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Doctrinal Bible Church

Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom

Wednesday April 15, 2026

Fellowship Series: Experiencing Fellowship with God Leads to Intimacy with God

Lesson # 10

The believer has been called into fellowship with the Trinity in order that the believer might enjoy and experience intimacy with the Trinity.

Just as there is intimacy in families in the natural realm, there is also intimacy in the royal family of God.

Our lives are composed of many relationships and the greatest relationships that we have in life are those where we are able to experience intimacy with the other person.

Most of our relationships with people are merely acquaintances.

An acquaintance is simply a person that you are not on intimate terms with.

Intimacy is a close, familiar and usually affectionate or loving, personal relationship with another person or group.

In relation to people, intimacy is a close association with or detailed knowledge or deep understanding of a person (cf. Jeremiah 9:24).

If you are smart you will only be on intimate terms with a few and in fact, if you have one person in your life that you can be on intimate terms with then you are truly blessed.

David had a friend that he was on intimate terms with, namely Jonathan (see 1 Samuel 18:1).

But as great as this relationship with Jonathan was, it did not last; Jonathan was killed with his father Saul in battle.

The Lord will at times remove human relationships from our lives that we value and have great intimacy in because He is trying to gain our attention.

The Lord is demonstrating how much He loves us by taking away these human relationships that we have great intimacy in because He wants us to recognize our most important relationship in life and that is our relationship with Him.

He loves you more than anyone…He will never let you down…He is a trusted friend…when all of have forsaken you, He is there waiting for you to come to Him.

He is there waiting in the darkness as you lay on your bed at night…when your tears fall like rain and you feel as if you can’t go on…He is there waiting for you with open arms! (Matthew 11:28-30)

Sadly, in our day and age, believers treat God as a mere acquaintance or they simply ignore Him, abandoning Him until the next time they are in a terrible jam.

We as believers must recognize the awesome privilege that we have been given; namely, we have been called into fellowship with the Triune God (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:9; 1 John 1:1-3).

So why do believers treat the Lord as a mere acquaintance?

They do not love Him and are disobeying the first great commandment (Mark 12:28-31).

If you love the Lord you will obey His Word (John 14:24).

There is a curse upon you if you don’t love Him (1 Cor. 16:22).

Too often, believers value their human relationships rather than their relationship with the Lord and this is reflected in their priorities in life.

Priorities: Put the Lord first.

Perspective: Acquire His divine viewpoint.

Performance: Put into practice His divine viewpoint.

The Lord is last on the list of priorities in the lives of many believers.

The Lord Jesus Christ constantly challenged His disciples to put their relationship with Him above every relationship that they had in life.

Luke 14:25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus and turning to them he said: 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. 27 And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. (NIV84)

Of all the relationships that you have in life, your relationship with God is the most important, but it must be cultivated and matured.

At the moment of conversion when you expressed faith alone in Christ alone you were entered into an eternal relationship with God and at the same time were given the opportunity to become intimate with God (Galatians 3:26-28).

This relationship with God can never be broken (Romans 8:38-39).

You and I as church age believers have been entered into a marriage relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ at the moment of conversion (Romans 7:1-6; Ephesians 5:28-32).

Many believers are committing spiritual adultery with the Lord today forsaking their relationship with the Lord and have committed spiritual adultery by putting idols in their souls such as money, houses, wives, husbands, children, jobs and self (cf. Jeremiah 3:8-10; James 4:4-10).

A great marriage relationship is one in which the woman respects her husband and responds to his initiation.

In our spiritual marriage, our Lord and Savior initiated the relationship with His death on the cross, which demonstrated not only the Father’s love for all of us but demonstrated His infinite, eternal love for all of us in that He was willing to suffer the humiliation of the cross.

Now, why wouldn’t you want to get to know a God like that and fall in love with Him?

How could any of us, not respond to so great a love as our Lord demonstrated at the cross in that while we obnoxious sinners, He died for us as our Substitute (Romans 5:6-8).

Many believers show no appreciation for the fact that their sins have been forgiven and this is manifested after conversion when they place the Lord as last on their list of priorities.

There is a woman in Scripture who appreciated the forgiveness of her sins and it caused her to love the Lord and in fact, the Lord states because she was forgiven much, she loved much.

