The Disturbing Grace of God on Jonah and Nineveh - Beacon Sunday Service: August 10, 2025

Just rise with me for the reading of God's word. Today we're going to be looking at this our second sermon on the book of Jonah, and we're going to be looking at just the first two verses. And here's a reading of the word of the Lord. It reads, Now the word of Yahweh came to Jonah, the son of Amitai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me. Please join me in prayer. Father, we're so thankful to just gather together to bring you worship. Not just with our song, not just with just our fellowship amongst brothers and sisters in Christ, but also as we avail our hearts to respond appropriately to the proclamation of your truth. We pray for your help to understand well and to apply even better.

And there are a lot of things about you that we do not understand. And I pray that in the areas where we think we know better, I pray for a heart of humility, a posture of awe, and I pray that you would magnify your name this morning as we hear and as you feed your sheep. We thank you, Lord, for just your kindness. And we pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen. Go ahead and take your seats. You guys know uh what is meant by the acronym GOAT, right? G-O-A-T. Anyone want to shout it out? Okay, everybody knows. Um it stands for the greatest of all time, right? And if you're a football fan, Tom Brady is universally regarded as the goat. Um, if you're a basketball fan, it's a little bit up for debate, but recently there was a ranking that was done, and there's a lot of uproar because they had the late Kobe Bryant ranked number 11.

So there's even a ranking there. When we think of the goat of golf, we would think Tiger Woods. And since not all of you are sports fans, and I write I like to include everybody. You know who the goat of opera is? Well, they people say paparati, right? Um I'm not sure if you're aware that there are also lists that are floating around in cyberspace ranking the goats of evil persons. You can look it up, okay? Don't do it now, but look, you can look it up. And on that list include people like the Emperor Nero, Attila the Han, Ivan the Terrible, but if you narrow down your search to the goats of evil in the 20th century, you're gonna find lists including uh Kimir Sung, Mao Zedong, Saddam Hussein, Stalin, Lenin, King, Leopold, Cambodia's Pol Pot, and of course, the goat, everyone has number one on the list.

Who do you think it is? Adolf Hitler, okay. There are books written about the goats of evil. In 2008, a historian named Simon Sibag Montefiore wrote a book titled Monsters. And then the subtitle is History's Most Evil Men and Women. Now, what would qualify a person to get on that list? What do those people have in common? Well, if you look at their bios, they're typically redo like riddled with like horrifying accounts of barbaric torture, um, unspeakable sexual exploitations, pillaging, enslavements, massacres, even the dismembering of infants and children. Evil people lead the charge at attempting genocide. And individuals like Hitler, who reportedly had close to six million Jews killed, and Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge, who wiped out nearly a quarter of Cambodia's entire population, universally they would be called evil.

Now, what would you say the goats of evil deserve as a reward for their accomplishments? With people like this, we would want God to exact justice, to avenge and to punish. Right? Especially if you're directly involved. We would pray and we would ask God why he would not delay such people or to stop such people. We're like, God, where are you in all of this? We would want God to pour out his wrath upon such individuals. We want him to exercise justice. We want there to be a special place in hell for people like this, so that the evil people like these can get what they deserve. Now we would never articulate it in this way, but in our minds, okay, I'm gonna assume something about you guys. We would feel that there are people more deserving of the wrath of God than others.

Right? So theologically, we understand and we believe that God can forgive and save even the vilest wretch. But there is a part of us that would object to God extending favor and kindness to rapists, murderers, tyrants, and evil dictators. If an evil person, like a truly evil person were to spend a lifetime harming other people, and then on his deathbed, he hears the gospel and then responds in faith and repentance, and he gets saved. Would you celebrate? Luke 15, verse 7 and verse 10 tells us that there is more rejoicing in heaven over one soul that comes to repentance. The angels burst forth into joyful praise, but would the angels celebrate the repentance of someone responsible for genocide?

