A Christian in Contempt of God's Will -- Part 2

Introduction

If you have your Bibles with you this morning, I’m gonna ask you to turn with me back to the Book of Jonah and today we will be finishing out a two part message that we started last week entitled “A Christian in Contempt of God’s Will.”

Now if you missed last week, I would encourage you to go back and watch it on our Facebook page or on YouTube so that you can catch up to where we are today.

Last week, we looked at Chapters 1 & 2 and this week, we will be finishing out the mighty Book of Jonah by looking at Chapters 3 & 4.

Last week we looked at and talked about the fact that behind the story of Jonah being swallowed by a great fish, there is a much deeper underlying meaning that I feel is a great problem with the world we live in today.

Last week we hit on the fact that the real reason Jonah was running from God was because of who God sent Jonah to preach to.

God had sent Jonah to the great city of Nineveh to warn them that His judgement was about to come upon them but Jonah decided he didn’t want to go and ran in the absolute opposite direction from which God told him to go.

He caught himself a ship to Tarshish and thought all was well but little did Jonah know, God had other plans.

Because of his disobedience, God allowed a storm to come upon the ship that was carrying him to Tarshish and it got so bad that the men running the ship eventually had to throw Jonah overboard to save their own lives.

In the process though, if you will remember, the very men who threw Jonah overboard turned from their gods to serve the living God of Jonah!

Even through the prophets disobedience, God was the one who got the glory, Amen!

And can I tell you this morning friend, that one way or another, God is going to get His glory, Amen!

It all boils down to this…do you want to be a part of helping Him get the glory or do you want to bring heartache and strife your way because you’re not walking in the will of the Lord!

Jonah wanted to do things his way and not God’s way and because of it, caused himself a whole lot of problems that could have been avoided had he only listened.

But back to the reason he was running in the first place...

The Ninevites were enemies of Israel. They were evil people. They had no regard for anyone and Jonah had such a hatred in his heart for these people that when God said, “Jonah I want you to go to the city of Nineveh and cry against it,” he said, “nah, let them perish!”

In his heart, Jonah would have rather perished himself, than to see his sworn enemy come to repentance!

And this is the problem I believe we are dealing with today in the time in which we live!

There is no compassion for the lost!

We could care less what happens to those who are dead in their trespasses and sins and on their way to a devil’s hell!

We only care about, me, myself and I and not those around us!

Why do you think that when asked what was the greatest commandment, Jesus said...

Matthew 22:37–39 — 37 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

First off, we ought to be loving God with everything we are and secondly, we ought to be loving our neighbors as ourselves!

Dear friend, if we loved our neighbors as ourselves, there would be a lot less people busting hell wide open every single day, Amen!

It’s time for God’s people wake up!

It’s time we see what’s going on all around us!

Jesus said to His disciples in...

Matthew 9:37–38 — 37 Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; 38 Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.

And I believe that’s the same message He’s giving to us here today!

The harvest truly is plenteous but the laborers are few!

Dear friend, we need more laborers in the field!

We need more Christians to take out what their taking in!

We need more Christians out in a lost and dying world sharing the good news of Jesus Christ!

Telling the lost and undone that someone else paid the price for their sins and that if they will but trust in Him, eternal life shall be theirs!

We need a burden for the lost!

Jesus said in...

Matthew 5:43–44 — 43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. 44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

This was a lesson that Jonah had to learn the hard way and my prayer is that if there is someone here this morning and you’ve got this same attitude that Jonah has, maybe you’d rather see someone who did you wrong die and go to hell, my prayer is that God, through this message would prick your heart in a mighty way and by the end of it, you will release that burden your carrying and turn it over to the Lord and learn to love those who have done you wrong, those who have maybe led you astray or hurt you in a mighty way!

Listen, can I let you in on a little secret this morning?

Do you know who gets hurt the most when you hold a grudge against someone?

You!

Yes, you!

You see, not only did you maybe get wronged by someone but when you hold a grudge you allow that person to continue to plague you even though they may not even be around anymore!

And this theory is proven by the Book that is before us today!

Jonah held a grudge against the Ninevites and because of that grudge it caused him to miss one of the greatest blessings recorded in all of the Bible!