You know we have all been forgiven much by the Lord and we should all love Him much! (Luke 7:40-47)

Luke 7:36 Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, 38 and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. 39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.” 40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said. 41 “Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled.” “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said. 44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45   You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” 48    Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” 50 Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” (NIV84)

Like all relationships such as marriage, you need to put some effort into your relationship with the Lord.

Those who make a diligent effort to know their God and be obedient to His commands as found in the Word of God will be on intimate terms with God (Proverbs 8:17).

Those who put the most effort into their relationship with the Lord will have greater intimacy with the Lord than those who do not put as much effort into their relationship with Him.

There appears to be two types of Christians in the world today: (1) Those who love the Lord because they obey His Word. (2) Those who do not love the Lord because they do not learn His Word or they do not apply that which they have learned.

Loving the Lord is picking up your cross and experiencing the cross of Christ in your own life on a day by day basis.

Picking up your cross means you are willing to experience identification with Christ in His death meaning you are willing to exchange living for self for living for Him and by doing so, you can experience the life of Christ (Matthew 10:37-39).

The Word of the cross is the basis of fellowship and intimacy with the Lord (1 Cor. 1:18) and the apostle Paul made personal application of the Word of the cross in his own life (cf. Gal. 2:20; 6:14).

Those who achieve greater intimacy with Lord are those who have experienced the cross in their own lives meaning they are dedicated and are devoted to picking up their own cross making personal application of the cross in their own lives.

Finally, those who are diligent in pursuing their relationship with the Lord will also be rewarded with even greater intimacy with the Lord during His Millennial reign and eternal state.

Those who are willing to pick up their cross in time will reign with Christ in the future and those who reign with Christ will have greater access and intimacy with the Lord (cf. Revelation 2:17, 26; 3:21; 22:12).

Doctrinal Bible Church

Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom

Sunday April 12, 2026

Jonah Series: Jonah 4:3-Jonah Requests That The Lord Take His Life From Him

Lesson # 39

In Jonah 4:3, the prophet complains to the Lord in prayer that he’d rather die than live and see Him spare the lives of the Ninevites.

Jonah 4:1 But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord, “O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, O Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4 But the Lord replied, “Have you any right to be angry?” 5 Jonah went out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. 6 Then the Lord God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine. 7 But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered. 8   When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.” 9 But God said to Jonah, “Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?” “I do,” he said. “I am angry enough to die.” 10 But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?” (NIV84)

Jonah 4:3 presents an inference from the fact that God had exercised His grace policy towards the Ninevites.

It expresses an inference from the fact that the Lord was merciful towards the Ninevites and was slow to exercise His righteous indignation towards them.

The statement expresses an inference from the fact that God exercised His transcendent unconditional love towards them and graciously relented from judging them.

The NIV84 does not translate the particle of entreaty nā(ʾ) (נָא), which is a marker of emphasis with focus on the desire of the speaker, used to heighten a sense of urgency, intensity and it means “please” in the sense of “I beg of you” and is used of Jonah addressing Yahweh.

The word emphasizes his desire to die and expresses the urgency and the intensity of his prayer.

“Take away my life” refers to the Lord ending the existence of Jonah’s soul in his physical body, thus ending his life on earth.

“For it is better for me to die than to live” presents the reason for Jonah’s request that the Lord end his life on earth and expresses the idea that for Jonah physical death is superior to living.

Jonah 4:3 marks the end of Jonah’s prayer to the Lord, which took the form of a complaint regarding the Lord’s character.

In Jonah 2, we saw the prophet praying that the Lord would deliver him from drowning to death but now in Jonah 4:2-3, we see him begging that the Lord would take his life because it was too much for Jonah to bear that the Lord would spare the lives of the Ninevites rather than destroy them.

The Lord answered his prayer in chapter 2 but not here in chapter 4 since it was not the Lord’s will to kill Jonah.

Rather, the Lord wanted to teach Jonah something about His grace policy towards the human race and His love for them.

Jonah’s prayer reveals that the prophet does not have the same perspective as God with regards to the human race and specifically in relation to the Gentiles.

Like Jonah’s angry reaction to the Lord sparing the Ninevites, the prophet’s prayer is an example of Israelite national pride and self-righteousness.

Jonah hates the idea of God sparing the lives of the Ninevites and treating them in grace because he is comparing the righteousness of himself and Israel to the lack of righteousness on the part of the Ninevites.

