Jonah was sent by God to preach judgment and mercy of God to the people of Ninevah. He didn't want to go and, in fact, refused to go! Why? He knew the barbarism of the people there. Those people were so barbaric that they skinned people alive... they would bury people in the sand up to the head and leave them for the sun to bake them and the birds to eat them. He wondered why God didn't just destroy them. BUT God is a God of Grace and Mercy! Aren't we glad he saved us by His Grace through our faith in his son Jesus Christ, instead of judging us and sending us to hell?
1) THE SOLDIERS WATCHED JESUS - In Matthew 27 we find the epitome of man's wickedness toward man in the crucifixion. When Jesus was on the cross, they gave him vinegar mixed with gall and he wouldn't drink it, even though he was thirsty. They parted his garments and cast lots for them. Then the soldiers in the crucifixion detail sat down and watched him die.
2) PILATE WATCHED JESUS as he questioned him and as they led him away - (Backing up a few years, Jesus at his birth had been hunted by Herod's soldiers who were told to kill every male child under the age of 2, hoping to kill Jesus.) Now, Luke tells us that after Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, he was led to Annas and Caiaphas and then to Pilate who questioned him. According to the scriptures, he found no reason to take Jesus' life, so learning that he was a Galilean, he sent him to Herod, who also questioned him and sent him back to Pilate. Luke said, that day Herod and Pilate became friends. To Pilate, Jesus was just another accused criminal. To satisfy the Jewish leaders, he allowed Jesus to be mocked, beaten, stripped and whipped. Then he washed his hands of the whole matter and allowed Jesus to be led away to be crucified. The method of crucifixion was the most cruel of all the punishments, being perfected by the Carthaginians and Romans. After being beaten within an inch of his life, the criminal was crucified and could hang on a cross a long time- hours or days, dying a slow torturous and painful death. And as they led him away, Pilate watched Jesus.
3) THE PARENTS OF THE TWO THIEVES WATCHED JESUS. The parents of the thieves on the other two crosses watched Jesus too as they watched their sons dying. They probably wondered what had gone wrong since they had probably raised their sons to be good boys and now they were being crucified because they were thieves.
4) THE CHIEF PRIESTS AND SCRIBES ALSO WATCHED JESUS. They were also present at the crucifixion. They'd had Jesus arrested; they had mocked him; and they had watched him bleed. Now they stood watching him die on that wooden cross.
5) THE BROKEN-HEARTED WATCHED JESUS... those who loved Jesus, were watching him. There was Jesus' mother, and John the apostle, and Mary Magdalene. They had seen all the wonderful miracles he had performed for years helping the weak and poor and healing the sick. He showed his power and authority as the Son of God. Now they watched Jesus and wept.
6) ARE YOU WATCHING JESUS? There was a movie that came out several years ago called the "Passion of the Christ." It was a graphic depiction of the awful torture and agony that Christ went through for us. When you saw the movie, when you watched Jesus, what did you see? Did you see just another man? Or did you see your Savior, your Lord, your Master, suffering for you? He took our place on the cross to give us a place in heaven. He took my place. He took your place.
WE CONTINUE TO WATCH FOR JESUS TO RETURN. He is coming back! He said..."I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there you may be also."And now we are watching and waiting for his return.
WE ARE WATCHING FOR JESUS. WHAT ABOUT YOU, MY FRIEND?
How would you define God? One dictionary defines God as Creator and Ruler; another dictionary says God is the Source of all Moral Authority. Other dictionaries use some weak words to describe God and others miss the truth completely. Micah says "God, who is like you?" - Paul said "Your ways are past finding out." Actually it is impossible to define God for when we do, we put limits on who he is. Children say God has big hands because he holds the whole world in his hands... He's the Nicest man in the World. He is like a never ending story that I want to read over and over again. Isaiah calls him "Holy," John calls him "Light" and "Love."
Here in Psalm 145, the Psalmist says God is Good.
V. 8-9 - The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.
9 The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.
In Hebrew "good" means kind, compassionate, being and doing good. God is good to all, whether the person is a bad person or good person, whether, lost or saved.Since God controls everything his goodness is a divine gift to his children who call upon him. His children know him in a unique way.
1) God is good in his character V.17
The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works - he always does what is right, he is faithful and just. He always acts like himself and we are glad.
2) He is good in his conduct. He is holy in his works... He gave us the 10 commandments to show us how to live the best, good life possible
Why were Adam and Eve cast out of Eden in the first place? Because of their disobedience in eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they might eat of the tree of life!
3) He is good in his connectivity V.18 We remember the old telephone switchboards where the phone jack had to be put in the right place to make the good connection. John 14:6 Jesus said, "No man comes to the Father but by me."
4) He is good in his consistency V.4,5 One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts. 5 I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty, and of thy wondrous works. Malachi 3:6 For I am the Lord, I change not; God doesn't change, therefore the gospel doesn't change. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
Some would say the gospel message is old fashioned, but so is water but you still drink it. Ethical precepts don't change. We don't measure ethics by the numbers of people who believe them. Personal accountability doesn't change. Paul reminds us that everyone shall give an account of themselves to God... Romans 14:12
Our ultimate hope doesn't change... our hope is in God. We know that the ultimate outcome is like the ending of a Disney movie... and they lived happily ever after.