An entire city got saved because of his preaching but he was too caught up in his grudge to see the mighty work that God had done through him!

God used Jonah to lead an entire city to Himself as we will see here in a moment and all the while, Jonah is sitting off on a hillside pouting because things didn’t go the way he wanted them to go!

If you are holding a grudge against someone this morning, let it go!

Be free’d from that burden that is plaguing your soul!

Love them and pray for them and ask God to help you not miss the blessings that are right in front of you!

Alright, now that we know the main reason behind Jonah’s running, let’s pick up where we left off last week at the beginning of Chapter 3.

As Keaton said last week, the whale has burped Jonah out on the beach and now we’re about to see his reverence to God’s second request.

The Reverence to God’s Second Request — (Vs. 3:1-4)

Today’s reading open’s up the exact same way last week’s did. Do you see that?

What was it that came unto Jonah?

The Word of the Lord, right?

Do you remember what we said about the word of the Lord last week?

Hebrews 4:12 — For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

(Let the Holy Spirit elaborate as He sees fit!)

And then then Bible tells us that it came to Jonah “a second time!”

I don’t know about you this morning friend, but I sure am glad that God is a God of second chances!

God gives Jonah a second chance here to do what He had called him to do and maybe you’re sitting here this morning and God is giving you a second chance to take care of something He spoke to your heart about last week and you didn’t!

Maybe God was speaking to your heart about being lost last week and all week long you’ve dwelt on it and He’s been wearing you out about it! And today, like Jonah, God has given you a second chance to get things right like He did to Jonah here.

Won’t you come today and give your heart to Christ before it’s too late?

Or maybe you’re already saved but last week’s message hit home with you and God was telling you to move but you didn’t!

And maybe like the lost person, God has been wearing you out all week about it!

Well guess what, God has given you a second chance to get in His will today as well!

Whatever it is friend that God is speaking to your heart about, don’t take God for granted!

Take care of that thing today while there’s still time!

Because, although He is a God of second chances, and sometimes third, fourth and fifth chances, His word also says that His Spirit will not always strive with man and there are instances in God’s word where people did wrong and they didn’t get a second chance!

So, if God is dealing with your heart today, whether lost or saved, come and take care of whatever it is He’s speaking to you about today!

But the word of the Lord came unto Jonah a second time and told him to “arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee!”

Jonah finally say’s, “alright God, you got my attention now” and sets off on a journey to Nineveh.

It only took getting swallowed by a whale to get his attention but hey, I think Jonah finally got the point!

He gets up, goes to Nineveh and the Bible tells us it was an exceeding great city of three days journey!

That means it would take 3 days just to walk through the city!

And the Bible tells us that Jonah makes his way a days journey into the heart of Nineveh and begins to cry out… “Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”

Now, I don’t know if Jonah was completely obedient to God’s command or not. I wasn’t there and don’t know exactly what God told him to say but as I was reading through this, a couple weeks ago now, there were a couple things that stood out to me and I hope I’m not reading too much into it but knowing the backstory like we do now, I want to show you what I seen.

First off, how big was the city again?

Three day’s journey, right?

And how far did Jonah travel into the city?

A days journey, right?

Now, I don’t know if where Jonah stopped was a big town square or if it was a happening place or if it was a street corner in a place where there was no traffic but when I read this I couldn’t help but to think...

He didn’t even go halfway in before crying out to them. I mean, if I’m trying to be obedient to God’s call now, if I’ve finally said in my heart, “ok Lord, you win. Let’s do things your way and not mine.” don’t you think he would of cried all the way through the city? Or at least went halfway in before crying out?

Like I said, I may be reading into it too much but then look at the message he delivers because in my feeble little mind it helps to further my theory.

What does Jonah say the people of Nineveh again?

“Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”

Now, before going any further, we don’t know if there was more that he said and it just didn’t get written down or if this was it but if indeed this was all Jonah said, I find it hard to believe that God wouldn’t at least tell Jonah to tell the people of Nineveh how to repent!

I mean, Jonah delivers a message of judgement but there’s nothing whatsoever spoken of repentance!