Hypothetically. Would there not be a part of you that feels a little bit disturbed and troubled? Would there not be some kind of objection to such a display of kindness and mercy? People like Hitler don't deserve God's grace. That's a funny statement if you think about it. So here's an important theological question that's going to drive our study of Jonah and Nahum. Is there a people more deserving of salvation than others? Infants, aborted babies. Is there a people deserving more of God's wrath than others? The Hitlers. Now, theologically, what would you say? No. We would all agree, right? Theologically. Romans 3 literally says that there is no distinction.

And you guys know verse 23, right? But Romans 3 says there's no distinction. The grace of God levels the playing field. The justice of God would damn everybody from John the Baptist, who is the greatest human being born through a woman, all the way to Adolf Hitler. Because all have sinned, all for the all fall short of the glory of God. Every single person who has been saved, who will be saved, who is saved, is justified only and completely as a gift by God's grace. And the truths of this great salvation, we're never gonna fully comprehend or understand. Many of our theological dots won't connect in certain places in our finite minds. So the truths of God's great salvation will violate our pride, our sense of justice, and will disturb and jar our emotional understanding of righteousness.

Right? Perhaps to even where God's kindness being extended to some kinds of people would feel like an injustice and a great evil. Jonah was deeply disturbed by the elements of the greatness of God's salvation. The fact that God would extend grace to the rapists, to the torturers, to the murderers of Assyria, deeply angered the prophet Jonah. And Jonah's anger runs passionately through chapter four of the book. Three of the 11 verses in chapter 4 highlight ticked off Jonah. Jonah is livid. He says he's angry enough to die twice. He's so angry that it's almost funny when you read it. And why is the prophet Jonah so angry? And I'm gonna have us look at this together. Jonah 3:10. Then God saw their works that they, the Ninevites, turned from their evil way.

So God relented concerning the evil which he had spoken he would bring upon them, and he did not bring it upon them. And this was a great evil to Jonah, and he became angry, and he prayed to Yahweh and said, Ah, oh Yahweh, was this not my word to myself while I was still in my own land? Therefore I went to flee to Tarshish. For I knew that you're a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant and loving kindness, and one who relents concerning calamity and evil. That's a very funny scene. Why is he mad? Because God is nice. If you take a cursory glance, this passage is gonna make you smile and chuckle. And some of you chuckled. But Jonah is so angry because God is gracious and compassionate.

Jonah is PO'd because God doesn't anger fast enough. And so we chuckle at this, but when we reflect on the paradox that a holy, holy, holy God who hates sin with a perfect hatred, can be kind and compassionate and generous toward even the wickedest of sinners. There's gonna be some confusion in your heads if you don't take it for granted. You will be profoundly disturbed in the best of ways.

How strange the sound. Welcome to our sermon series through Jonah. You're gonna feel theologically and spiritually constipated through the next two books. Amen. Praise God. Alright. So today the text is introducing us to three main characters in the book of Jonah. They're all mentioned in the opening verses. Yahweh God, Jonah, and Nineveh, or more specifically, its people, the Assyrians. So for today's introductory sermon, I'm gonna just introduce to you the three main characters in the book. Here, let me read this again. For us, now the word of Yahweh came to Jonah, the son of Amatai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.

So the main character of the book of Jonah is not Jonah, it's Yahweh God. Okay? And Yahweh is the covenant name of God. It's the personal name of God. And Yahweh appears 21 times in this short book. And that's a lot, considering that the book is only 48 verses long. So almost every other verse of the book makes a mention of Yahweh. So in chapter one, where we're gonna be for a few weeks, Yahweh is mentioned 12 times in just that chapter alone. And that's not unimportant. He's called Yahweh by the terrified pagan idol worshipping sailors. The sailors pray to Yahweh, it says in the text. The sailors offer a sacrifice to Yahweh. They make vows to Yahweh, almost like they're saved. Okay? So we'll get into that in a few weeks.

So Yahweh, God is the main character of the book. Okay. And concerning Yahweh, there are four things that are especially emphasized in the book of Jonah. So first, it's his omnipotence. Second, it's Yahweh's omnipresence. Third, his hatred of sin. And then fourth, his compassion toward that same sinner who sins. So first, the book of Jonah tells us that God is omnipotent. So God is sovereign, he is all powerful. God is omnipotent. He can do all things. He is the source of all things. He has created all things. So as found in Jonah's profession, Yahweh was the verse 9, God of heaven, who made the sea in the dry land. So and as the creator of all things, Yahweh God has power over all things, even the calamities that can injure and harm and destroy man.

