Jonah chapter number 4. I'd like to read the whole chapter. We'll be focusing on verse 5 through to verse number 11. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the LORD and said, "O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live." And the LORD said, "Do you do well to be angry?" 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. 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. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. 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." 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." 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. 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?" Father, we come to You, and we ask that You would give us a heart like Yours. A heart of pity and mercy for the world around us. Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove, with all Your quickening powers, kindle the flame of sacred love in these cold hearts of ours. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. In chapter 4 so far, we have seen Jonah's struggle with God's sovereign mercy. God's mercy in saving the Ninevites is way too radical for Jonah, and it causes him to be angry because God keeps breaking his box. And in this passage, we see how God as a loving and merciful God seeks to teach or attempt to teach His servant and prophet, Jonah. You see, Jonah's heart is still set on the destruction of Nineveh. God has forgiven the Ninevites, and Jonah still waits to see if judgment will fall. The passage tells us in verse number five that he went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. Why is Jonah making a little tent outside of the city with a good look at the city of Ninevites? It is not because he loved the architecture of the city and thought that the walls were a pretty good sight to the eye. No. He is seeing what will become of the city. What Jonah is still desirous for is the destruction of the city of Nineveh. Perhaps he thinks that his complaint to God would cause God to relent again. You know, if God's just wishy-washy with His mercy and He just wants to forgive these Ninevites who have committed wickedness for so long, maybe me as a prophet and I'm one of the Israelites, I'll just complain about how God does things in the world and maybe God will relent and repent again. Or perhaps he was thinking, "You know what? God doesn't really know what He's doing. These Ninevites, if He really knew what they were like, give them a week, and they'll be back in the same condition that they were. They haven't really repented." And so Jonah sets a booth. We don't know exactly the reason, but we know that he desires the destruction of the Ninevites, and he feels that at least by looking at the city and watching it, he will have his wishes fulfilled. But all the while, while Jonah is sitting waiting for the destruction of these people whom God had just saved, God is calling to Jonah. And this passage essentially is God's call to Jonah to have a heart like His. A call to Jonah to feel as God feels about the lost. God is calling to Jonah as the shepherd called to his friend saying, "Rejoice with me. I have found my sheep that was lost." God is calling to Jonah like the woman who called to her neighbors and friends when she found her lost coin and said, "Rejoice with me. I have found the coin which I had lost." God is calling to Jonah as God called to the elder brother of the prodigal son, saying to him, "Rejoice with me. The son who was lost has now been found. Bring the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and celebrate, for this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and he is now found." But Jonah isn't listening to God. And so God sets out to teach Jonah, this pouting prophet of His, a lesson in mercy. And God uses a series of object lessons in this passage that you can discern by the word "appoint." And it should throw you back to chapter 1 verse 17 when God used an object lesson to teach Jonah about His own mercy, God's mercy, when God appointed a great fish that swallowed up Jonah to save Jonah from destruction, showing how merciful God was to a wayward prophet. And that word doesn't reappear in the entire book until here, another three times. What God is saying is, "Listen." Well, what God is saying to us as the readers is, "Listen up. When you see these words, 'appointed,' I am purposely seeking to display my mercy and to teach Jonah a lesson." And so God appoints a great fish, but in this passage, he appoints three things: a plant, a worm, and a scorching east wind. God appoints a plant for Jonah's appointed comfort. The Bible tells us here that Jonah set up a booth and he goes to watch the destruction of the city, and God is so merciful that God gives Jonah a plant to grow up in a night that would shade his little booth so that that little booth would become the most comfortable place that Jonah has probably slept in in however long now he's been on the road. But then God appoints a worm, a worm in verse number seven to eat up the plant, or if we could say, to take away Jonah's comfort so that Jonah can sense a loss of comfort. And then God appoints a scorching east wind to to come Jonah's way, and with the sun is beating on his head and the hot wind is pounding upon his body, and there is no shelter and there is no shade because the plant has been eaten up, Jonah is feeling an affliction. An affliction that causes him to go mad. Now, these appointments that God purposed in Jonah's life at this specific time in his life were lessons from God that triggered a response in Jonah that God was about to deal with. And the first response that we've seen in the life of Jonah and his reaction here is that we find immediately that Jonah's emotional life is rooted in his circumstances. Notice the worldliness of the