11/29/20 - The Great Salvation / GRUDGES

him 394. O glorious Lord, what thoughts thy mind did fill. O glorious Lord, thou came to do his will. Hold deep, he should find them, thee thy heart when dying on the tree, thy church complete, hand in thy beauty dressed, the day of God and love divine addressed. Amen.

Good morning. Shall we look to the Lord in prayer? Our God and our Father, once again it's a privilege to come to thy word and we pray as we consider this great gift of salvation and this aspect of forgiveness that you might enlighten us and give us grace and courage and obedience, hearts to obey thee and to forgive and to walk in the goodness of your love and forgiveness. In Jesus' name, amen.

So, uh, we're talking about the great salvation and are still on the first aspect of it, forgiveness. You remember that forgiveness means to send away, just like that scapegoat that the sins of Israel were placed upon its head and he was sent away into a land uninhabited where their guilt and sins could never be reported. So God has sent away our sins. We've been forgiven. All our guilt is gone, gone, gone. Hallelujah.

So we're looking at forgiveness and we saw last week that there's much to be considered when it comes to being forgiven and then to forgive. I wanted to continue with that thought in a Bible man named Jonah. He was a prophet of God. He was used of God. He's called a servant of God in Second Kings. And so, uh, turning to Jonah chapter 4, Jonah chapter 4, uh, we need a little backdrop for the story. Jonah had been called, uh, in chapter 1 to witness to Nineveh. Nineveh was the capital of the great Assyrian Empire. Uh, they were a very cruel people in battle, in warfare, and they did great, uh, atrocities to those that they conquered. Now, we don't know, but they did, Assyria did come into northern Israel and make raids. Perhaps Jonah had had some interaction with them. Perhaps he had lost a friends or family members in that, uh, those battles. But whatever happened, Jonah had a real bitterness, a real, a grief in his heart against Assyria, against the Ninevites.

And so we read in chapter 1, verse 1, "Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me." Isn't it wonderful as the New Testament bears witness that God wishes that none should perish, but that all should come to repentance? What we see here is what was to be true for Israel. They were to be witnesses for Jehovah. They are the true Jehovah Witnesses, and they were to witness to the Gentiles of God's greatness and his faithfulness and, uh, trusting in him. And so Jonah is called to do that very thing, to call these Gentiles in the capital of Assyria, in Nineveh, to repent because their, their wickedness was so great. God doesn't want to judge and condemn. Christ didn't come into the world to condemn the world. He said himself, he came to save the world in John chapter 3.

Now look what Jonah did. "But Jonah rose up to flee into Tarshish from the presence of the Lord." Now Tarshish is across the Mediterranean Sea on the east coast of Spain. So you couldn't be further away from Israel. You couldn't be further away from Nineveh. And so Jonah rose up to flee into Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. Well, this is, uh, really remarkable. Why would God choose of all the prophets that he had, of all his servants, why would he choose Jonah for this mission? God certainly knew that Jonah's heart was against Assyria, against the Ninevites. He knew whatever experiences Jonah had had that it turned Jonah's heart against the Assyrians. But God chose him. So we, we wouldn't have chosen him, no doubt, if we knew about him, but God did. And Jonah would have nothing of it. He's fleeing from the Lord, from the very presence of the Lord. Now, how did God's presence come to Jonah? Through the word of the Lord. The word of the Lord brings the presence of the Lord to us.

Now we're familiar with what happened in Jonah's story and, and the ship that he was on and the storm that came and the, the great fish that swallowed him. Uh, let's move forward to chapter 4 just to stick with our theme of forgiveness, or in Jonah's case, we'll call it unforgiveness. And, and in fact, we could say surely with Jonah, "Surely unforgiveness shall follow me all the days of my life." Remember in Psalm 23, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life." Well, with Jonah it was, "Surely unforgiveness shall follow me all the days of my life." And this is a, a very important part of the story of Jonah that we all want to take a serious note of, that anger and bitterness and resentment and unforgiveness and all these things, they do not just go away. You might bury them deep within your heart, deep within your soul, but they will not go away until we obey the Lord and choose to forgive.