Okay? So he controls and ordains all things. And God's omnipotence is made very clear in the book of Jonah. Yahweh hurled a great wind. You guys see that? And I'm just, those are just word for word, alright. Yahweh appointed a great fish. Yahweh answered, Yahweh listened, Yahweh cast out of his presence. Yahweh commanded, Yahweh relented, Yahweh appointed a plant, he appointed a worm, and then Yahweh appointed a scorching east wind. And it doesn't say he appointed, but he also made the sun to blaze on Jonah's pale bald head. Okay? So hopefully it's obvious from just the wording, Yahweh is in full control. And as an important aside, there are parallels, a plenty in the ministry of Jesus. Jesus was fully man, but he was also who?

He was fully God. He demonstrated power reminiscent of the story of Jonah. He commanded the wind. He calmed the seas. He stilled the storm. Did he appoint a fish to spit something out? Yes, a coin. He cursed the plant. He literally turned off the sun at his death. So in the book of Jonah, we are told of the omnipotence of God. Okay. In the book of Jonah, we're also reminded that God is omnipresent. He is everywhere at all times. So there is no place where there is no presence of Yahweh. There is no place where God is not. So unfortunately for Jonah, what does he try to do? He tries to flee from the presence of Yahweh. And then he realizes that he cannot. Why? Because God is? What's the word?

Omnipresent. Okay? So this is a key truth that manifests itself throughout the entire story. And it's just like King David saying in Psalm 139, where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there. So there is no place where man can hide. And Job says the same thing. Yahweh is present at the port of Joppa. Yahweh is present on the ship. He is present on the sea. He is present in the belly of the fish in the ocean. Yahweh, the creator of the sea and in the dry land, he is present at the sea and the dry land. Yahweh would have been present at Tarshish had Jonah reached Tarshish safely. Yahweh is physically present in Nineveh, and he's intimately involved in the lives of all people.

The good, the bad, and the ugly.

And he is omnipresent, and therefore he is also omniscient. So hopefully you're tracking, right? Third, Yahweh has a perfect wrathful hatred towards sin. And this is going to be made more evident in the book of Nahum. Book of Nahum, every week we're going to feel depressed. He hates sin so much. But right now we're in Jonah. So we're in a time of grace. Okay. Though Yahweh's grace and compassion are highlighted in the book of Jonah, we know that because God's character doesn't change, he is just as passionately hateful toward their sins. So in Jonah chapter 1, verse 2, God sees their evil, and he is against their evil. Do you see it in the wording? He is against their evil. And it's implied that he cannot tolerate their evil.

So the wages of their evil is what? Death. They will be overthrown. And that's the primary message. Jonah doesn't waste words in chapter three. That's his primary message. And the word for overthrown is the Hebrew word for upended. Destroyed to smithereens. Okay? Overthrown. God cannot tolerate sin. Yahweh God hates sin and he hates it perfectly and righteously. Therefore, here's a jarring theological truth. God hates the sinner, every sinner, because God hates sin. There should be some tension rising in your hearts. Well, but the theological conclusion of the scriptures is he hates sin, therefore he hates the sinner. And we talked about this on Easter Sunday. God's hatred toward sin is a perfect absolute hatred.

It's a righteous and an indignant and a justifiable hatred. God hates sin. God hates the sinner. God's hatred toward the sinner is also a perfect and absolute hatred. And God's hatred toward the sinner is righteous and indignant and unbridled in rage and wrath. Now, there's an objection in your heart and in your head, because you have heard the phrase commonly and oft spoken. God hates sin but what? He loves a sinner. That is not a biblically accurate sinner. It's actually a little misleading. The Bible teaches us clearly that God hates the sinner, but he loves the saint. So the miracle of miracles is he makes the sinner a saint. Okay? That's a different sermon. But he hates the sinner. He absolutely hates the sinner.

