Alright, if you take your Bibles
and turn with me to Romans 15. Romans chapter 15. Our text will be
found in verses 5 and 6 this evening. Romans chapter 15, verse
5 and 6. The title of my message this
evening is, The God of Patience. The God of Patience. I was experiencing
some trouble this week. And I had become very frustrated
in my endeavors. And I came to my office all frustrated
and I'm sure my blood pressure was up quite a bit. I opened
the Scriptures to our text that we would be studying tonight
and the first thing I read was verse 5, now the God of patience. And I was slapped in the face
with that verse of Scripture. The God Patience. The God of patience. Paul, here,
after telling us who are strong believers, who are strong in
the faith, who are strong in liberty in Christ, those of us
who see all things are of God, and we must with patience bear
under the weight of the infirmities of our weaker brethren, He tells us that we who are strong
are to bear the infirmities not pleasing ourselves, not satisfying
our own minds or straightening them out or flexing our spiritual
liberty in front of them, but rather to give place to their
weakness in superficial, non-essential matters such as meats and drinks. How then can this be done? Verse 4 tells us how in that
he says, "...For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written
for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures
might have hope." How can we bear under these things? What is the tool that God uses?
What is the channel that God uses to give us the strength
to bear under the infirmities of the weak? The Scriptures. The Scriptures are the channel
by which God uses so that we might see Christ our Lord and
what He bore for us on the cross. How He bore our sins. How He
carried our griefs. How He bore our judgment. When
Jesus Christ was talking to the Pharisees, He says, search the
Scriptures. In them you think you have eternal
life, but they are they that testify of..." Who? "...Me."
The Scriptures all testify of Christ. They all testify of Him. The Scriptures were written for
our learning to see Christ. And by seeing Him, we through
them might have patience and comfort to bear the infirmities
of the weak, of our weak brethren. But Paul here in verse 5, after
telling him that the Scriptures are the channel by which God
uses so that we might have patience and comfort of the Scriptures,
he then takes his eye after giving them the exhortation, after laying
the exhortation out to them, he then turns his eyes upward
and he begins to pray. He begins to pray. And that's
my first point tonight concerning our text. This is a prayer. Paul
usually does this. He'll start with something and
all of a sudden, he's so lifted up that he's got to go before
the throne of grace. And that's exactly what he does
for these believers concerning this exhortation. He goes before
God in prayer. Read that in verse 5. Read in
our text. He says, The God of patience and consolation grants
you to be like-minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus. According to Christ Jesus. He
lifts up them in prayer concerning this exhortation. He prays to God for them in pleading,
in all preaching of the Gospel, all preaching of the Gospel,
all preaching of the duties and salvation and everything that's
contained in the Word of God. All of this must be watered with
prayer. Everything must be watered with
prayer. Every time we go to the Scriptures, it must be watered
with prayer. When I preach to you, I follow
it by prayer. I must. I must lift it up to
God. I must lift this exhortations
and things that I give you concerning the Gospel. How else can you
understand it? How else can it penetrate through
our hearts unless we lift it up to God? And God, by His grace,
do it. All preaching must be watered
with prayer and so must all study. If you are studying the Scriptures
on how it is that you might bear the infirmities of the weaker
brethren, My friend, if you do not water it with prayer, it
will not grow. You will not understand it unless
God, by His grace, gives it. Pray! Prayer! As we know by experience, we
know by the Word of God and by experience, that through perseverance
of the Scriptures and comfort of the Scriptures, we might have
hope in Christ. Though we may learn to bear the
infirmities of our weaker brethren, but it must be watered by prayer
in order for it to grow. Therefore, He offers up this
prayer to whom? Who is this prayer offered up
to? It's offered up to God. It's offered up to God. All things must come from God. All things. Nothing we have,
nothing we have ever learned, nothing we have ever put into
practice has ever come by us. It has always come by the hand
of our God. Always. We may study long in
the Scriptures. We may gain certain knowledge
about the Bible. We may glean the truths of Scripture
in our head, but it is of no value unless God puts it into
our hearts. All prayer is directed to God
because He alone can open the eyes of our understanding. How
many times have we been frustrated with someone and to bear underneath