Jonah is comparing himself to the Ninevites and concludes that he and his Jewish countrymen are superior to the Ninevites.

However, he fails to see that God concludes that both groups have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) and that there is none righteous, not even one (Romans 3:10).

Jonah is not judging himself and Israel according to God’s perfect holy standards but rather he is doing so by comparing himself to the Ninevites.

In chapter 4, the Lord is teaching Jonah that He has compassion for all men and not just Israel including the wicked Assyrians.

Compassion is a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by suffering or misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the pain or remove its cause.

The Lord expressed a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for the Ninevites who were stricken by the curse of sin and who were enslaved to Satan and his cosmic system.

Thus the Lord attempted to remove the curse of sin in the lives of the Ninevites by sending Jonah to preach the Gospel which according to Romans 1:16 is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes in Jesus Christ as Savior.

Jonah’s attitude is indicative of the nation of Israel at that time.

The nation of Israel failed in evangelizing the world.

They were to be the instruments that God employed to present the Gospel to the unbelieving Gentiles.

They failed.

Jonah failed to see because of self-righteous arrogance that the Ninevites were just as much qualified to be recipients of salvation as Jonah and the rest of the nation of Israel.

Like the Pharisees in our Lord’s Day, Jonah lacked the Lord’s view of the world.

The Lord saw Nineveh as a field ready to be harvested.

Jonah failed to go to Nineveh and do his job as a prophet because he did not possess divine viewpoint even though he was saved.

He lacked compassion and mercy and failed to see the great opportunity that the Lord had given him to preach to the Gentiles unbelievers in Nineveh.

Jonah failed to appreciate the fact that the Lord had used him to produce the greatest harvest of souls in the Old Testament, 120,000 people were saved.

Yet Jonah failed to appreciate this wonderful work of God which was performed through him.

Jonah 4:3 presents the first of two requests by Jonah of the Lord to end his life.

The second is found in 4:8.

In the former, he explicitly requests that the Lord would take his life but in the second he does not explicitly do so but it is implied.

Both requests are self-centered and the result of the function of the sin nature and being deceived by the cosmic system of Satan.

This self-centeredness is manifested by the fact that though Jonah acknowledges the character of God in verse 2, he accompanies this acknowledgement with nine references to himself in verses 2-3.

So Jonah’s view of the human race and in particular the Gentiles was distorted because of his nationalistic pride and self-righteousness.

Jonah’s also involved in hypocrisy since he echoes Elijah’s prayer in 1 Kings 19:4 since the first six Hebrew words in Jonah’s prayer in 4:3 include the same four terms that served to form Elijah’s prayer in 1 Kings 19:4.

Though Jonah uses these words, he is not spiritual or guided by the Spirit since the Spirit desires all men to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9).

Elijah requested death because he thought the entire nation of Israel was in apostasy and that he was the only one in the nation who was not unfaithful to the Lord.

However, Jonah’s request is based upon the fact that he is infuriated that God exercised His grace and mercy towards the Ninevites and spared their lives.

Jonah wanted to see a city destroyed whereas Elijah wanted a national revival in Israel.

“Hypocrisy” is “a pretense of having a virtuous character, moral or religious beliefs or principles, etc., that one does not possess; a pretense of having some desirable or publicly approved attitude.”

Therefore, Jonah is making a pretense of having a virtuous character that he does not possess and is making a pretense of having a spiritual attitude by using Elijah’s words.

However, he does not fool God.

His hypocrisy was first manifested in Jonah 1:9.

In Jonah 4:2-3, he is manifesting his hypocrisy once again by echoing the words of Elijah so as to make a pretense of having a spiritual attitude and to justify his resentment towards God sparing the Ninevites.

Doctrinal Bible Church

Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom

Sunday April 12, 2026

Jonah Series: Jonah 4:2-Jonah Reveals His Motivation For Disobeying The Lord’s Command To Go To Nineveh And Announce Judgment Against It

Lesson # 38

Jonah 4:2 for the first time reveals Jonah’s motivation for disobeying the Lord’s command to go to Nineveh and announce judgment against its inhabitants.