scene. What I mean by that? Notice the earthliness of the scene. This man, does he have any conception of the world that is to come? He's so earthly in his mind. And what I mean by that is that that that he goes from being angry and watching and wanting the judgment upon the Ninevites in the city to then being exceedingly glad. Why is he exceedingly glad? Because now he's comfortable. God appoints a plant for his comfort. And what makes Jonah most happy is his own personal comfort. So Jonah sits there exceedingly glad. He goes from mad to glad because of a plant. And then his circumstances change because God orders them to change in such a way that God brings a worm to eat this plant and sends a scorching east wind so Jonah can feel discomfort. And you can guess what happens to Jonah. Angry as can be. Why? Because Jonah is no longer comfortable. That's why Jonah's angry. His emotional life is rooted in his circumstances. His gladness and sadness is directly tied to his comfort or his discomfort. Jonah does not live above the world. Jonah does not live in such a way that his eyes go beyond his comforts and discomforts. Jonah's satisfaction is in his comforts and his dissatisfaction is in his discomforts. And had his satisfaction been in God, he would know how to rejoice in discomfort and also to keep his mind stayed on God in the changing seasons of his life. But the testing appointments of God reveal that Jonah is a man whose emotional life is rooted in his circumstances. And secondly, and attached to this also, is that Jonah's mind is a carnal mind. You say, "But isn't he talking to God?" Look, he's praying. He's praying to God because he wants to be relieved, or he's praying to God because he wants to complain. That's why he's praying to God. He's got a carnal mind because his spiritual discernment, we see in this passage, is absent. We don't see Jonah somberly reflecting upon his condition. We don't see Jonah, you know, being teachable. We don't see that the comfort met with loss leads Jonah to ask the question, "What are You trying to teach me here, Lord?" No. All Jonah sees is plants, worms, and scorching east winds. And blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. And we see that Jonah's idolatrous heart is impure at this point because he cannot see God in the scorching east wind, in the plant, and in the worm that eats the plant. All Jonah sees is himself and his comforts and his discomforts. And for this he lives, and for this he wishes to die if it is not sustained. His comforts aren't sustained. And so God draws him out a little further. I just love how God does this, you know? It's amazing. Just to make sure we understand what's going on here. Verse number 9, "Do you do well to be angry for the plant?" Showing the futility of Jonah's position. This is the second time God says, "Do you do well to be angry?" But the first time he says it generally because Jonah's angry with the way that God exercises His mercy. But now God draws him out even further and says, "Jonah, do you do well to be angry for the plant?" This is the futility of your position. Your issue is not merely a theological one that you don't like the way in which I manage my sovereign mercy and my grace. Your issue is a moral one. What you love most, Jonah, is yourself. That's why you don't like my sovereign mercy, and that's why you get angry for the plant. God draws him out, shows him that he is more than just misinformed, but he is foolish and he is self-centered. And as the tension of the passage builds in this discussion between Jonah and God outside of the city of Nineveh where 120,000 souls have just been converted, the tension builds and God gives His final word. And it's the punch line of the lesson. God gets the last say in the book, and by the way, God will get the last say in your life. But God's last say in the book, and I pray that it be not that way for your life, is quite abrupt and is very, very confronting. It's a final question that is here in the book that kind of slaps us in the face and basically is like saying to Jonah, "Jonah, just give up already. Stop with this folly. Stop resisting my mercy. Come on now, Jonah, come and rejoice with me." It's almost like the prodigal son, isn't it? And the father, when he entreats him and says, "Come on now, come on now, rejoice." And he says, "Oh, yeah, but this and and that and the rest." And he's like, "Come on, is it not fitting?" In the same kind of way but with a more abrupt kind of finish, the book lands this blow, and it causes us to wonder, "Whoa, what a situation this is." But it's not just confronting for Jonah, it is also confronting for us. Because as Tim Keller said, and I believe he said it right, he goes, "This last question is like the spear being hurled at Jonah, and Jonah is getting out of the way, and it's coming right at us." That's how it feels. When you read this book, that that that tension that is not resolved at the end is God saying, "You're just like Jonah. Watch yourself, Israelites. Watch yourself, children of God. Watch yourself, those who are like that know Me and have tasted of My mercy and My grace, watch yourselves." The spear comes for Jonah, but it also lands at us. And what does God say? What are His final words in this book? Well, let's read them together. Look what it says in verse number 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, 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 is like a mic drop scene. It's like the curtains are closing. It's over. Let's go home. Let's pronounce the benediction. God has spoken and He's spoken in such a way that has made a point that strikes the heart of Jonah and strikes every heart here that hears the word of God. Jonah, you think you've got mercy right? You weep for a plant? You get angry for plants? And you don't