The NXR Podcast - DAILY TRUTH - The Meticulous Compassion Of God

00:00:00.000 Big news. Really big news. Our next Right Response Conference is in the works. We've got a number of

00:00:07.440 things already lined up and organized. This is what we've got so far. The whole conference,

00:00:12.800 three days long on post-millennialism and theonomy. And the speakers, Dr. James White,

00:00:20.120 Dr. Joseph Boot, Gary DeMar, and of course, yours truly, Pastor Joel Webin. We've got a great lineup.

00:00:27.620 We've got great topics.

00:00:29.000 If you want to find out dates and location and registration and anything else,

00:00:34.300 go and visit our website, rightresponseconference.com.

00:00:39.680 Rightresponseconference.com.

00:00:43.180 Jesus said, man cannot live on bread alone,

00:00:46.080 but from every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

00:00:49.000 You're listening to Daily Truth.

00:00:53.400 Verse one of our text says,

00:00:55.100 but God remembered Noah and all the beast and all the cattle that were with him in the ark.

00:01:01.980 Let me stop there for just a moment. God doesn't just remember Noah and his wife and his three

00:01:06.200 sons and their three wives. God remembers cattle. You know what that reminds me of? You guys have

00:01:11.600 probably, if you've been with us for a while, you're probably thinking the same thing I am.

00:01:15.040 It reminds me of the book of Jonah. It reminds me of the very end of the book where God says,

00:01:20.860 because if Jonah, if you care so much about this plant,

00:01:25.340 remember Jonah is complaining and grumbling

00:01:27.480 and criticizing God for killing this plant, right?

00:01:30.640 He's sitting out in the desert.

00:01:31.880 And the only reason he's there is because he wants to have,

00:01:34.120 you know, this kind of this bird's eye view of Nineveh

00:01:36.040 because he wants to watch them get wrecked by God, right?

00:01:38.580 Because he's bitter.

00:01:39.960 Jonah is a bitter man.

00:01:41.060 He's the bitter prophet.

00:01:42.540 So he's hoping for God's judgment to fall. 0.95

00:01:44.740 He's hoping for God to destroy Nineveh.

00:01:47.440 But just like the mean old Grinch on the mountain,

00:01:50.080 He hears the who's down in Whoville,

00:01:51.860 ah, do, to, re, ah.

00:01:53.500 He hears the sound, not of God sending fire and brimstone, 0.77

00:01:56.840 but he hears the sound of the Ninevites doing what? 1.00

00:01:59.520 Repenting, which a preacher should rejoice over, 1.00

00:02:04.000 by the way, right?

00:02:05.020 I mean, a preacher who's preaching a message

00:02:07.020 of God's judgment, but also a message

00:02:09.480 in light of God's judgment of the urgency

00:02:11.820 and necessity of the people to repent.

00:02:13.880 If the people do repent, the preacher should be glad.

00:02:17.580 The preacher should be like, yes,

00:02:20.060 Jonah's not saying yes.

00:02:21.580 Jonah's saying no.

00:02:24.900 Oh man, I only preached that message because God made me.

00:02:28.500 I literally tried to run the other direction.

00:02:30.220 He swallowed me in a fish and spit me up

00:02:32.320 and forced me to preach it.

00:02:33.760 I didn't do it out of obedience to God.

00:02:35.300 I didn't do it because I wanted them to repent.

00:02:36.760 I didn't do it because I love Nineveh.

00:02:38.440 I did it because I was forced by God to do it.

00:02:40.820 And I was really hoping,

00:02:42.180 I was actually really intentional

00:02:43.720 to make sure it was one of my worst sermons ever.

00:02:47.040 i i was i was hoping that when the altar call was given no one would come forth right you know how

00:02:54.060 preachers sometimes like if anybody wants to get saved come forth nobody comes up and you know if

00:02:57.980 anybody wants to rededicate their life to jesus come forth if anybody has any love in their heart

00:03:02.720 at all for god or wants to be a better person like it's like oh my goodness this was tremendous

00:03:07.240 hundreds of people came forth it's ridiculous anyways so jonah jonah is saying like

00:03:13.420 hopefully no one will respond everyone responds that's what the bible says a whole city responds

00:03:20.360 a whole city repents and and what what does Jonah do he just gets angry he's sitting there hoping

00:03:26.160 that God will judge them God doesn't judge them because they repent and our God is steadfast in

00:03:30.760 love relenting from sending disaster is what the scripture says he relents in sending disaster

00:03:36.580 for those who repent and Nineveh repents and so the Lord relents in sending disaster and Jonah