Jonah 4:1 But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord, “O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, O Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4 But the Lord replied, “Have you any right to be angry?” 5 Jonah went out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. 6 Then the Lord God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine. 7 But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered. 8   When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.” 9 But God said to Jonah, “Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?” “I do,” he said. “I am angry enough to die.” 10 But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?” (NIV84)

“He prayed to the Lord” presents an action taken by Jonah that was the result of his considering it unjust of the Lord to not destroy Nineveh.

This statement indicates that Jonah’s prayer in which he voices his complaint to the Lord for sparing the lives of the Ninevites was the direct consequence of considering the Lord’s decision to relent as unjust.

This result clause is followed by an epexegetical clause that identifies the specific content of Jonah’s prayer.

“O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still at home?” is a rhetorical question that serves as an indictment against God’s decision to spare the Ninevites and can be rendered as an emphatic declaration in the translation.

It indicates that prior to receiving orders from the Lord to go to Nineveh and announce judgment against its inhabitants, Jonah had the conviction that the Lord would spare the lives of the Ninevites when they believed in Him and repented of their evil way of living.

Jonah is saying that he fled to Tarshish to prevent the Lord from sparing the lives of the Ninevites “because” he knew that the Lord was gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abundant in mercy and one who relents concerning judgment.

“Tarshish” was located in southern Spain, approximately 2,500 miles west of Joppa.

“I knew” is the verb yā∙ḏǎʿ (יָדַע) means “to be known by faith,” thus “to hold a conviction” regarding God’s character.

A “conviction” is a “strong persuasion or belief” (Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition).

Here the verb yā∙ḏǎʿ refers to the conviction that Jonah possessed regarding the character of Yahweh.

“Gracious” is the adjective ḥǎn∙nûn (חַנּוּן) and speaks of God’s grace policy and describes God as imparting unmerited blessings to sinners based upon the merits of the object of the sinner’s faith.

Grace is all that God is free to do in imparting unmerited blessings to those who trust in Jesus Christ as Savior based upon the merits of Christ and His death on the Cross.

It is God treating us in a manner that we don’t deserve and excludes any human works in order to acquire eternal salvation or blessing from God.  

Grace means that God saved us and blessed us despite ourselves and not according to anything that we do but rather saved us and blessed us because of the merits of Christ and His work on the cross.

It excludes any human merit in salvation and blessing (Eph. 2:8-9; Titus 3:5) and gives the Creator all the credit and the creature none.

The adjective rǎ∙ḥûm (רַחוּם) means “merciful” in the sense that He is compassionate towards sinners and pardons them by withholding judgment when they believe in His Son Jesus Christ.

“Slow to anger” describes God as giving the sinner every chance to avoid facing His righteous indignation and speaks of the fact that He delays in exercising it so that the sinner can turned to Him in faith.

God’s righteous indignation is His attitude toward any thought, word, or action of His moral rational creatures, whether mankind and angels, that is opposed to His holiness and manifests itself in actions that judge and punish the guilty.

God’s righteous indignation is the legitimate anger towards evil and sin since both are contrary to His holiness or perfect character and nature.

In fact, God’s righteous indignation expresses His holiness.

The noun rǎḇ (רַב), “abounding in” and the noun ḥě∙sěḏ (חֶסֶד), “love” are describing God as loyal or faithful to His covenants with men and characterizes how God acts towards His covenant people Israel.

The noun rǎḇ (רַב) means “transcendent,” which means “to go beyond ordinary limits of; overpass; exceed.”

These two words describe God as loyal or faithful to His covenants with men and characterize how God acts towards His covenant people Israel and that this love goes beyond ordinary limits of human love.

They describe God’s unconditional love as transcending the standards of human love so that God’s love is incomparable.

“A God who relents from sending calamity” describes God as one who graciously does not act upon His decision to judge or condemn whether an individual, a group of individuals, or a nation in order that they might turn to Him in faith.

In this verse, Jonah’s motivation for disobeying the Lord’s command to go to Nineveh and announce judgment against its inhabitants is finally revealed.

Up to this point in the narrative, the narrator has withheld revealing Jonah’s motivation for disobeying the Lord’s command to go to Nineveh and announce judgment against its inhabitants for rhetorical effect.

He keeps the reader in suspense and to ultimately shock the reader.

Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh in order to prevent God from exercising His character towards the Ninevites, which the prophet knew would result in sparing the lives of the Ninevites, whom he hated.