So in chapter 4 and verse 1, Jonah now has, uh, gone to Nineveh. He's come out of the fish. He's gone and he's, he's preached in Nineveh. And, uh, and amazingly, it was a great revival. The Ninevites, uh, repented from the king on down. And, and so God spared them. Now, what was Jonah's response? Chapter 4, verse 1, "But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry." So here God wanted to forgive the very ones Jonah did not want to forgive. Isn't that an incredible thought? God wanted to forgive the very ones that Jonah did not want to forgive. And now Jonah is angry. He's very displeased. This is a battle of the wills, God's will against the will of Jonah.

And so we go on in verse 2, "And he prayed." Now remember the last time we heard Jonah pray? Of course, we didn't look at it, but the last time he prayed was in chapter 2 and verse 1, "Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly." So that's one prayer. You know, when you're in the desperate situations of life and you pray to the Lord, that's one kind of prayer. But when things are not going right and we disapprove of what, maybe what God's doing in our lives and we realize that it's God that's doing it, it's our will against his will, and instead of saying, "Not my will, but thy will be done," we say, "My will be done," and things are not good for us in our hearts. So that's the case with Jonah.

So Jonah prayed and listen what he prayed. Verse 2 of chapter 4, "He prayed and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country?" So Jonah had already argued with God when God had called him to go to Nineveh. And yet he says, "O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before Tarshish unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou," listen to this, this is incredible. Did Jonah know God? Yes, he, he was a, a servant of the Lord. You can read that in, uh, Second Kings 14:25. He's called a servant of the Lord. He's been used of the Lord before. He knows the Lord. He says, "For I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil." In other words, he, God will have a change of heart toward the evil he's going to bring or judgment he's going to bring upon a nation or people if they repent. And Jonah says, "I knew that. I knew that they were gracious. I knew that thou art merciful. I knew that thou art great kindness."

Isn't that incredible that we can know the same thing? We can know that God is love. We can know that he gave his son down the cross of Calvary for sinners. We can hear the voice of the Lord Jesus say, "Forgive them, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." And yet in our own hearts, we can be bitter and angry and unforgiving. We can be resentful and hold grudges within our hearts. Verse 3, "Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live." So imagine this is what bitterness, anger, resentment, unforgiveness, this is what it will bring us to. This, uh, a family of unforgiveness, it will bring us to a despondency. It will eat us up on the inside. Jonah said, "I would rather not live than to see these Ninevites prosper." That this is so very, very sad that this is, um, this is that root of bitterness that the Bible talks about in Hebrews chapter 12, verse 15, that that root of bitterness that springs up and defiles many. And because we don't keep our grievances to ourselves and we don't keep to ourselves, uh, the complaints we have against other people, an unforgiving spirit will overflow and and contaminate. It is the root of bitterness that's bringing up defiles others. May God give us grace to understand these things, how serious they truly are.

So here he is, he's, he'd rather die than live. Now remember, while Jonah is carrying on this way, the Ninevites are quite happy. They've repented. God's not judged them. We're not saying they're a saved people, but at least they didn't receive God's judgment. And so life is going on for them. You know that person that perhaps you or I choose to not to forgive, that person we're angry or bitter against, their life is going on. They might not even be thinking about us, but we are consumed, as we saw last week, in that prison house of resentment, to the bars of resentment and anger and, and, uh, unforgiveness. We can't get free. And if we're not careful, if we don't choose to forgive, unforgiveness shall follow us all the days of our lives.

So we go on and, and he, he, he said, you know, Jonah had asked to the Lord, he's praying, "Therefore now, O Lord, I beseech thee, take my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live." "Then the Lord said, Dost thou well to be angry?" Isn't that a challenging thought? Jonah, are you doing what's right? And we can ask ourselves as we hear the Lord's voice to us, "Dost thou well to be angry? Dost thou well with this grievance against this person?" Maybe it's your spouse, uh, maybe it's a friend, maybe it's someone at work, maybe someone you fellowship with. "Dost thou well to be angry?" And of course, we don't do well. It's not right. We can even know it's not right. Jonah knew that it wasn't right, but that didn't matter. The bitterness within him had overcome him. He allowed it to consume him. And so God challenges him in this way.