their burdens. And yet one day we are lifted
up, we see the Scriptures, we see Christ, we see what He has
done for us, and then all of a sudden we understand and we
come underneath that, brethren. How is that possible? What happened? What changed you from yesterday
to today? God did. God did. We cannot know anything about
God or ourselves unless God reveals it to us. Jesus said this in
Matthew 11, No man knoweth the Father save the Son, and no man
knoweth the Son save the Father, and no man knoweth the Father
save the Son, and to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him. We cannot
know God unless He is revealed to us. We cannot know the Father but
Christ giving us revelation of Him. So it is with all things
concerning our salvation, Christian duty, and love for Christ and
each other. Now for the strong believer to
humble himself and bear patiently the weaker brethren, it must
not nor will not come from his strength. If you bear long with
your brethren, it's not because you're strong. It's not because
of your strength. It's not because of your diligence
in study, nor of your great understanding, but it must come by the grace
of God. So all things must come from
God. Therefore, pray to God. Humble
ourselves before the Almighty. If we have an exhortation in
Scripture, how can this be accomplished but by humbling ourselves before
God? And God, by His grace in His
time, granting us this petition. It can't. We can't do anything
without God. And notice the title that he
gives the God of his prayer. The God of Patience. And that's
what I want to spend the rest of the evening on tonight. The
God of Patience. The God of Patience. Peter says
this in 1 Peter 5.10, but the God of all grace. The God of
all grace. God is the God of all grace.
He owns all grace. He owns it all. It is in the
palm of His hand to give out His grace when and to whom He
pleases. Isn't that wonderful? It is if
you know God. If you know God, it is because
He is a gracious God. He is the God of all grace. The God of all grace. Nebuchadnezzar,
I had this thought come to me as I was studying. Nebuchadnezzar,
when the Lord struck him down and put him in a field to eat
grass like a dumb beast. Who was it that restored him
to his kingdom? It was God. When did God restore
him to his kingdom? Whenever He pleased. whenever
he pleased. You know, he could have left
that man a dumb beast to die in the field. Yet, he chose rather
to reveal himself to that man. Nebuchadnezzar said, hey, this
God of Daniel, I know that God, He does whatsoever He pleases
among the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth, and we're all like grasshoppers. We're like, nothing before Him.
We are His nothing. He is everything. He did it of
His own pleasure and for His own glory. It was accomplished
in His own time. And so it is with us. So it is
with us and His grace upon us. Many times we as believers walk
around like dumb beasts, don't we? We walk around like dumb
beasts. Beating ourselves on the chest.
Patting ourselves on the back. Look how strong I am in the faith. Look how much I know. I want
you to know how much I know. We walk around like brute beasts. Boasting of our liberty. Or struggling
under the burdens we place upon ourselves. But in reality, we may be hurting
our other brothers for whom Christ died. We must be very cautious
at how we, who claim to be strong, flaunt our liberty, so that we
might not hurt another believer. We might not hurt them. Study the Scriptures, yes. Look
for Christ and how it was He was wounded for our sin and weakness. But if we do not water this with
prayer and we do not ask God for the grace to make it effectual
to our hearts, it will not come. It must come from the hand of
God, the God of patience. Paul here calls Him the God of
patience. Is that not a grace? Is patience not a grace? Or do
you have it naturally? Anybody have it natural? Does
it come by you naturally to be patient? It doesn't come by me
naturally at all. That's what hit me so hard when
I looked at the Scripture. It doesn't come naturally at
all. It's a grace. It must be given. Galatians 5.22 says, The fruits
of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, long-suffering. That's
patience. It's patience is a gift. It's
a gift of the God of patience. If there's anyone who has suffered
long and been patient, it's God. If anybody has suffered long,
it's God. Isn't that right? Is there anybody
who has more patience than God? The patience of God. From the
time of the fall of Adam until now, God has been long-suffering
and patient. Has He not? He has been long-suffering
and patient. And I want us to see this in
two ways. He's been patient with lost, hell-deserving sinners. He's been patient with the vessels
of wrath, and He's been patient with us. He's been patient with
His elect. First of all, He's been patient
with the vessels fitted for destruction. Romans 9.22 says, What if God,
willing to show His wrath to make His power known, endured
with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction?
