I'll take my text this morning.
Romans chapter 15. I appreciate Larry reading this
for me. Paul gives four names of God. He gives the Lord four
titles in this chapter that is very endearing to us. They speak of God's nature and
His attributes. The endearing names of God. There
are four of them. Here in verse 5, He gives us
two. He calls God the God of patience. Then in that same chapter, He
calls Him the God of comfort. The God of consolation. The God
of comfort. Then down in verse 12, Or verse
13, he calls Him the God of hope. And then in the last verse, he
identifies God as the God of peace. Some names that are very
endearing to us of God. So I just want to look at these
four things this morning, these four tables that Paul puts upon
our eternal God. And the first one is here in
verse 5, the God of patience. I love that word, don't you?
When it's applied to God, a God of patience, He is so patient. How many times do we think and
how many times in the midst of our conversations do we say,
how can God possibly endear this generation? How can He possibly
look at what's going on and not destroy humanity? There's only
one thing that's ascribed to. He's a God of patience. But how
many times have we thought not what's going on outside of us,
but what's going on in us? How can He possibly endear me
with all my unbelief, with all my failings? How can God possibly
not destroy me? One of the reasons He gives for
not doing so, He's the God of patience. He is a patient God. Difficult sometimes to be patient,
isn't it? It really is. It's difficult
to be patient when you're going through trials. It's difficult
to be patient with other people. It's difficult sometimes to be
patient with yourself. And we'll look at that just in
a minute because the Apostle Paul, what he says here about
God being patient, he gives Him as an example for us to follow,
to follow Jesus Christ and His patience with us and others. But let's look at this patience
as it pertains to God. Our Bibles, our version, the
King James Version, often translates this word patience as long suffering. It means to bear long with somebody. Sometimes you see those words
in our version interchanged. And I want to show you one place
that is so in Exodus. I will put you a little marker
there because we will be coming back to that. And look over in
the book of Exodus chapter 34. You that have read this, you
remember that Moses made a request to God. And he said, show me
your glory. Moses had seen all the plagues
that God had sent on the Egyptians. He saw the Red Sea part, and
he knew this was the power of God, and yet he knew there was
something in God that he had never seen. And he said, I want
to see your glory. And God told him, it's not possible
for you to look on my face and live, but there is a place by
me, and I'll put you in this rock, and I'll pass by you, and
I'll let you see my glory. Well, what is the glory of God?
Well, he tells us here in chapter 34 of Exodus. Look in verse 5. Chapter 34 and verse 5 and verse
6. And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him
there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed
by before him, and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God merciful
and gracious, longsuffering, there's our word that they translated
in other places, as patience. It is the name of God, long-suffering,
an abundance in goodness and in truth. Patience. The wise man said to be patient
in spirit is better than to be proud in spirit. To be patient
is to be long-suffering. And the New Testament uses this
same word, long-suffering, or patience, to describe God patiently
bearing with His elect until He brings them to repentance
and faith. You remember II Peter chapter
3 verse 9 very well. The Lord is not slack concerning
His promises, but is long-suffering to us words. He is long-suffering,
He bears long, even with His elect, until He brings them to
repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul uses this
word, long-suffering, in his writings. In Romans chapter 2
he says, Despises thou the riches of God's goodness and forbearance,
and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth
thee to repentance? When patience is translated,
as it is in Exodus 34, as longsuffering, it has to do also with forbearance. It means God patiently bears
with someone while they are in the wrong and while they are
doing wrong. Look how often you and I, brothers
and sisters, have provoked God to destroy us. Think of how long
that you and I lived in sin, lived in unbelief, lived as rebels
against God, and we tempted the justice of God to destroy us. Why didn't He destroy us? How
could He bear with us? Why would He bear with us? And
the answer is given in our text. He's the God of patience. Well, He's not like us, is He?
If I had treated you like I treated God, you'd have done me horribly
now. You would have avoided me at
all cost. Why did God stay on my trail?
Why did he not give up on me? Why did finally he bring me to
repentance? Patience. The patience of God. This word patience is not only
translated as long-suffering, but in other places it's translated
as slow to anger. When Paul talked about The patience
of God, he could also have said, God is slow to anger. Very same word. In Psalms 103,
verse 8, the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger. He is patient and plenteous in
mercy. I want you to notice, he does
it in Psalms 103, and he does it here in Exodus chapter 34.
The words that he uses alongside of this word patience are long-suffering. The Lord God merciful and gracious
and abundant in goodness. These are things that we have
to have if we ever hope of being saved. These are things in God
that He must manifest to us if He ever saves us. What is it? Grace. Mercy. Goodness. But it's not just that,
is it? It's this word that we're looking
at. Long-suffering. Grace and mercy. And goodness will save us. But
listen, what is it that preserves us, that keeps God's wrath from
falling upon us until He does save us by grace, until we do
obtain mercy? And it's this thing we're talking
about. It's His long suffering. It's His patience. It's His slowness
to anger. Stephen Chinook, he was an old
Puritan writer, and he had this to say, especially about the
mercy and patience of God. He talked of these like they
were brothers. The patience of God and the mercy
of God are brothers, he said. And here's what he said about
them. They are brothers, but they differ in this sense. The
mercy of God has to do with our misery. Our great misery draws
out God's great mercy. I love that, don't you? Somebody
says, I'm miserable. Oh, those times were miserable.