It’s almost as if he said just enough to get God off of his back so he could say, “Well, I did it! I did what you asked me to do now destroy these wicked people!” isn’t it?

I mean, I may be wrong but in my heart of hearts, I fully believe Jonah even after making his way into the city and proclaiming what God told him to, or at least a portion of it, I believe he still wants to see these lost souls perish!

Little did he know though that God’s mighty word was about to accomplish something that would be talked about for ages to come!

Little did he know that God’s word was about to spark a flame that would kindle a revival that would lead an entire city and possibly even an entire nation to the Lord!

You see, the Bible says in...

Isaiah 55:11 — So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: It shall not return unto me void, But it shall accomplish that which I please, And it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

You see, even if Jonah’s goal was to speak of judgement and not salvation what he didn’t realize is that even the tiniest spark of God’s word is all it took to bring about God’s will that He wanted to accomplish!

Many times I stand here in this pulpit and I preach the word that God has laid on my heart and I have no idea who it is for or who needs what at any given time but God does and His word goes out and touches someone and then they will come up to me after service is over and say, “Bro. Bobby that’s exactly what I needed. Thank you for the message today.”

Friend, as much as I’d like to take credit for it, that’s God’s doing!

He knew what you needed and therefore, He laid it on my heart for you!

And sometimes, there’s that lost soul sitting in the crowd or watching online and God speaks to your heart and tells you that you need to be saved and I have no idea who you are but God does and He calls and sometimes they answer and sometimes they don’t.

My prayer here this morning is that if there is anyone here lost and undone and God is speaking to your heart, stop resisting the Spirit and come!

Come unto the Lord while there’s still time!

But Jonah delivers the message and God takes care of the rest!

Look next with me at...

The Repentance of the Ninevites — (Vs. 3:5-9)

Throughout Scripture, the number forty seems to be identified with testing or judgment. God gave the people forty days of grace, but they didn't need that long. We get the impression from the scripture here, that from the very first time they saw Jonah and heard his warning, they paid attention to his message.

Immediately the Bible records that the people believed God!

From the greatest to the least the Bible says!

From the Princes to the Paupers the people of Nineveh turned from their wicked ways and look what it says there in Verse 6.

Now, this is also something I found interesting. If I wanted the whole city to know something, wouldn’t the best place to start be by telling the king?

But Jonah told it on the street corner and somehow the word got to the king and then the king, upon hearing of God’s impending judgement, sends a decree throughout all the land that every person should fast and turn from their evil ways!

The king essentially sends out a decree of repentance and the thing is, everyone in the city listened!

And listen to what he says, “who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not? “

What this king is saying is this… “who knows, maybe God will see our sincerity and see our depravity of sin and see that we are serious about turning from our wicked ways and be merciful unto us!”

Now, let me share something with you that I came across while studying for this message because it will help us understand the sovereignty and immutability of God.

Somebody asked Dr. G. Campbell Morgan this question. He said, "Is God capricious? Does God just operate according to whim? I mean, God said He's gonna do one thing, and He did another. Does God change?" Dr. Morgan said, "No, God doesn't change, God's laws are immutable. But, God is like a weathervane, and, when the wind blows, that weathervane invariably, by fixed laws, points in the direction of the wind."

Adrian Rogers — Now friend, the wind can change. The weathervane only registers what the wind is doing. But, the weathervane never changes. Who changed in this story? Not God. The Ninevites changed in this story. And, God will show Himself merciful to those who repent—always, that's a fixed law. God will show Himself in judgment to those who do not repent—always, that is a fixed law.

You see, God’s outcome for the Ninevites changed because they changed not because He changed!

This is also evidenced in scripture in...

Jeremiah 18:7-8 — 7 At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; 8 If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.

Matthew 12:41 — The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.

Jesus was speaking of Himself there and what He meant by saying that, and what you need to know about God this morning is this…it doesn’t matter how bad you’ve been or what you have done in your past, there is no one so bad that they cannot be saved and no one so good that they need not be saved!

If God is dealing with your heart this morning and you are willing to do exactly what these Ninevites did, which is turn from your wicked ways and turn to a Holy God, then you too my friend shall be spared the harsh judgment of God and shall be gloriously saved!