Think of the patience of God to endure the blasphemy of mankind
from Adam till now. Think of God's patience with
them to give them the very breath they blaspheme with. To give
them the very pleasures of life that they have, the graces that
they've been given in this life. They've been given providential
goodness all the while. extending his gospel every day to again sane people, to a people who love darkness
rather than light. He could have sent them to hell
from the beginning, couldn't he? God had the right to, when
our father Adam sinned, He had the right to not say a word to
Adam, but cast him and Eve into hell forever. He had that right. But you see, we have a God who
is the God of patience. Praise God for the God of patience. He's patient with them until
the cup of their iniquity is full. And He will be patient
till the end. Let me ask you a question. How patient
would you have been with mankind? Put yourself in that situation.
I wouldn't have put up with me for a second. I wouldn't have
put up with me for a second. Thank God I'm not God. Thank
God we worship a God of patience. of patience. He was not only
patient with the evil men that were fitted for vessels of wrath,
fitted for destruction, but He was patient with us too. He was patient with us too. Go
to 2 Peter chapter 3. Flip over there real fast. Hold
your place here. And go to 2 Peter chapter 3. 2 Peter chapter 3
and verse 9. 2 Peter 3 and verse 9, "...the
Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count
slackness, but is longsuffering..." To who? "...to usward." Now those
words right there are the key to the rest of this passage.
If you miss those words, you're going to miss out on what the
whole rest of the passage means. "...to usward, not willing that
any..." Of us. That's right. He's going back
to the beginning there where He said, to us, where He's talking
about us. Not willing that any of us should perish, but that
all of us should come to repentance. To us-ward. You see, God is the
God of patience to us-ward. To His elect people. To you,
believer. God is patient with you. God
has been patient with us. You see, He was patient with
us when we were walking around like the other vessels of wrath. You couldn't tell us from them. We were walking about fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature
the children of wrath even as others. And yet God patiently
guided you through your life. He patiently surrounded you and
protected you so that you did not die and fall off into hell.
He watched you patiently as you kicked and screamed and spit
in His face. All the while patiently bearing
with us. Patiently bearing with us until
the time that He would bring us to Christ. Patiently, patiently
bearing with us. And He is even bearing with us
right now. Patiently bearing with us. How
much of our worship is worthy to be accepted in and of itself?
When you're worshiping tonight, you're hearing the Word of God,
you praise God, you worship God for who He is, you bless His
name because of the blood and righteousness of Christ. You
see, all of that is good, but in and of itself, it would be
worthless without God blessing it, without God's patience, without the patience of Christ
enduring the suffering that we deserved. How could our praise
be accepted without Him being patient, enduring the wrath of
God? He has been patient with us until
we came to Christ. He guided us and protected us
and brought us under the sound of the Gospel, quickened our
hearts, gave us faith in Christ, not willing that we should perish.
Isn't that wonderful? That God is not willing you should
perish. He's not willing for it to happen.
