Luke chapter 24 we begin in verse 13, And behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem, about threescore furlongs. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. And it came to pass that while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. But their eyes were holden, that they should not know him. And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these, that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad? And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering, said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem? and has not known the things which are come to pass there in these days.' And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel. And beside all this, today is the third day since these things were done. Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulcher. And when they found not his body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive. And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulcher and found it, even so as the women had said, but him they saw not. Then he said unto them, O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken, Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. Amen. We'll end our reading in verse 27, knowing that the Lord will add his blessing to this reading from his word. I want to call your attention in particular to verse 21, the first part of the verse. I'm going to use this verse as a springboard, more or less, for my subject. Listen to what these Emmaus Road disciples say to Christ while they didn't recognize Him. But we trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel. We trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel. I have a question for you this morning that I want you to take a moment to contemplate before God. I want you to answer it to yourself, and I want you to be honest before God in giving your answer to yourself. Here's the question. Has God ever disappointed you? Has God ever disappointed you? I say that I want you to answer this question honestly to yourself before God this morning, because I have little doubt that if I was to call on any or maybe all of you to stand and give your answer audibly so that all could hear your answer, I have no doubt that the common response would be, why, no! God has never disappointed me. God has always been good to me. God has bountifully blessed me. How could I ever harbor such a notion that God has at any time disappointed me? And you know, that would be the expected answer, I suppose. And that answer would certainly align itself with our orthodoxy, for our doctrine does indeed teach us that God is good, And yet by answering the question that way, we would find ourselves taking exception to many characters in the Bible that either say or demonstrate that God has at one time or another disappointed them. Listen to the words of Moses in Exodus chapter 5 and verse 22. We read beginning in that verse, And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, LORD, wherefore hast thou so evil entreated this people? Why is it that thou hast sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people, neither hast thou delivered thy people at all. That doesn't sound like the words of one who was entirely satisfied with God, does it? Moses was, on that occasion, disappointed in God. From our Scripture reading today, we have the words of Asaph in Psalm 77. Listen to the words of verse 3. I remembered God and was troubled. I complained. And my spirit was overwhelmed. Notice that I complained, not I praised, not I blessed God, not I thanked God. No, I complained! And my spirit was overwhelmed. And a few verses later, we find him giving a very vivid venting of this complaint when he says, Will the Lord cast off forever? And will He be favorable no more? Is His mercy clean gone forever? Doth His promise fail forevermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath He in anger shut up His tender mercies? Oh, what deep disappointment with God these words convey to us. And you know what? I'm thankful for those words. And I'm thankful that God has seen fit to preserve those words for us. I know I say this often with regard to the Psalms, that in the Psalms you find just about every emotion conceivable to the Christian. You find expressions for such emotions. And here is expression to an emotion of feeling let down by God, being disappointed with God. or take the words of Jonah. In Jonah 4, verses 8 and 9, it says, And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind, and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live. And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry even unto death, Oh, in this case, to say that Jonah was disappointed with God is to put the matter too lightly. Jonah was flat out angry with God. Angry to the point where he would just as soon God took his life than left him to stew in his anger. The passage we just read from Luke 24 is another case in point. The Emmaus Road disciples were disappointed with God, or disappointed with Christ. But we trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel. The word trusted in that verse is translated in most every other English translation by the word hope. We had hoped, they said. We were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. When Christ entered triumphantly into Jerusalem, the hopes of all his followers were very high, but never had hopes been raised so high only to be completely dashed to pieces. And here again, I think it's an understatement to say that they were disappointed. They were disappointed with God or with Christ. And so I call on you again to ask yourself the question, but now with some biblical perspective on the matter. Have you ever been disappointed with God? And I think that now