So we see the Repentance of the Ninevites. Now look real quickly with me at...

The Relenting of God’s Anger — (Vs. 3:10)

And God saw their works. Let me just say this morning that there is nothing that happens on this earth that God does not know about, Amen!

The Bible says in...

Proverbs 15:3 — The eyes of the Lord are in every place, Beholding the evil and the good.

But God seen that the Ninevites were serious about turning from their evil and therefore, because they repented, God allowed them to live.

Now, look with me at...

The Return of Jonah’s Anger, His Request to Die & The Lord’s Reply — (Vs. 4:1-4)

Listen, after seeing God not destroy the city of Nineveh, Jonah gets all up in arms.

He wasn’t a little upset he was “very” angry the Bible says because things didn’t go his way!

Jonah becomes the epitome of a pity party!

Look what he says to God here in Verses 2-3.

Jonah says to God, “God this is the reason I didn’t want to come here!”

And then he says something very impactful and I believe he said it without even thinking about what he was saying!

How many of you have ever done that?

Said something you didn’t mean to say and afterwards were like... “yep, shouldn’t have said that!”

He says, “The reason I didn’t want to come and prophesy is because I know the kind of God you are; a gracious God and a merciful God, slow to anger and of great kindness. And I knew if they repented that you would forgive them and then my prophecy wouldn’t come true!”

And then he asks God to take his life and says it’s better for him to die than to live.

Now why in the world would someone who just seen at least 120,000 people get saved be so angry and ask for death instead of life?

This is where we finally get to one of the hearts of the problem!

Warren Wiersbe — The heart of every problem is the problem in the heart, and that's where Jonah's problems were to be found.

Why is it better for Jonah to die than to live?

Well you see, in Jonah’s day, a prophet was only as good as his word and if what the man prophesied didn’t come true he was considered to be a false prophet.

The Bible actually speaks of this in...

Deuteronomy 18:20–22 — 20 But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die. 21 And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? 22 When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.

You see, Jonah was afraid that when he got back home people would look upon him as a false prophet now. And so in his eyes he was now worthless and it was better for him to die than to live!

But I want to stop right here and say, Jonah was looking at this whole thing all wrong!

If he’d of only looked at it this way he might have been able to leave rejoicing and super excited for what had just taken place!

How about looking at it from the point of view that you delivered the message that was delivered to you by God and because of that message, hundreds of thousands of people came to know the Lord!

He was worried about his image when he should have been worried about carrying out God’s will and here’s why...

If God commissions you to do something friend, He will enable you and equip you and carry you through the task at hand!

The grace of God will never lead you where the grace of God cannot keep you and protect you!

Instead of his image being marred and tainted, the reality is, if he’d of looked at it from God’s view and not his view it would have been exalted for ages to come!

And the reality is, this minor prophet who threw a temper tantrum is still being talked about today so little did he know but his actions would have an impact on generations to come!

But we see the return of Jonah’s anger and his request to die, now, let’s finish this thing out by looking at...

The Reprimanding of Jonah — (Vs. 4:5-11)

God says to Jonah in Verse 4, “what reason do you have to be angry? I don’t get it! Why are you not stupendously excited at the fact that an entire city repented at your preaching of my word? “

Then Jonah, still throwing his little pity party, goes out on the east side of the city and made him a little hut if you will for some shade to sit under while he waited to see what might happen to the city.

A couple things here really quickly.

This goes to show that his heart towards the people of Nineveh still hadn’t changed. He is waiting, hoping, desiring that God would pour out his wrath on his enemies!

That way he could return home with no worry of being called a false prophet and also his enemy would be destroyed!

He went out the east side of the city. Now, it would only make sense, when you look at a map, that Jonah entered on the west side. And now he’s leaving out the east side.

J Vernon Mcgee said, “The east side of the city was up in the hill country, up at an elevation. Jonah got himself a good spot where he could look out over the city.”

Jonah wanted to make sure that if God did pass judgement on the Ninevites that he had a front row seat. Kind of sad when you really get to thinking about it.

But something else struck me as I was thinking about him leaving the east side.

He was only a days journey in when he began preaching right?