Is it going to happen? Is there any possibility you
should perish? No, because He is the God of
patience. He is patiently bearing with
us. Praise God for His patience. Praise God, He is the God of
all patience, bearing with me even in my sin. For Christ said,
Scripture says, when we were yet sinners, Christ died. And
in patience He waited for the time of love. And when that time
came, He said unto us, live. And we lived. And therefore,
because of His great grace and being patient with us and showing
us Christ, He will always be patient with us. This is something
you can take with you everywhere you go. God is a God of patience
and He will always, always bear with us. Always bear with us. Many times we sin and feel that
we've been grieved in our conscience and we feel that we have surely
been abandoned this time. Surely God will not stay around
now after what I've done. I know I would have abandoned
me long ago. But take comfort, the God of patience is still
not willing that you should perish, but that you should repent and
turn to Christ. See then that the patience of
God to usward is a great gift of His grace and mercy. And He will always be patient
with us. Well then, how is the patience of God given? How then
is the patience of God given? He Himself is patient and He
alone can give us patience. Paul says in our text, the God
of patience and consolation grant you. For you and I to be patient,
God must give us this patience. How does He give it? Well, I know you know the answer,
but I know you don't like it. Romans 5, 3. Tribulation worketh
patience. Tribulation worketh patience. Patience, experience, and experience,
hope, and hope make it not ashamed. God gives patience through troubles. so that He might manifest to
us the vessels of mercy, His grace, His patience, His kindness
to us who believe. In order that through patience,
which means quiet forbearance, that's very important, I said
before, many times I've went through a trial and I've said
with myself, oh, I'm murmuring and murmuring, complaining, complaining,
oh, I can't stand this, and I get to the end and said, oh, look
what patience I've had. That's not patience. Patience
is quiet forbearance. It's to take the cross that God
has given us and silently bear it without murmuring or complaining. Psalms 40 verse 1, I read this
on Sunday. I have waited patiently on the
Lord. In trouble, in pain, in prayer,
in worship, in study, what is our experience concerning waiting
on the Lord? You that have quietly bore underneath
the weight of the cross that God has given you to bear. What
is our experience every time? The same as David. He inclined
his ear unto me and heard me. I have that experience every
single time in every single trouble in my life. God has always inclined
His ear unto us. Always. He heard my cry. He brought me up out of a horrible
pit, out of the miry clay and set my feet on the rock and established
my goings. Is this not our experience time
and time again? Has He not always been long-suffering? Has He not always given us patience
to bear our trials? Yes, He has. And hear me, yes,
He shall. Because He is the God of patience. This is who He is. And my friend,
this is what He gives. This is what He gives. May the God of all patience,
Paul says in his prayer, grant you, and this is the result of
Paul's prayer, grant you, in our text, to be like-minded one
toward another according to Jesus Christ. He's saying the same
thing he said in Philippians 2, verse 5. Let this mind be
in you, which was in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made of himself
no reputation. took upon Himself the form of
a slave, humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. Let that mind be in us. May God grant us, the God of
patience, grant us that kind of patience. To bear under injustice. It's one thing to endure things
that we justly deserve. It's altogether different to
bear things that we do not deserve. Jesus Christ bore everything
He did not deserve. Let that mind be in us. Let that
mind be in us that was in Christ Jesus. May He grant us these
things to be a servant to God and to each other. That's Psalm 40 and verse 1.
You know that that's Christ speaking. Really, He's the only one that
ever really waited patiently on the Lord. Even in my greatest amount of
patience, I was very impatient. But I long for the mind of Christ
to be patient, to wait for God's answer in God's time. I long
to be patient with my brethren in Christ. I must bear underneath their
weight and their burden Why do we do this? Why do we
pray for such a thing? Why do we pray for such a thing?
For our glory? Is that the reason? No. We pray for this, not for our
glory. or so that others may see our
patience and say to us, wow, what a patient person that guy
is. I know many times we, in our sin, do things and expect
praise from men, but we should not let that. That shouldn't
be our mind. Joanne, I'm sure would you like
somebody to come and say, well, Joanne, hey, you've been a real
patient person. She's laughing. Of course. We
realize within ourselves that we're nothing. We can't be patient.
And it's not for us. Our patience that we bear is
not for our glory, but for the glory of God. That's the reason
we do all we do. It's for the glory of God. This is the end of patience,
that God would be glorified. Read that in verse 6, that you
may be a one mind and one mouth. Glorify God. The reason for patience
is to glorify God. The author of patience is God
Himself. Seek God to give us patience.
I pray that God would bless this to our hearts, so that we may
bear the infirmities of our brethren, so we may love each other more
and love Christ more. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed
in prayer.