Psalm 23 - Goodness and mercy shall follow them all the days of their lives and they shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever! Citizens of this world can see a sunrise but citizens of heaven will see the SON RISE!
We all know that sin is defined in the Bible as missing the mark. A man with unconfessed sin is a failure to God. When we miss the mark, we separate ourselves from fellowship with God, which he intended for us in the very beginning. God provided a way to restore that fellowship by sincerely confessing our sin and allowing him to help us change. So our purpose is to find God and then to follow God.
Psalm 139 gives us several things about God that will help us know what God's purpose is for us.
1) GOD KNOWS WHO I REALLY AM. V 1-4.
It is said that reputation is what others think about you and character is what God knows you are. He sees us and knows all about our movements and even our thoughts. He knows the words we speak. The Bible says we will give an account of every idle word.
2) GOD IS NEAR US V. 5-12
Adrian Rogers says there are no atheists in hell, they have found out that what God said in the Bible was true. There is no place where you can escape the knowledge and presence of God... not even in hell. Death does not hide you from God and his love for you. Distance does not hide you from God. Romans 8:38-39. Darkness cannot hide you from God. (He has night vision).
3) GOD HAS A WONDERFUL PLAN FOR YOUR LIFE V.13-16
If only the abortionist would read these scriptures... Before I was born, God knew me. He knew me in my mother's womb. I was made in secret. Though there were yet no members of my body, God saw me. Look at a letter "O" on your paper. Science says, there are 40,000 cells inside the "O". In each of the 40,000 cells, there are 200,000 million molecules. In each minute, 3 million cells die and are being replaced. God knows more about us than we know about ourselves. And "The One who knows you best, loves you most."
4) GOD REMEMBERS US V.17-18 I am overwhelmed that God is always thinking about me. He is always thinking of us. If God had a refrigerator, our pictures would be on it. God knows everyone who is alive today or has ever lived. Although there are too many to count... more than the grains of sand on all the beaches in the world... God knows each one of us and he is with us wherever we are and whatever we are doing.
5) GOD JUDGES V19-20
God's enemies hate him and speak evil against him. The Psalmist said he hates them that hate God! Even today, Satan's army would love to destroy every evidence of God and his people. But God will slay the wicked. The unrepentant and evil people God will judge and we don't want to be around them on this earth.
Proverbs 6:16-19 reminds us that there are several things that God hates, that we too should hate too. While God hates the sin, he still loves the sinner, for he still loves you and me.
OUR PURPOSE THEN SHOULD BE TO LOVE HIM AND BE LOVED BY HIM. "Oh how he loves you and me!"
The word sin has practically disappeared from our modern language. We call it many things - a mistake, a fault, a shortcoming, breaking the law... we call it anything but sin. Sin is defined in the Bible in James 4:17 as knowing to do good and not doing it. It is disobeying the law of God. The book "Whatever Became of Sin?" written by Karl Menninger, a psychiatrist, believed that sin was the action of person who was mentally ill.
After the fall of the walls of Jericho, Joshua told them to stay away from the devoted things. All those things were to go into the treasury of the Temple. If you keep anything you will bring destruction upon yourself and our people. Achan found some gold, silver and a beautiful garment, dug a hole and covered them with his mat and sat on it.. The next battle was against AI a small place where the battle should have been easily won, but they were defeated. God told Joshua there is sin in the camp! The next day they were to consecrate themselves a come and stand before
The 61st Psalm is called the "Penitential Psalm" probably written after David's adulterous sin with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah. Eventually the prophet Nathan confronted David with his sin and David was repentant and confessed his sin. His confession was good.
There are others in the Bible who said "I have sinned" and their confession was not accepted by God.
1) Pharoah - Exodus 9:27 - made a horrified confession because he was terrified. God sent hail as fiery brimstones to try to convince Pharoah to let the children of Israel go. The crops had been destroyed and Pharoah said to Moses and Aaron "I have sinned. The Lord is right." His confession lasted only 7 verses. In 9:34-35 Pharoah sinned again and his heart was hardened and he refused to let the people go. It is said that "Repentance that is born in a storm, dies in the calm." Have you ever made a promise to God and broken it?!
2) Balaam in Numbers 22:34, made a hypocritical confession. It was insincere and phony. King of Moab, Balak, was surrounded by the Israelites and wanted Balaam to come and get God to curse Israel and Balak would pay him. So God allowed Balaam to go with them but only do what God told him to do. So Balaam saddled his donkey and was on his way when God sent the Angel of the Lord to stand in the path, blocking the way. The donkey stopped and Balaam beat the donkey three times. God opened the eyes of Balaam to see the Angel. The Angel said if the donkey had not stopped you I would have slain you. Balaam confessed I have sinned, but his confession was not sincere. And Balaam went on to do what he had planned anyway.