So, if he entered from the west and left out the east that means he had a two day journey just to get the rest of the way through the city.

Now, I want you to think about all the lost souls he passed in those two days as he made his way out of the city.

One after another, after another. Men, Women, Boys and Girls, lost and undone in their sins, and yet this man’s heart doesn’t seemed to be burdened one bit.

Made me think about the world we live in today. Day after day after day we waltz right by people without telling them the good news of Jesus Christ!

I wonder how many people you and I have passed in our lifetimes who have died and gone to hell and the reality is, their blood is partially on our hands!

You see, we’re called to be watchmen. If a watchman sees the enemy coming and warns the people and the people don’t listen, then the blood is on their hands but if the watchman sees the enemy coming and doesn’t tell the people, then their blood is on the watchman's hand.

Church, we have a responsibility to tell the lost in this world that there is a Savior who died for their sins!

That they have a way out of the darkness and impending doom that awaits them in their lost status!

It’s our job to share the light of life with a lost and dying world and we are failing at an alarming rate!

We must do more! We must arise and go to Nineveh and share the word of God with the lost so that they might be saved!

Jesus said in...

Matthew 28:19–20 — 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

In our reading this week God asked Isaiah in...

Isaiah 6:8 — Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

This morning we need some Isaiah’s in the Church of the living God!

We need some folks to say, “Here I am Lord! Send me!”

Jonah makes his way past all the lost folks of the city and plops himself up on the eastern hillside and waits for what he hopes is God’s judgement to be poured out on the city.

Then, the Bible tells us that God prepared a gourd to come up over Jonah to help give him some relief from the heat and Jonah was happy over the gourd.

Sadly, Jonah thought more of the gourd than he did for the hundreds of thousands of lost souls in the city below!

The next day though, God prepared a worm to come and eat the gourd and it withered away and with it the relief from the hot sun beating down on Jonah’s head!

The sun began to beat down on Jonah’s head and the hot wind began to blow vehemently and Jonah all but had a heat stroke and then wished himself to die once again!

This time God replies the same way He did previously.

“Jonah, what reason do you have to be angry over this gourd?”

Jonah’s reply, “I have every reason to be angry, angry even unto death!”

You ever seen a grown man act like a big baby? If not, now you have!

God then calls Jonah out on his misplaced priorities!

“Jonah, you’re more worried about a gourd than a city full of people about to die and bust hell wide open!

Jonah, son, you got your priorities all outta whack!”

Some of the commentaries I have state that when God refers to the 120k that know not their right hand from their left, He’s referring to children.

“Jonah, there’s 120k children down there, who have never heard of me and those children need to be saved but here you are, pouting like a little child over a gourd!

If you were down there in that city fulfilling the command I gave you in the beginning, chances are someone might have taken you in and give you some rest from this hot sun!

But no, you want to come out here and have nothing to do with them! Well guess what, I’m going to give you a little taste of what every person that dies and goes to hell feels!”

The Book of Jonah ends with God putting Jonah in his place and although we have been pretty rough on Jonah over the last two weeks, the reality is, most commentators agree that Jonah actually wrote the Book of Jonah.

Do you know what that tells me?

I believe that last sentence from God hit Jonah like a jolt of lightening.

I believe it opened his eyes and shook him to his core.

I believe Jonah learned his lesson and went back home and wrote the events of his life so that all who might read it throughout the ages wouldn’t make the same mistake he made!

I believe Jonah left his story behind, and all the ugly that goes with it so that thousands of years later we could read it and understand the kind of attitude we need to have toward the lost!

The Reality of the World We’re Living in Today

This morning, there is a lot we can take from this message but there are two overarching themes that I want to leave you with.

If God is speaking to your heart this morning or last week, you have been given a second chance to get things right with God.

During the invitation here in a moment, if you’re lost and need to be saved, come and ask God to save you and He will do so and if you’re saved but God is dealing with you about something, then you need to come and take care of that thing!

And the second thing I pray you leave here with this morning is a newfound compassion for the lost around you!

Think of someone in your life that you know is lost and in need of being saved and ask God to open a door for you to share the gospel of His dear Son with them!

Let us pray.