Notice in the following verses, God's hatred, not just toward the sin, but also the sinner. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes. You hate some workers of iniquity. All you destroy those who speak falsehood. Yahweh abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit. And you know, in other parts of scripture, it says we're all liars. Bad news. Psalm 11, 5, Yahweh tests the righteous, but the wicked and the one who loves violence, his soul hates. These are two categories of two different kinds of people. God hates the sinner. Now here's the mystery of mysteries, the paradoxes, the paradox of all paradoxes. The God who is holy, holy, holy, and is the God of wrath, is at the same time equally what?

The God of love. We theologically constipated yet. Right? The God who has a perfect hatred of sin has a perfect compassion toward the sinner. So there's tension there. And those are two dots that cannot be logically connected. The reason we teach both truths is because they're both written in the scriptures, but humanly we cannot understand this juxtaposition. Make sense? It does not. Okay? We can't understand this juxtaposition the position. We cannot articulate or explain it away without immediately feeling stunned. God hates sinned, God is love. And this theological juxtaposition causes Jonah the prophet unbearable discomfort and displeasure and an anger that causes him to desire death itself.

So we see God's compassion riddled throughout the book of Jonah, and there's a rhetorical question at the book of Jonah at the very end. This is how it closes.

In which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know. They're sinful because they don't know. They don't know their right hand from their left, and as well as many animals. That's how the book of Jonah ends. So the main character in the book of Jonah is who? Yahweh. And we see highlighted in the book of Jonah, his omnipotence, his omnipresence, his hatred of sin, and then his compassion toward the sinner. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so are his ways higher than our ways. So Yahweh is the first character. Second character we are introduced to in the book is Jonah the prophet. The opening verse of the book tells us that he is a son of Amitai. And he gets a bad rap because he's so reluctant to preach the gospel.

He is actually the only prophet of God, the only true prophet of God who deliberately defies the commandment of God. You won't find another one. Okay. I've actually had long discussions with a very good friend, an elder at my previous church. And there were times 20 years ago when we wandered together and we're searching through what is Jonah in heaven? That's how like disturbed we were, right? Maybe he's like Balaam the false prophet, who is clearly in hell if you look at Jude and 2 Peter. The text that presumably Jonah wrote about himself makes him look that bad. But Jonah is a prophet of God, and as we go through the book, hopefully we'll grow to understand Jonah, to appreciate him, and also to see how easy it is to relate to him.

Okay, so take it easy on the guy. Alright. Jonah's name means dove. The dove in the Old Testament was a symbol of two things. Either peace, or so much peace, there's like a naivete, right? It's like foolish. So that was a dove. Pure white. And the funny thing is, God is also omnifundy. He's omnipresent, he's on the omniphonny. He makes Jonah live up to both of his meanings of his names. So the naming of your child is important. So Alex and Mary choose wisely. Alright. Jonah was from an area called Gath Heffer, which was less than two miles from Nazareth. Some people would actually consider Gath Hefer and Nazareth to be one and the same. So it's kind of like saying Inglewood in Los Angeles, right?

It's Inglewood is LA. Or Carson, it's LA. Hollywood is LA, right? So it's kind of like saying that. So perhaps even the disciple Nathaniel and the general population of Jews, as this story was told over time, perhaps they had Jonah in mind when they said, Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Look at this guy. Right. The only other information of Jonah the prophet that we have is from 2 Kings 14, 25. And you'll realize this guy's a powerful man. He restored, and this is the king, the border of Israel from Lebo Hamath, as far as a sea of the Arabah, which is Arabah means barren, fertile dead. Okay, so it's a dead sea. According to the word of Yahweh, the God of Israel, which he spoke through his servant Jonah, the son of Amitai, the prophet, who was of Gath Hefer.

So all of this took place during the divided kingdom period, where there's a civil war between the north and the south. Okay, so Israel's in the north, Judah's in the south, and the chosen line was actually in the south. The northern kingdom of Israel, though they were still the people of God, they were a rebellious nation. They had zero righteous kings. But for some reason, during the reign of Jeroboam II, the northern kingdom enjoyed financial prosperity, political stability that it had never known before. So this time period was known as the golden age of Israel. It's concurrent to like Uzziah's reign in the South. But this period, Jeroboam II, is the golden age of Israel. And prior to Jeroboam becoming the king, Assyria had previously subjugated Israel, regularly threatened Israel, and they required a lot of tribute.