Now I, I just want to skip over here and, you know, there's the issue with the gourd and all these things, but Jonah walks off the pages of scripture with that unforgiving spirit, with that anger and bitterness. And in verse 8, at the end, it says, he says again, "It is better for me to die than to live." God reasoned with him. He said, "I have 120,000, you know, evidently children there, don't know their left hand from their right. They can't discern it. And you would have me destroy them, Jonah?" Jonah, that person that you hold a grudge against, would you really tell them, "Go to hell"? Is that what you really want for them, to suffer God's judgment and damnation forever and ever? Then release them. Forgive them. Forgiveness is a choice. We saw last week, it's an act of obedience. In Luke 17, it's an act of obedience. It's our duty to forgive. It's a choice. You choose to forgive. And that's what faith is. Faith is choosing to obey God. It's a choice. Make that choice. Forgive that person.

We might just turn to Judges just for a moment to, to see, uh, Samson and at the end of his life in Judges, in chapter 17, I'm sorry, Judges chapter 16. You remember, uh, we won't go into it, but it happened earlier in the chapter, but, uh, Samson had, uh, been captured by the Philistines. We'll just leave it at that. He had been in the devil's barber shop, so to speak. I think J. Vernon McGee coined that phrase. And, uh, the, the Philistines in verse 21, this is Judges 16:21, "But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house. However, the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven." Now Samson's strength was never in his hair. His hair was a symbol of his submission to God. He was a Nazarite. But because he was no longer submissive to God, God's judgment came upon him. But now he's returning back to that right condition and he's regaining his strength.

Now look what happens. They brought him to the temple of Dagon, their god that they were worshiping. It was a, uh, it was a a special event and they had Samson brought forward. And I'm just going to skip forward to verse 26. "And Samson said unto the lad that held him by the hand, Suffer me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house standeth, that I may lean upon them. Now the house was full of men and women; and all of the lords of the Philistines were there; and there were upon the roof about 3,000 men and women, that beheld while Samson made sport." So they're mocking Samson. Verse 28, now this is Samson's prayer. "And Samson called unto the Lord, and said, O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes." I'm going to read that again. "I pray thee, and I pray thee, strengthen me, uh, I pray thee, this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes." What is Samson's final prayer? It's a prayer of vengeance, of revenge. He wants revenge. How sad. This is the end of his life. He's taking anger, revenge, unforgiveness to the grave.

Now listen, verse 29, "And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, so his hands are outstretched, what picture are we seeing, and on, uh, which it was borne, and upon the one with his right hand, and the other on his left. And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life." Our Lord Jesus, when his arms were outstretched on the cross of Calvary, did he pray for vengeance? Did he have a spirit of revenge? He prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Then I would ask you, and you know the answer, what is the greater prayer? "God, avenge me for what they've done to me. Let me have revenge against my enemies," or is it to love your enemy? Who has the greater victory? Obviously, love always prevails. May God give us grace, whoever it is in our lives or whoever may come into our lives that would bring hurt to us, that we would learn this lesson to forgive, to send away their guilt. After all that God has forgiven us, can't we forgive others? Shouldn't we forgive others? We must forgive others.

Turn if you would to Genesis chapter 9. In Genesis chapter 9, we have a beautiful, uh, picture of, of forgiveness, of love, of mercy, of kindness in action. And in Genesis chapter 9, it deals with Noah. Noah, and I'll just read the story. It's after the flood. And verse 20, Genesis 9:20, "And Noah began to be a husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness." This is on the one side, uh, with Ham, it is a, a most ugly event. Whatever had taken place, uh, Ham reported to his brethren of his father's failure. We read in Proverbs chapter 11, "A talebearer revealeth secrets." "A talebearer revealeth secrets." And so how often when we have been hurt by someone, uh, when there's someone we don't like and we see them, uh, fall, then we, um, are quick to gossip, quick to be a talebearer and to tell on others. Uh, this, uh, we don't know what had happened in relation to Ham and his father, why he helped his father in contempt, but he certainly did. Are there people in our lives that we hold disdain toward and that we would be happy to see them fall? May God help us not to have that attitude.

