Yahweh brought upon them because of Jonah (Jonah 1:14).
The pagan king is concerned that his people will perish because of their gross immorality (Jonah 3:9).
Everyone else is concerned in Jonah with the perishing of themselves, their people, and those all around them.
But here Jonah is concerned with the death of his plant (Jonah 4:10).
Loving our Comfort more than Compassion
Comfort more than compassion in our church building.
Comfort more than compassion in our community.
Comfort more than compassion in our home.
Sovereign Grace that reveals the Heart of True Compassion.
Sovereign Grace that reveals the Heart of True Compassion.
10 And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night.
11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”
God’s compassion toward His ignorant and wayward creation.
God’s compassion toward His ignorant and wayward creation.
Yahweh here is comparing Himself with Jonah.
Jonah had no ability to make the plant grow.
He had no ability to nurture it.
He had no ability to sustain the plant even.
But the flip side is also true.
God did make the plant grow.
He did sustain it.
He did ultimately allow it to be destroyed.
Since I created it, don’t I have a right to be compassionate toward my creation.
11 And should not I pity Nineveh…
“I created them, so I can be kind to them!”
“I sustained them, so I can be gracious with them!”
11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”
It’s even toward those who don’t know their right hand from their left.
Their sin makes them so foolish that they don’t know basic things.
God’s compassion as an overflow of His love.
God’s compassion as an overflow of His love.
Jonah got something fundamental wrong about the nature of God’s love.
God’s love doesn’t find worthy recipients.
If it did, it would be God’s love as a form of merit based rewards for the good.
Rather, God’s love makes people lovely because it makes them something they weren’t before.
What was really wrong with Jonah?
Jonah’s error is that his heart does not reflect the heart of God.
3 So he told them this parable:
4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?
5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’
7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
In heaven, there is more joy over one sinner who repents than over 99 people who think they don’t need repentance.
This does not mean that the 99 are actually righteous in themselves but that the person who repents is the one who is actually “found.”
10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
“Who is before the angels of God in heaven? God. It is God, first and foremost, who rejoices to lavish his love on those who have rejected him.” —Michael Reeves
11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”
The book of Jonah ends in a seemingly strange way.
The last two words of the book are “and cattle?”
Why would God mention the cattle?
Jonah is so hard to the people that God pleas for him to at least think of the cows.
We see the Lord trying to pull Jonah out of himself.
The book ends unresolved to force you and I as the reader to answer the question that God has been posing to Jonah.
Will we respond with the character of Jonah and neglect our city is going to perish?
Or will we respond with the character of Christ that overflowing loves its enemies?
Sovereign grace that patiently comforts, exposes, confronts, and reorients His people to be on mission.
Sovereign grace that patiently comforts, exposes, confronts, and reorients His people to be on mission.
Benediction
Benediction