So that all changed when Jeroboam II came onto the scene. And look who is serving as a spiritual advisor to King Jeroboam at the height of the northern kingdom's prosperity, success, and peace. Look who has helped Jeroboam fend off and keep the Assyrians at bay. Who is that? The prophet Jonah, the son of Amitai. It makes you wonder how much credit can you legitimately give to Jonah, the prophet, for helping the nation thrive. Now, verse 24 actually says, Jeroboam the king was evil in the sight of Yahweh. But nonetheless, the prophet Jonah was God's servant and a symbol of God's covenant grace and promise, despite the king being evil. Okay. So what do we learn from the life of Jonah? Even someone who has served as a mouthpiece of God, someone who is being used by God powerfully to even bring prosperity to a nation, he can have a posture or an attitude that does not properly reflect the nature of God.

It is easy for us to forget that we are not any more deserving of the kindness and the blessings of God than the Ninevites that are in our lives today. If you actually sit and think carefully, there are people that you in your minds deserve hell. You're no better. Before we start disparaging the prophet Jonah further in our hearts, let me share with you how bad the Assyrians were. Okay. Then you would understand. Again, Nineveh is a capital of the Assyrian kingdom. Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me. And I want to give you a map. Hopefully you can see it. I'm going to give you a moment to locate Israel and Nineveh with your eyes.

Okay, do you see it? Do you see Israel? Do you see Nineveh? I know it's kind of small. Some of you are squinting. I did it on purpose, so you motivate you in the future to come toward the front. Okay. The base of the red arrow is Israel. God calls Jonah to go northeast to Nineveh. You guys see that? Nineveh is northeast of Israel, but Jonah decides to go the opposite way, and he's trying to go west all the way to Spain, Tarshish. That's the farthest place that he could go to from God's presence. Nineveh is located on the east bank of the Tigris River, which is modern day Iraq. And that was a capital of the Assyrian Empire. Nineveh is situated 370 miles from the Mediterranean Sea. Can you kind of eyeball that?

And that's going to be of great interest later when we think of Jonah being vomited onto dry land. Did the Ninevites perhaps see a giant 80-foot fish slash whale going through a saltwater creature coming down the river and then vomiting a human being partially digested onto the land? Makes you wonder why this guy has no problem walking into the most fierce city among the most fierce empire in the world untouched as he's preaching doom and gloom. We're gonna get to that. Nineveh was a huge metropolitan city. Jonah 3:3 reads, it wasn't just a great city. It was an exceedingly great city. To go across it would take how many days? Three days. Not my words. That's actually in the text.

That was walled off with a magnificent and a thick, glorious wall. This exceedingly great city was home to an exceedingly evil people. They would be on the goat list. It's kind of like the MBA players of the 40s. Nobody talks about them, right? It's all Jordan, LeBron. You don't talk about like the George Micons, and right? You don't do that because it's long been forgotten. These dudes were evil. Everyone in the Mediterranean world wanted the Assyrians to be overthrown. Everyone. Why? Because they were powerful. They were skilled in ironware and warfare, and they were cruel. The last thing you wanted for your people to be caught was to be conquered by the Assyrians. Okay, let me get you, let me walk you through what they did.

Okay, so if you're under 13 years old, cover your ears.

I didn't know we would have minors in this. But anyway. So when they conquered a nation, the Assyrians would skin their male captives alive. And then bind them and then put them on stakes as their wives, the women and the children watched. After that was done, they would take many of the children, the toddlers, the babies, and they would decapitate those babies in front of the watching men. These flayed men would watch their kids being crushed in this way. Then they would send crates of these tiny heads to all the nations around them to let them know that they were coming. But if you were a ruler, your lot was slightly better if you were a ruler of a nation. Because rulers would often be left alive.

But first they had their noses, their ears, the tips of their tongue, tips of their fingers, tips of their toes, their genitals either mutilated or completely cut off, so that the former leaders, the generals of the country will be left to wander the streets to beg.