care for people? More than this, the plant that you're even angry about, you didn't even labor to make. And more than that, it just came up in a night and perished in a night. What's your big deal? Have you been holding on to it for 100 years? Jonah, what's the matter with you? It came to you graciously, it's gone from you because I decided for it to go from you. And what's it to you, Jonah? Do you do well to be angry for a plant? And God says, "And should I not then weep over the city? Should I not then have mercy on the city? Should I not then pity these people who are much more valuable than plants that I created with my own hands, that I've sustained into this very hour, that I have in mercy saved, whom I sent my Son to die and purchase with His own blood, should I not have mercy upon them? Jonah, what's wrong with you?" This is a great city. 120,000 people, spiritually ignorant and in darkness, eternal perishing souls who I created, should I not have mercy on them? And Jonah's Jonah's logic fails on so many levels. So many levels because God says, "Okay, Jonah, what about the cattle? If you don't like the people, at least see that cattle are more important than plants." Always wonder why did God say in there, you know, spare the cattle? It's almost like He's saying to Jonah, "This is folly. Absolute folly. Your own logic fails at this point. You love plants. You don't love cattle, which are more important than plants, and you don't love people, which are more important than plants and cattle." Why, Jonah, why are you like this? Because you're so blind. You're so caught up in yourself, Jonah. You're so self-centered. It's because you love yourself finally and ultimately. Jonah is blind because he sees 120,000 people that deserve to perish. And you'll say, "Of course, they deserve to perish." We all deserve to perish. Exactly. That's the part that should follow. We all deserve to perish. What Jonah should have seen is that there wasn't 120,000 people that deserved to perish in that city. There was 120,001 people in that city that deserved to perish because as he was preaching that message of salvation, he also should have felt the weight of his own sin and the guilt of his own transgression against God and realized that I should stay here and should perish with them when the 40 days are up because I am no different to them. But Jonah's blind to that. He doesn't see the depths of his own sin. And more than this, if Jonah really just thought back to moments ago or, you know, weeks ago or whatever it was, however long it was before he got to the city, Jonah would realize that at least these people responded to the word of God when it was first proclaimed. But God spoke to me the first time and I ran away. And now the second time, I'm a grouchy old prophet that's not getting my way, and I'm still not happy with the mercy of God. Does he not feel that? Does he not sense that? You see the blindness of people that are filled with themselves, the blindness of our own heart, isn't it? That we're masters of wanting judgment to fall upon others and not ourselves. We're inconsistent. Jonah is absolutely inconsistent at this point. He's utterly blind. And the truth is, brothers and sisters, until we number ourselves among those who deserve to perish, we will never be able to rejoice in God's mercy. And until we number ourselves with those that deserve to perish, we will never have a heart like God's heart that cares for those who are perishing. Jonah's misplaced pity, because he does have pity, but just for the wrong things, his misplaced pity is due to his self-centeredness and his love for his own comfort. And it is true also of us that we pity plants more than people. And you say, "How so?" Well, look at the way that you react to your loss of comfort. The plants of money, the plants of houses and cars and the plants of a better name, the plants of business and power, the plants of position. And oh, how we are willing to die for our comforts just like Jonah, that when those things are gone, we say, "Oh, that I wish I would die." The plants of our dreams not coming to fruition, the things for which we long, the things that are on this earth that are perishing that will one day cease to exist. Oh, how we weep for them. Oh, how we cry for them. Oh, how we get angry over the fact that they are there in one moment and gone in the next. And we lose sleep over things. We don't lose sleep much over people. We rejoice in things but not in God's grace in the lives of others. We build and invest in things, not in people. And things become the end for our existence rather than the means for which we are to accomplish the ends of the glory of God. These are our plants for which we get angry when we lose them. And no wonder why we struggle with mercy. We struggle with God's mercy because our priorities are wrong. And therefore, we step on people to get what we want. Therefore, we destroy our relationships in order to maintain our status and our power and our glory and our name. We are willing to do anything to protect the comfort of our own security. And how it is the same in many marriages, where the husband would live for his own comfort to the extent that he would would cause his wife to to suffer or the wife would live for her own comfort to the point that she would neglect the other. How is it also then with our children that we pursue things in this life but not their good? We work hard and labor and stress so that they can be comfortable, but are we concerned about their comfort or their them being spiritual? How it is that we step on others and hurt others, and we do not care a moment for it because we prioritize the things that matter to us most, which are plants and not people. And we squander gospel opportunities. We let the gospel fall by the wayside because we're