And we want to see just to focus on what Shem and Japheth did. When they heard the report of Ham, they didn't pass it on. Uh, they didn't put it on the, the prayer group, you know, so that others could pray. But, uh, they, they acted. They acted in the most beautiful way. And I want to refer to a couple of New Testament scriptures that describe what they did. In First Peter 4:8, "Above all things, above all things, have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity covereth the multitude of sins." "For charity covereth the multitude of sins." Proverbs 17:9, "He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends." Proverbs 17:9. So above all things, have fervent charity, for charity or love covers a multitude of sins. That's what we see in the actions of Shem and Japheth. They took a garment and they walked backwards, not looking upon their father's shame, and they covered him.

You say, "What does that mean that love covers a multitude of sins?" Certainly Noah wasn't forgiven for what he did because of Shem and Japheth. Certainly the actions of someone else can't take away the guilt and sin of another person. And that's true. But when we heard the report of Ham, what did the focus of our minds do? We heard his words. We heard the report and we thought upon the shame of Noah getting drunk, so drunk that he's naked within his tent. But when we see the actions of Shem and Japheth, what comes before our minds? And I believe that this is what comes before God himself in heaven. It's the action of love. Love covereth the multitude of sins. In other words, it's not that sins are forgiven, but it's that God is now seeing not the guilt, but he's, he's focusing, as we should, upon the ministry of reconciliation, the ministry of love. That's what he wants to see in his people, not unforgiving spirits, not condemning spirits, not bitterness and anger and resentment toward others, but fervent love. So if a brother falls or even one of our so-called enemies falls, that in love we would seek to cover that sin. We would act in a way to restore them. And those actions of love now focuses our attention not upon Noah and his failure, but upon Shem and Japheth and their action of love.

What has God done for us? Has not God covered our sin and our shame, our nakedness before him with the righteousness of God in Christ? Has he not done that for us so that God is no longer condemning? There's now therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Hallelujah. May God give us grace that we would not be like Jonah where unforgiveness shall follow me all the days of my life, walking off the pages of scripture angry and bitter and resentful. Is that the way you want to go to the grave, holding grudges? Not like Samson, who in the closing moments of his life had no higher thought, this prophet of God, this judge of Israel, no higher thought than revenge, revenge. Now I will say that he did in his closing act fulfill his calling. His calling as a judge was to defend Israel from the enemies, and the enemy at that time was the, were the Philistines. So he fulfilled his calling, but his heart was not right. His attitude was only about himself. Unforgiveness is selfishness. We need to look beyond ourselves and to see that God has a desire to use us and our forgiveness of others as a witness and testimony to others of God's love and God's forgiveness. And when there are others involved, too many times, uh, our churches, our assemblies are split up from differences of opinion and, and wounds and hurts and, and anger and bitterness and resentment that comes up amongst the Lord's people. And someone falls and we are happy to see it. "Well, they deserve it." May God see within us and those with whom we fellowship the love of Christ demonstrated, for love does cover a multitude of sins. The love of God through Christ has certainly covered a multitude of sins in my life. Praise his name.

Oh God, now Father, we thank you today for forgiveness and we would in this moment, if there's someone we've not forgiven, we would want to send away, forgive that, that guilt in this moment, to make a decision to forgive them. My friend, right now, make that decision to forgive whoever it is in your life that you hold a grudge against. And when you do that, you're acting in obedience. You're acting in faith. Set them free and in so doing, set yourself free and honor God for the glory of Christ. We prayed and in his name, amen.