If actually they survived the torture. And with the women they captured, the women were stripped naked, chained together, and paraded along toward every battle route. The image on the left is one from a shield where captives are hoisted on snakes. The image on the right was from a wall, and it depicts prisoners being flayed alive. So the Assyrians' cruelty was written about in great detail on their obelisks. They wanted their fame to be known.

So no one wanted to be captured by the Assyrians. Does that make sense? Nahum chapter 3, the prophet Nahum. Okay, that's the bookend. The description gives a description of the Ninevites, their great evil and their endless cruelty. Scripture is not boring. This is what what they say. Okay, this is what Nahum the prophet gives a woe to. It's called the city of bloodshed. Woe to the city of bloodshed, completely full of decision and pillage. Her prey never departs. Verse 3. Horsemen charging swords, flames, and spears flashing, many slain, a mass of corpses. There is no end to the dead bodies. We stumble as we walk down the street over dead bodies. Verse 10. Yet she became an exile. They're talking about a captive.

She went into captivity. Also her infants were dashed to pieces at the head of every street. And then they cast lots for the rulers. The great generals, the great warriors, the men were bound with fetters. Verse 19. Remember, I said last week Jonah and Naam are the only two books of the Bible that end with a question. Nahum ends with this question. For on whom has not your evil passed continually? Some translations actually read, who has not felt your endless cruelty. So the book of Nahum ends with the rhetorical question. Jonah is told to preach to these men. Barbaric, brutal, murderous soldiers. And it's not hard to imagine the Assyrians of Jonah's day doing unspeakable and horrible things.

That generation of these rapists, murderers, killers, cold-hearted, bloodthirsty men are in heaven. That entire generation of Gentile Ninevites are in heaven. The Bible says.

And they're not only in heaven, they're gonna stand and condemn the moral, law-abiding, Torah-abiding Pharisees of Jesus' day. How now here's a question? How does that sit in your heart? Doesn't it violate a feeling of justice? Or like it's a weird feeling. Imagine this, okay? A serial killer with a genuine deathbed confession is in heaven. Imagine that sweet Korean harmony. If you're not Korean, just think of an old sweet Mormon lady, all right? Who is never cussed, always sweet, super generous to the poor, never stolen, but who is accursed, Galatians 1.8, Galatians 1.10. Who is accursed because she holds to a different gospel? That lady is in hell. Rapist in heaven because of repentance. Sweet harmony in hell because of unrepentance.

Because she doesn't know what she needs to repent of. Does that feel fair? Does not. Does that feel just? Now you may understand why Jonah is upset. Then you can appreciate why the Pharisees in Jesus' day are so disgusted by the following statement. The men of Nineveh will stand up with you at the judgment and will condemn you. Because they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And behold, something greater is Jonah than Jonah is here. So Jonah is angry. He likely thought of his anger as a righteous anger. And it's understandable because this is wrong. So imagine with me the angels in heaven watching mortal man, manhandle the Lamb of God, try him, torture him, crucify him, play games with his clothes, and mock and spit on him.

That's an even greater evil that the angels have witnessed to, but praise God, by his wounds, we are healed, and we celebrate this injustice. So there's a lot of mysterious and paradoxical injustice when it comes to the gospel. Not just if you're you're you're feeling this.

And that good news of the gospel is absolutely horribly bad news for all men because all men are totally depraved, and we all desperately fall short of the glory of God. No one is righteous, not even one. So the appreciation of the good news of Jesus Christ starts with the understanding that you are no more deserving of the kindness and the favor of God than all the Hitlers of the world. Do you feel offended yet? Well, welcome to the beginning of the gospel. No amount of morality, no amount of self-denial, no amount of generosity to the poor merits a person salvation. No amount of religiosity makes a person less deserving of eternal condemnation. God is that holy, and we are that depraved. Paul Washer in a sermon once said this: listen to me.