00:03:42.240 is upset and Jonah is sitting in the desert so that he can have this bird's eye view to watch

00:03:47.820 the fireworks, the fire and brimstone, and it doesn't happen. And Jonah's hot and miserable

00:03:53.100 and uncomfortable because deserts aren't really comfortable. And what does God do? As Jonah's

00:03:58.560 sitting there, the Grinch hating the Who's, you know what I mean? Like as he's sitting there hating

00:04:03.840 the Who's down in Whoville, God who is so merciful and so kind causes a plant to grow up over Jonah

00:04:09.980 to provide shape. But then the same God, blessed be the name of the Lord, he gives and takes away,

00:04:15.760 right? The Lord sends a worm to eat the plant and it dies. And Jonah's really angry. And you know

00:04:22.120 what Jonah's argumentation is? This is his argumentation. It's so dumb and so convicting,

00:04:29.840 right? Because me and you are a lot more like Jonah than we'd like to admit. But Jonah says this, 0.99

00:04:34.740 God, why'd you kill this plant? Now Jonah, his only intention, his only angle is this. He's just

00:04:38.800 saying, I care about my personal comfort. But that argument doesn't work super well with God.

00:04:44.440 So Jonah's trying to soup it up like you and I do, right? We're trying to make our selfish desires

00:04:49.300 seem more noble. So Jonah's like, why'd you kill this plant? The plant didn't do anything wrong.

00:04:53.740 This is an innocent plant. And you're supposed to be a just God. And here you are killing innocent

00:04:57.920 plants. And God's response is this. If you care so much about the plant that you didn't work for

00:05:04.360 it, you didn't toil the soil, you didn't fertilize it, you didn't plant it, you didn't cause it to

00:05:08.780 grow. I made it grow, and it grew overnight, right? I mean, it just grew overnight. It's not like

00:05:13.860 this is some redwood tree that's been growing over hundreds of years and all that kind of stuff. I

00:05:18.640 mean, even the liberals wouldn't be upset about this plant dying, right? Everybody's cool with

00:05:23.340 this plant dying except for you, Jonah. And so you can say that you have this ethical reason for why

00:05:28.440 you didn't want the plant to die. That's not true. You're saying that, oh, it's wrong for me to kill

00:05:33.060 the plant, and you don't want to admit it's really just about your personal comfort. You're trying to

00:05:36.000 say, it's wrong for me to kill the plant because I'm a just God. The plant didn't do anything wrong

00:05:40.660 and therefore I'm wrong to kill it. And then God responds and says, by that same logic, Jonah,

00:05:45.400 I got you. I got you. Because by that same logic, wouldn't you care about 120,000 people in Nineveh

00:05:52.620 and who can't tell their right from left hand? Who's he talking about? He's not saying that 120,000

00:05:57.500 represents the overall population of the city. 120,000 biblical scholars believe represents the

00:06:02.560 children in the city who cannot even tell the difference between the right and left hand.

00:06:07.460 Like, so young, small children. He's saying, if you care so much about me destroying an innocent

00:06:13.300 plant, what about little children? And what does God say? And much cattle. All throughout the

00:06:22.040 scripture, there's multiple places where God like cares about cattle. Cattle are a thing. God and

00:06:26.700 cattle, he's got an affinity for cattle. What is it? God loves his creation. The Psalms say he has

00:06:31.800 compassion on all he has made. Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, he says, he speaks about

00:06:36.080 sparrows. That they're not even a sparrow falls to the ground without your father seeing it. And

00:06:41.960 how much more of value are you than a sparrow? God loves his creation. God has compassion on all

00:06:51.840 he has made. And here in the very first verse of our text, we're already seeing, but God remembered

00:06:56.040 Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. You have to see

00:07:02.980 this. Our God is a meticulous, sensitive, caring, loving, faithful God. He is not a God who is just

00:07:13.080 the divine architect who set things into motion and then abandoned his creation that doesn't

00:07:18.260 care what happens. God is transcendent, but he is also in his eminence actively and meticulously

00:07:27.180 working in all things because he is committed first and foremost to his glory, but he is also

00:07:33.920 committed to his compassion and love toward that which he has made. Thanks so much for listening,

00:07:39.800 but real quick, before you go, do us a small favor, take a moment and leave us a five-star

00:07:44.980 review if you enjoyed the show. This is undoubtedly the best way that you can help us get this

00:07:50.820 biblically faithful content to as many people as possible. Thanks so much.

The NXR Podcast - September 22, 2022

DAILY TRUTH - The Meticulous Compassion Of God

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