so enamored with the things in this life that we do not see people that are selling us those things, right? That we are making contact with when we talk to them about things. We're so full of wanting our things that we do not see people that are hurting and perishing. And so God sends us, as He sends Jonah, worms and scorching east winds. And they are to be for us lessons in mercy, to teach us the true value of things, to wean us from this world, to help us realize that the things that matter most is not our materialism, but the glory of God and the salvation of souls. And we need to recognize this and understand this and come to grips with this, that God sends trouble into our lives, God sends comfort into our lives, but many a times, God sends the worms and the scorching east winds to help us see the futility of the things of which we hold on to so dearly. To help us realize like that rich fool that the abundance of this life or the things the the satisfaction of this life doesn't come from the abundance of the things that we possess. God wants us to see the true value of things, and God sends trials and God sends troubles into our life, but we are all too much like Jonah. And our emotional life is so latched on to the things of this life and our circumstances that when the when the lessons come and when the trials come, we're just like Jonah. Deeply dependent on our circumstances, on our comforts that we get angry and frustrated and we and we we're just we're just stressed and frantic, and we don't stop there with sober reflection and say, "Hey God, what are you trying to teach me about this situation?" "Like, why is my life like this and such and such is like that?" No, no. Why are you doing this in my life, God? What are you trying to show me? What are you trying to tell me? By my broken relationship? What are you trying to tell me through my sickness? What are you trying to tell me through my heartache? What are you trying to tell me, God? What are you trying to teach me? Are you trying to teach me that the thing that really matter in this life is my relationship to You? Yes, that's what He's trying to teach us. He's trying to teach us that this life is fleeting and failing, and we should not anchor our souls upon the possessions that we have in this life, but should we cast our anchor toward heaven and long for the day that we see Him. God is trying to teach us spiritual discernment, to awaken our consciousness, to ask those questions, "What are you trying to say to me, Lord," rather than to pout with anger and say that I wish that I would die. God's trying to teach us a heart of mercy. God's trying to show us and help us to comprehend and to understand that people are more important than plants. Trying to help us recognize and understand that that that making that money at the expense of time with your children and the time with your spouse is not where life is at. He's trying to help us understand that your labor is not in vain in the Lord when you spend hours on end trying to tell a sinner where they can find mercy and grace in Christ. He is trying to teach us that the things of this life will grow strangely dim as we look on Him and His mercy and trust in Him. He's trying to wean us from self-centeredness whereby we always act for our own glory and for our own good, not recognizing that what true goodness looks like includes trials because God is trying to form Christlikeness in us. And God is trying to show Jonah and teach Jonah, "Jonah, come on and rejoice with me. Have a heart of mercy like mine. Care more for people than you do for plants, Jonah. Care more for souls than your own comfort, Jonah." And may the Lord give us a heart of mercy like His. And I said, this is the final scene. The whole final scene and statement calls us to have a heart like God's. It's a call to have a heart that beats like God's. That takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. A heart that yearns and longs that those that are perishing will be converted and turned to him. A heart that that causes His hands to be stretched out both day and night saying, "Come to me and find mercy. Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." A heart that gives in order to save. Gives His own Son, gives His own life, gives all the the the blessings that we have in this life in order to cause us to look to Him and trust Him. A call to lean upon God. God rejoices in mercy. God rejoices in saving grace. God rejoices in displaying the fact that he takes a person in the pig pen who has walked away from God and not loved God and have come back to the house. God puts a party on for people like that. God rejoices in the salvation of souls. God longs for you to come with him today in your wickedness, in your vileness, in your sins, saying, "Jesus, I come to you, cleanse me, wash me with your blood." He longs that you will come now. He pleads with you, "Come, believe, come. Let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins be as scarlet, I'll wash them clean. Come on. Do business with me. Settle that account. The blood of Jesus stands ready to forgive for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." And His mercy calls us and His mercy compels us, and His mercy tells you, "Look up, Jonah, and see that there is one outside the city that doesn't look at the city's destruction, but looks with that with mercy and calls you to come to him and rejoice with him in that mercy." May God help us look up and see that the Lord is merciful and mighty. That the Lord will not cast off forever, for though He cause grief, He will have compassion according to the abundance of His steadfast love. For He does not afflict from His heart or grieve the children of men. You say, "Well, why is there affliction in my life?" Well, yes, appointed by God. But listen to