Downplay the doctrine of the total depravity of man, and you downplay the glory of the gospel. There is no one righteous, not even one. Now, what I'm not saying is that there aren't sins that are more objectively eviler than others. That's what I'm saying. In the paradigm of this life on this side of eternity, there are sins that appear objectively far worse than others. There are sins that are far more disgusting than others. But we all have to be very careful when we demand justice. We leave room for God's wrath, Romans 12, right? But we need to be very careful because if God answered our Christ for justice, we're all ruined. We can't begin to understand the grace of God until we understand the justice of the thrice holy God.

So the reason that we, and those like Jonah, feel upset when objectively horrible people respond appropriately in repentance at the preaching of the gospel is because we don't understand the holiness of God. And we have goat rankings of who is better than others, who is worse than others. And we actually think so highly of ourselves that we don't think of ourselves totally depraved. And that's where the dots don't fully connect. Holy, holy, holy God is also gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abundant in loving kindness, and one who relents concerning evil.

For those of us who have tasted the kindness and the goodness of God, may we never ever think that it was because of our inherent worth. Amen.

At the same time, may we never disparage or hold a condescending attitude toward believers in our day who are, or unbelievers in our day who are hostile to Christ, even if they're vile and criminal. There is nothing good in us outside of Christ. There is absolutely, and the operative word is absolutely nothing good in us outside of Christ. Amen. Yeah, the Lord is going to teach us this as we age and mature, because He's going to show us the evil in our hearts. If we are saved, we've been saved by grace and grace alone. You know what the grace of God does? It levels the playing field. Salvation was, always is, is a gift. We cannot boast. And that's what we're going to be looking through in the book of Jonah.

Here's an encouraging thought. If God has compassion toward the like of the likes of the Assyrians, who is beyond hope.

Amen. One day the wicked will get their just desserts. Nahum, after all, does get to proclaim a prophecy of a serious destruction. The self-righteous are gonna have, we're gonna have a lot of fun during Nahab. But for now, though we won't fully be able to connect the theological dots, we have to be grateful and stand in awe of the grace of God. We the word grace is thrown around so often that we don't actually think of what it means. I'm gonna close with a story of grace that offends. And it's Jesus' story. But I'm also hoping that this story gets emotionally and spiritually unpacked for us as we go through both Jonah and Nahum. So if it's gonna be a slightly lengthier passage of the scriptures, but please do pay attention.

If you have your physical Bibles, I'm actually going to encourage you to turn to Matthew chapter 20. It's commonly known as the parable of the workers in the field. And I'm gonna read, and you guys might be familiar with it. I'm gonna read the whole parable. This is what the kingdom of heaven is like, according to Jesus. For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. Now, when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, which is generous, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace. And to those he said, You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.

So they went. Again he went out about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, and he did the same thing. And about the 11th hour, he went out and found others standing around. And he said to them, Why have you been standing here idle all day long? And they said to him, Because no one hired us. He said to them, you go into the vineyard too. Now, when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first. And when those hired about the 11th hour came, huh? They received a denarius. That's like putting in 30 minutes of work and getting a year's salary. Makes no sense. So when those hired first came, they supposed that they would receive more.

But each of them received a denarius. Now, when they received it, they were grumbling at the landowner, saying, These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat. But he answered and said to them, to one of them, friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go. But I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous? The last shall be first, and the first shall be last. At retreat games, the last place team always ends up chanting this. But what a glorious message.

The last people you would think should be ever entered into heaven. No one is more deserving of grace than others. Again, the grace of God levels a playing field. And sometimes thinking about it trips us up, it'll jar us, it'll disorient us, it'll disturb us, and then it will lead to awe in the best of ways.

Never self-righteous. Amen. And may we be gracious representatives of our eternally gracious God, especially as we minister to the various Ninevites who are in our lives and in our world. Think twice before you snicker at someone on the politically the other side. Think twice before you scoff at someone who's stuck in addiction and vice. The only reason you're not there is because of what? The grace of God. Let's pray. Oh, what an adventure, Lord God, it is to just dive into your truth and thank you for humbling us with these profound truths that we will not fully ever understand on this side of eternity. Help us never to be arrogant to think that we can articulate it clearly because we cannot.

But help us simply in faith to stand in awe, to respond in love. Grow us to be more and more humble and loving. And may you receive the glory in our humiliation and in the growing love that we pray comes forth from this church and in our lives. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.