that we've shed some light of Scripture on the matter, you'll find yourself perhaps a little more ready to admit to yourself, if not to others, that yes, there have been times. I am not different from these Bible characters. There have been times when I've been disappointed with God. Now the thing that makes this statement difficult to admit is that in our hearts we know that we shouldn't be disappointed with God. We know that at the end of the day the problem is not with God, the problem is with us. God is good. God does do all things well. The testimony of Scripture is true that all things work together for good to them that love God. This is what may contribute to our reluctance to admit that we're disappointed with God. Deep down in our hearts, we know that when such disappointments come, the problem rests with us, not with God. And if we're willing to acknowledge that the problem rests with us and not with God, then we position ourselves to truly deal with the issue. And we must deal with the issue of disappointment in God. It's impossible for a Christian to function as he should if the matter of disappointment with God or feeling let down by God hangs suspended over that person's soul. You can do nothing for God in that circumstance. You don't bear fruit for God in that circumstance. Such a Christian as that knows no peace or joy. Such a Christian finds himself unable to bask in God's grace or God's love. Such a Christian finds himself completely lacking in spiritual vitality. Your religion becomes forced. Mere external compliance is all a person knows, all a professing Christian knows. when disappointment with God rules his heart. Now the psalmist says in Psalm 77 in verse 3, Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary. And in the psalm that reflects the same spirit as Psalm 77, the psalmist in Psalm 73, verses 16 and 17 says, When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me, until I went into the sanctuary of God. Here then is a compelling reason for taking up the matter of being disappointed with God. It's painful. It's too painful for me, the psalmist says. And we must choose between stewing in continual pain or facing the matter squarely. The psalmist tells us that the matter was too painful until he went into the sanctuary of God. That's where we are this morning, isn't it? We are in the sanctuary of God. We are in the right place, therefore, to face this issue squarely. And so I want to deal with that issue this morning, the issue of being disappointed with God. And the way I want to treat the subject is by looking at what we may call case studies in the Scriptures. And through these case studies we will learn to identify the causes of being disappointed with God. Identifying the causes of being disappointed with God. I have but two points this morning. We may expand this. There are many more. This may lead to a follow-up study. We'll see how the Lord leads. But what you consider with me, first of all, that when the Lord disappoints you, first, it's because your understanding is defective. Your understanding is defective. your understanding of God, your understanding of his character, his purpose. It's defective when God disappoints us. The Emmaus Road disciples demonstrate this to us. Listen again to these ironic words spoken in Luke 24 in verse 21, But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel, I call those words ironic because the very thing that those disciples had hoped for, the very thing that they feel let down over, had in fact been accomplished. But their understanding was defective. Their understanding of God's purpose in redemption just wasn't there. They didn't see how any good could come from one in whom they had placed their hopes being put to the cruel and agonizing death of the cross. I know I've said this many times, but I never get tired of dwelling upon this, how we have the benefit of the entire Bible, we have the benefit of the New Testament, and we have the benefit of church history, not to authoritatively dictate to us, the church does not do that, but the church does aid us in our understanding, and we have the benefit of thousands of years of church history to enable us to know that we're understanding the Bible aright, and we understand the sufferings and death of Christ aright. Those who were there at the time didn't have those advantages and to them they didn't understand it. It made no sense to them what good can come out of a man in whom we have placed our hopes being executed by our rulers. Surely this can't be the way anything good is accomplished. All Christ's death amounted to, in their opinion, was the triumph of evil and the forces of darkness. And yet, in the midst of their doom and gloom, Christ had, in fact, brought forth the greatest triumph out of what appeared to be the most ignominious defeat. redemption had been accomplished. And you know that is such a practical and beneficial way to view the cross of Christ when you find yourself in the same circumstances. Nothing makes sense. I don't know what God is doing. I don't know why He has led me down this path. I don't see how any good can come out of the circumstances I am now experiencing. You know, if you're in a place where you're thinking that way, you're not in an unusual place. You are in fact trotting the same path that Christ himself has already trot ahead of you. when things didn't make sense and things were all doom and gloom, and it seemed like wickedness and darkness and evil would prevail. In fact, redemption had been accomplished. Israel had been redeemed and had been redeemed in the only way possible for redemption to be accomplished, which was through the atoning death of Jesus Christ. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory? Christ says in verse 26, And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. Verse 27. And so their defective understanding was addressed by Christ, but then Christ did something equally as important as expounding the Scriptures to them. It says a few verses later in verse 31 that their eyes were opened and they knew Him. And a few verses later the same thing is said with regard to the rest of the disciples. Verse 45, then opened their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures. I take both of those verses to convey to us the truth that not only were their minds properly informed, but their hearts were opened to perceive what their minds now knew and what their minds and hearts came to affirm was Christ's statement in verse 26 that Christ had to suffer these things and then enter into glory. That's a truth you know. A principle, if you will, that continues to be true to this very day. If I could state the present day application of the principle, I would say it like this, suffering precedes glory. Suffering precedes glory. And there are so many applications you can draw from that in varied circumstances. If it is God's purpose to conform us to the image of His Son, then we can expect in one way or another, and like I say, there are a variety of ways, we can expect in one way or another to live out this truth, suffering precedes glory. You think about it for a moment, and I'm sure you will agree with me that this is a repeated pattern in Scripture. suffering, and then glory, suffering, and then exaltation. I'm reminded of Joseph's dream back in the book of Genesis. His dream that was communicated to him by God, a dream which conveyed to him the truth that he would be exalted above his brothers and his brothers would one day bow to him. That dream did come to pass but not before Joseph was sold into slavery, and not before Joseph spent time in prison, not before Joseph had altogether forgotten about his own dreams. And David, David was told by Samuel that he was to be the next ruler in Israel. He was anointed to that end. And when you read the account of David in 1 and 2 Samuel, it seems that when David was anointed by Samuel to be the next king, that's when his problems began. For the next several years, he would find himself fleeing from Saul. There would be but a step between him and death until at last he would become so discouraged perhaps so disappointed, if you would, in God, that we find Him concluding in 1 Samuel chapter 27 and verse 1. He says, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines, and Saul shall despair of me, to seek me any more in any coast of Israel. So shall I escape out of his hand. That was really reverse reasoning by David. That was the second time, that follows the second time that Saul had tried to kill him and David was given the opportunity to retaliate should he so choose and he chose not to. He would not lift his hand against the Lord's anointed but instead of coming to the conclusion, Saul's never going to get me. He's tried so many times and he's failed and God has been faithful to protect me and to deliver my enemy into my hand every time, instead of reasoning that way, he says, no, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul. And David, I dare say, would have experienced in his heart something of disappointment with God. Of Christ himself, we read in Isaiah 53, verses 10 and 11, he shall see his seed, and he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities." What a rich prophetic statement this is about Christ. and how it illustrates to us the principle that is now under consideration that suffering precedes glory. He shall see his seed. A people, you see, had been given to Christ by his Father. Christ is mindful of these people. If he would have them for his own, then his soul must undergo travail or anguish. Suffering precedes glory, you see. The suffering of Christ precedes His people being glorified. Now I say that it is here especially that we must appreciate the principle that suffering precedes glory. and our failure to understand or appreciate this truth will inevitably lead us to become disappointed with God. Let me share with you, if I may, a very practical and personal way in which I must know and appreciate this truth. If I had my way with God, I would not be agonizing over children in my own family that are yet outside of Christ. Those children would have come to Christ long ago. They would not have to imitate the prodigal by sowing their wild oats. And I dare say here that many parents find themselves disappointed with God because God has not done things the way those parents would want to see those things done. When you stop and think about it though, what we may really be disappointed about is the fact that our own comfort zones have been invaded by God and our pride has been humbled by God. And the thing that we have to bear in mind here is that even in the matter of our children's salvation, this is not about us as parents, nor is it about them as children. I appreciate the emphasis in our Sunday School video series in this respect. It is rather about God. and about what best brings glory to God. And if Christ must travail to gain the souls that were given to Him, we should not count it to be unreasonable for us to travail over souls that are given to us. The thing we must avoid is becoming disappointed with God because He has not accomplished our desires in accordance with our view or our timetable of how those desires ought to be fulfilled. We must instead do all in our power to aid our defective understanding recognizing as we must that God's ways are not our ways, nor His thoughts our thoughts, nor for that matter is our timetable His timetable. He is, however, faithful to His