3)1 Samuel 15:24 - Saul made a half-hearted confession. Samuel told Saul what God said... because of the evil they had done to the Israelites when they came out of Egypt, that Saul was to destroy all the Amalekites because they were demon worshippers. God further said to destroy all the animals as well. Saul goes into battle and wins, but the enemy had great sheep and horses so Saul spares them. When Samuel met with Saul he said what is the bleating of sheep I hear? Saul said the soldiers did it. (the natural tendency when we sin is to find someone else to blame it on. Adam did it; Eve did it: pass the blame.) So Saul said I was afraid of the men so I gave in to them. We saved them to sacrifice to God. Samuel said "IT IS BETTER TO OBEY THAN TO SACRIFICE." Saul confesed half-heartedly "I have sinned. "We are inclined to rename the "sin" and call it an honest mistake, I messed up. Sometimes we are half-hearted in our confessions as well.
4) Joshua 7:20 - Achan confessed "I have sinned" and made a "Hemmed up" confession. After the fall of the walls of Jericho, Joshua told them to stay away from the devoted things. All those things were to go into the treasury of the Temple. If you keep anything you will bring destruction upon yourself and our people. Achan found some gold, silver and a beautiful garment, dug a hole and covered them with his mat and sat on it.. The next battle was against AI a small place where the battle should have been easily won, but they were defeated. God told Joshua there is sin in the camp! The next day they were to consecrate themselves and stand before Joshua. Tribe by tribe, clan by clan, family by family. So Joshua comes to Achan and tells him what he had done. V.20 Achan admits I have sinned. Philippians 2 tells us that every knee will bow and every tongue confess. For some it will be too late.
5) David in Psalm 51 - he confession was good because it was personal... he made no excuses. It was precise. He confessed what his sin was and knew that ultimately his sin was against God. His confession led to his testimony before the people and his joy was restored.
The Old Gospel Song says it well "Just a little talk with Jesus makes it right."
Proverbs 28:13 - Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.
1 John 1:9 - If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
There is a song that commemorates a great victory. in 1814 Washington was burned by the British. Then the British set their sights on Baltimore. Ft McHenry guarded Baltimore, so if the fort fell, the city of Baltimore would fall. An American lawyer, Francis Scott Key was permitted to board a ship before the battle began. So at sunrise on September 13, the British began bombardment of Ft McHenry and continued all night long (25 hours). When the bombs burst, they lit up the sky with each burst. He watched wondering if the fort had survived. Early on the morning of the 15th of September, 1814, he saw the 42 foot American Flag with the 15 stars and 15 stripes being raised over the fort and he was inspired to write the words to the Star-Spangled Banner, commemorating the great victory. In 1931, Congress passed a resolution that made it officially the national Anthem of The United States and President Herbert Hoover signed it into law.
Psalm 46 is such a commemorative hymn of a great victory of God over the enemy Assyrian army of King Sennacherib. He had built a great kingdom by conquering other peoples. Samaria and the northern kingdom of Israel had already fallen because of their disobedience to the LORD. He was wanting to take the southern kingdom of Judah and its capital, Jerusalem. We find the story in 2 Kings 17-19. It was 701 BCE and Hezekiah was king in Judah and he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD. He was counseled by Jeremiah and Micah and reestablished sole worship of Yahweh in the Temple. The king of Assyria sent a message of fear to Hezekiah saying he would be surrounded with the Assyrian army and he should make peace and surrender, that his God could not save him against such overwhelming numbers of soldiers. (2 Kings 18, nearly 200,000). Hezekiah remembered the words of the prophet Isaiah, "God says I will take care of you." So Hezekiah went into the house of the LORD, covered himself with sackcloth and ashes and spread the letter from the king of Assyria on the floor before the LORD and prayed, "God, you alone are almighty. Save us from the hand of this evil one and may all people know that you alone are LORD. God heard and answered his prayer. That night the angel of the LORD went out and smote 185,000 Assyrians. When they arose in the morning and saw all the dead corpses, Sennacherib and what was left of his army went home to Ninevah.
Psalm 46 is a song of a great victory... of deliverance from troubles.
It is a hymn with three stanzas. 1) God is our Refuge - V. 1-3; 2) There is a Great River - V. 4-7; 3) There is a great Rescue - v. 8-11.
1) God is our Refuge - when trouble comes to us. A refuge is a place of protection (the walls of the city were the protection for the people in Jerusalem.) Notice God IS our refuge, present tense, he IS our refuge. Where is your refuge? Deuteronomy 33:27 The LORD is our refuge. In spite of the destruction, our refuge is personal. God is everywhere.
2) God is our River - The city had to have water to survive and the Kidron river flowed beside Jerusalem. Hezekiah was very wise. He had a long underground tunnel built to provide the water necessary for Jerusalem - a hidden endless supply of water. Where is your river? John 7:37-38 37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified." The refreshing power of the Holy Spirit is ever with us. We are strengthened by his presence Philippians 4:13.
2) Remember the Rescue - V.8-11 - Where is your rescue? 1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
God stopped the enemy. Be still... cease striving... let God do his part. He rescues us from temptations and always provides a way of escape. We are to obey God rather than men.