this. Understand it. He does not grieve from His heart. He's not afflicted from His heart or grieve the children of men from His heart. Do you see that? Do you see the importance of that? When trials come your way, it is God not trying to destroy your life, it is God trying to save your life. When the plant perish that came up in a day and ceased in a night, you know what God's doing? He's saving Jonah. He is saving Jonah from his self-centeredness. He is saving Jonah from his own destruction. He is saving Jonah from having a heart that is so callous and hard that will not see God. What is God doing? He's awakening Jonah. He's saving Jonah through the discomfort. But when you're so self-centered and don't see that, you're saying, "God, you're trying to destroy me." All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. No, He's trying to save you. He's trying to save you. May God help us to look up like Jonah and to see the heart of Christ. You know there were two men that walked out of the city of Nineveh. Jonah walked out of the city of Nineveh, he set on the mountain top to look at the city awaiting its destruction. But you know Jesus our Lord walked out of the city. The city of Nineveh, the city of pagan Jerusalem that had turned against the Lord, that persecuted the prophets. And He went out of the city and what did He do? He died outside the city. He went to an old rugged cross, and there He stood not to look upon the destruction of a people that deserved hell and deserved destruction and deserved the wrath of God. Rather, He went there and hung there for their forgiveness and for their mercy, and He cried, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." He went outside of the city to save. He went outside of the city to call sinners to repentance. He went outside of the city to deliver from those who would believe on His name from the wrath and the wrath of God. He went outside of the city not because He hated souls, but that He cared for souls. He wept over that city saying, "Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killeth the prophets and stonest them. I would have you would have gathered you like a chicken gathers her hands and I would, but you would not." There is the heart of God in the salvation of the Ninevites, and here is the heart of Christ in the salvation of sinners, saying to us, "Come." And it is this heart that should compel us to come. It should compel us who know not Christ who need that mercy to come, to say, "Jesus, now I come." Like the prodigal son, "I will arise and go to my Father's house." Why? Because there at the Father's house is mercy. There at the Father's house is grace. There at the Father's house is forgiveness. There at the Father's house is fellowship. There at the Father's house is a robe and a ring and sandals. There at the Father's house is restoration. "But I've wasted all my father's goods." Yes, you may have wasted all your father's goods, but Jesus paid it all. And His blood cleanses us from all sin. You name the sin that you've committed against God, and I'll tell you that His mercy is greater than your sin. You bring it up to him and say, "God, but what have I done? How can you forgive a person like me?" And God will say, "Look at the blood that was shed for your redemption and don't ask me a question like that. Look at the city of Nineveh, 120,000 people that were more corrupt than any people of that day. Violent, wicked abusers of mankind. Every debauchery and sin was was was coming as it were out of the soil of that city. It was corrupt as through and through. But God still delighted to save them. Will He not save you?" Won't you trust that His mercy is more than your sin? Will you not come now and believe on Him? Come to the Father's house. What must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. You know, it's not that complicated. The problem is our self-centeredness like Jonah. That's why we won't come. But it's not complicated. If you now come to Him, believing on Him, calling upon Him, even now in your seat, God would deliver you and rescue you and save you by His mighty power because He's a merciful God. He doesn't want to make you jump through a thousand hoops to come to the to the kingdom of God. He opens the door wide and He says, "Come, believe, take, eat, drink, and you will be saved." But that heart also compels us to come as believers, doesn't it? It compels us to come, those who have tasted of mercy. And that heart tells us, "Come and rejoice with me." Because there's sheep that have lost that have been found. There's coins that have been lost that have been found. There's sons that have been lost that have now been found. "Come make merry with me. Is it not fitting that you and I today over sinners that repent, when we hear of the conversions of souls, is it not fitting for us to kill the fatted calf and to eat and drink and rejoice?" Should we not when we hear of the testimony of people that have come to Jesus Christ, been sitting on the edge of our seat saying, "What a merciful God this is." Not glorying in the fact that they sinned this way and I sinned that way and, "Oh, he's a better a better one than me." No, but the fact that God looked at him just as He looked at the city of Nineveh and He saved him. Mercy. Mercy should cause us to rejoice. And we should never cease to rejoice if we lay hold of mercy. Understand this. When the trials come into your life, the deeper your appreciation of God's mercy, the stronger you will be when the plants wither and the scorching east wind comes your way, because you will say, "I deserve no shelter. I deserve no plant. I deserve more than a scorching east wind. I deserve the fire of hell to breathe down and to consume me from the planet. But rather, what have I got? But God's mercy." I have His mercy. Let us pray.