promises. This is why I was so thrilled in this last week of prayer to learn of a Muslim man in Toronto who was saved following 27 years of his wife travailing in prayer for his soul. I read a Spurgeon sermon this last week in which Spurgeon tells a very interesting and inspiring story of a father who desired the salvation of his sons. Let me relate it to you in Spurgeon's own words. He writes, or he preaches, A father once had been a pious man for many years, yet never had he the happiness of seeing one of his sons converted. He had his children round his bed, and he said to them when dying, My sons, I could die in peace if I could but believe you would follow me to heaven. But this is the most sorrowful thing of all, not that I am dying, but that I am leaving you to meet you no more. They looked at him, but they would not think on their ways. They went away. Their father was suddenly overtaken with great clouds and darkness of mind. Instead of dying peacefully and happily, he died in great misery of soul, but still trusting in Christ. He said when he died, Oh, that I had died a happy death, for that would have been a testimony to my sons. But now, O God, this darkness and these clouds have in some degree taken away my power to witness to the truth of thy religion." Well, he died and was buried. The sons came to the funeral. The day after, one of them said to his brother, Brother, I have been thinking. Father was always a pious man, and if his death was yet such a gloomy one, How gloomy must ours be without God and without Christ. Ah, said the other, that thought struck me too. They went up to God's house, heard God's word, they came home and bent their knee in prayer, and to their surprise they found that the rest of the family had done the same, and that the God who had never answered their father's prayer in his life, had answered it after his death, and by his death too, and by such a death as would appear to be most unlikely to have brought the conversion of any. And so Spurgeon concludes with this exhortation, Pray on then my sister, pray on my brother, God shall yet bring thy sons and daughters to his love and fear, and thou shalt rejoice over them in heaven, if thou never dost unearth." Now we could consider many more applications of the principle that suffering precedes glory, but we must move on. I would only admonish you to ever keep such a truth in mind so you may fortify yourselves against becoming disappointed with God. We've seen that one of the causes of such disappointment is traceable to understanding, defective understanding. Would you consider with me next and finally that when the Lord disappoints you, It is because your attitude needs adjusting. Our understanding is defective and our attitude quite often needs adjusting. And now our case study here focuses on the prophet Jonah. You know the story. Jonah didn't want to go to Nineveh. If you know much about the wickedness of Nineveh, then you probably wouldn't blame Jonah for his reluctance to visit that ungodly place. He would have been quite happy to give the place over to God's judgment. And when he learned through a long and hard experience that would take him to the bottom of the mountains in the depths of the sea, he would learn through that experience this painful lesson for him that salvation is of the Lord. After learning that lesson, he would find the grace to take on what was to him a very unappealing assignment. He would at last go to Nineveh. But even upon executing his assignment, he had high hopes that his message would be rejected. Man, there's an unusual preacher for you. He hoped his message and that he himself would be rejected. How many preachers travel anywhere to preach with the hope that they won't be received and that their message will be rejected? But alas for Jonah, his theology proved to be correct. It's rather interesting to do a theological study in the book of Jonah. The theology of Jonah is given to us in a very concise but somewhat comprehensive statement in Jonah chapter 4 and verse 2 where we read, and he prayed unto the Lord and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish, for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. Interesting to note here in passing that Jonah's message did not focus on the theology that he here brings before the Lord in prayer. His message had nothing to do with the Lord being gracious and merciful and slow to anger and of great kindness. His message rather was, yet 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown. And yet he didn't want to preach even that message. I know I've said this before, but it's worth repeating, that even in the message of judgment, God's grace is demonstrated. God didn't have to warn them of judgment, nor does He have to warn sinners today, but He does. And He does so because of grace and mercy and great kindness. And so Jonah recognized the grace and mercy and kindness of God even in the proclamation of such a message. And so he didn't want to preach it, but he tried initially to flee instead. You know the story. Jonah did preach the message, and the inhabitants of Nineveh responded to it with very impressive repentance that went from the least of them to the greatest in sackcloth and ashes, and the city was spared from judgment. And Jonah was disappointed with God. I do well to be angry, even unto death, We find him saying in chapter 4 and verse 9, I think we could label Jonah's disappointment with God as the disappointment of the hyper-Calvinist. And by hyper-Calvinist, I refer to those Calvinists that are of the opinion that God so loves the elect and hates the non-elect with the end result that the hyper-Calvinist hates the non-elect too. I used to think that such issues were a matter of fruitless theological hair-splitting, but I have since come to recognize that such an issue has a very direct bearing upon our Christian lives and especially upon our Christian witness. How can we, as Christians, be expected to care for something that we think God himself doesn't care about? The truth that comes out of this chapter in Jonah is that God does care about souls. The ending to the book of Jonah is very telling in that regard. Listen to the last two verses of Jonah chapter 4. Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow, which came up in a night, and perished in a night. And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons, that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle? The reference to six score thousand persons that could not discern between their right hand and their left hand is generally thought by commentators to be a reference to children, those that are too young to know the difference between their right hand and their left hand. And from this example and other examples, not the least of which is Christ weeping over Jerusalem, We may infer that God does have compassion on lost souls and God takes no pleasure in the condemnation of lost souls. Ezekiel is instructed by God in Ezekiel 33 and verse 11 to say unto them, real. Now the thing that brings Calvinism into reproach among non-Calvinists is the perception conveyed by those Calvinists that God doesn't care, that God doesn't care about the non-elect. A very telling title to a book that criticizes Calvinism is the title, What Love Is This? and then the subtitle, Calvinism's Misrepresentation of God. The sad thing about those who lodge these kinds of criticism against Calvinists is that they have to set aside the plain teaching of scripture in order to hold their criticisms. They make for easy targets for Calvinists who are grounded in the Word of God to refute But that does not take away from the issue that if your theology leads you to a lack of compassion for lost souls and even the non-elect, then your theology has not served you well. And you, like Jonah, are in need of an attitude adjustment. What we've already covered in my first point I suppose could apply here as well. There is a defective understanding about God in such cases. We err who think that we can fit God into the tiny capacity of our finite understanding. His ways are above our ways, His thoughts higher than our thoughts. And we must guard ourselves against denying the truth of His sovereignty and His ultimacy in order to affirm an emotional issue. By the same token, we must not allow our theology to dismiss the plainly revealed attitude of God toward souls. He is sovereign in salvation and He desires that all men everywhere repent and believe the truth of Christ. His offer in the gospel is sincere to any and to all. And where we fail to understand and appreciate God's love and God's concern for the lost, we will find ourselves, like Jonah, developing judgmental attitudes toward others, attitudes that not only fail to represent God correctly, but indeed bring reproach to the name of God and the name of Christ. God is very long-suffering with souls. Much more so than we are, I'm afraid. I can remember many years ago, while I was still in the ranks of the Baptists, that there was a family that had a falling out with the Baptist church of which I was a member. The man had been ordained to the ministry through this church, and if memory serves me right, I think the trauma of a failed attempt to plant a church had made him bitter. He expressed his bitterness to the church leaders. The church officers responded to his harsh letters by informing him that he was in danger of having his ordination revoked if he continued in his harshness. The man responded by tearing up his ordination papers and then mailing them back to the church. It was very apparent that he was not going to allow that church to have any kind of leverage over him. The pastor of the church responded by expressing his fear that God was going to judge that man and his family for this. To my knowledge, that judgment never took place. I'm reminded by this incident and by the story of Jonah How the disciples of Christ once asked Christ if they thought it would be appropriate for them to call down fire from heaven to consume the city of Samaria. You remember Christ's response? We read in Luke 9 in verse 55, But He turned and rebuked them and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. Wasn't that the case with Jonah? Could that not possibly have been the case with this Baptist pastor? How often does it prove to be the case with us when God doesn't do what we think He should do, when we think He should do it, and the way in which we think He should do it? We become disappointed with God ultimately because God doesn't hearken to our beckoning call. God does not submit to us. He does not become subservient to us. The best way, therefore, to avoid becoming disappointed with God is to let God be God and for us to take our place before His throne as humble servants. He is good. He is gracious. You know that to be so if you're saved today. He's been good and gracious to you. He is also faithful to His promises and all-powerful to honor His promises And so our place is at his feet, humbly pleading his promises and patiently waiting on him. May the Lord help us to occupy the right place before him. May we find grace to never give up on those for whom we've been praying, May we bide God's time and by faith affirm that God will move in accordance with his wisdom in answer to the prayers of his people in the fashion that will most bring glory to his name. And may we find ourselves being compassionate and long-suffering even as these attributes reflect God himself. Let's close then in prayer.