Sin has made us miserable. But the mercy of God in Christ,
misery draws out that mercy from the heart of God and delivers
us from our misery. But Chinook also said this, but
the patience of God has to do with us as being criminals. Mercy pities us and therefore
delivers us from our misery. Patience bears with our sinning
until mercy delivers us. Patience bears with our sinning. Boy, the legalists hate that,
don't they? You talk about sinning? They know nothing about that.
There are people who think they haven't sinned in years. Then
why are they interested in patience? Patience has to do with God being
long-suffering towards us, patiently burned with us while we live
in sin and after He saved us when we commit sin. His patience. When Jonah was upset because
God had granted Nineveh repentance, this is what he said. Listen
to this. I knew that thou art a gracious
God and a merciful God, slow to anger and of great kindness. See how wonderful these things
go together. And He doesn't just say, you're
a gracious God, you're a merciful God, you're a kind God, you're
a good God. But He adds this one thing, you're
a patient God. And that's what keeps God from
destroying us, isn't it? He's patient. He's slow to anger. He's long-suffering. And boy,
there's two great examples in the New Testament of these two
going together. these things alongside of each
other, grace and mercy and goodness and long-suffering. God's kindness
and His long-suffering are His patience. Remember the thief
on the cross? Just a few hours before this
thief was saved, just a few hours, he was going to die. I don't
know how old this man was. You'd think he was maybe in his
forties or fifties. The Lord saved him by his grace,
by his mercy, and said, Today you will be with me in paradise.
But what was it that preserved that thief until he come to his
dying hours? It was patience, wasn't it? Patience. The patience of God. And we see
this in the Apostle Paul. He said, I obtained mercy that
in me first, In me first, Jesus Christ might set forth myself
in His long-suffering, in His long-suffering as a pattern,
as a pattern. Shouldn't this tell us that you
and I should never despair? Because sometimes the Lord is
going to put on display not just His mercy and His grace and goodness,
He's going to display His patience with somebody. And He displays
it right up sometime until the last hours of their life. You
and I should never spare of anybody of our children, no matter how
far they seem to have drifted, pray for them. Because God is
a God of patience. And sometimes when His justice
has been so provoked, you would think, Lord, I would destroy
that man. But He doesn't. And why doesn't
he do it? He's the God of Patience. Aren't you glad for that? Isn't
this a wonderful name for our God? This is an attribute of
our God. The God of Patience. And if you don't much realize
that you need a God like this, then I pray God will teach you.
I pray He'll teach you and show you this is just the God that
you must have. A God of Patience. Paul does this here back in our
text. Look back in our text again. He often does this when he takes
a deep truth like this, an amazing truth. He'll turn it and use
it for something practical. And back here in our text again
that Brother Larry read to us, this church at Rome was having
a difficult time. And one of the troubles they
were having was a lack of patience with each other. This was the
transition from the old ceremonial law to freedom in Christ. They weren't under the old ceremonial
law. Now they could eat whatever meat they wanted to, practice
things that they never were allowed to practice anymore. But some
of the believers were becoming judgmental because of that. Here
was a man sitting eating a pork dinner, and here was a man over
here who says, You can't eat that pork. Here was a man sitting
over here drinking a glass of wine with his dinner, and here
was a fellow saying, you can't drink wine. And there was being
judgmental on one hand, and I don't know what on the other. You know
how those things go. And Paul said this. He said,
pattern yourself after the Lord Jesus Christ. How patient was Christ? Man,
when He came into this world at twelve years old, He was ready to do His Father's
will. His heart longed and burned to do His Father's will. But
He waited eighteen more years before He began His ministry.
And when He did begin His ministry, the reproaches that He suffered
He went to the temple one day and saw that they had corrupted
the temple. They had animals in there that
were selling, money exchangers in there that corrupted the temple,
and his heart was so burdened, and even though he drove them out
of the temple, he should have destroyed them, but he didn't.
He said, the reproaches of them that have reproached God have
fallen upon me. He took it all himself and patiently
bore it. He not only bore with the wicked
and ungodly people, look at the times he bore with his own apostles. One day he was telling them that
he must go up to Jerusalem, be betrayed into the hands of sinful
man and be crucified. And Peter said, Lord, that ain't
going to happen to you. And look how patient the Lord
was with him. And that's why he says here in
verse five, verse 4, that whatsoever things were written aforetime
were written for our learning, that we through patience and
comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Now the God of patience
and consolation grant you to be like-minded one toward another
after the example of Christ Jesus. He is our example of patience. When somebody gets on your nerves,
when somebody starts bothering you, or they're doing things
that you don't approve of, or whatever it is, sometimes we
need to exercise patience. And here's the example for us.
You want to be like your Heavenly Father? Of course you do. Then
what's one of His titles? The God of Patience. You want
to be conformed to the image of your Lord and Redeemer? Of
course you do. Well, here is Him. Suffering
long with his own apostles, being patient with his apostles. Here's the second thing. Look
here in in chapter 15 and look back in verse five again. Here's
the second thing that he applies to God. And I love this. Now,
the God of patience. And the God of consolation. That
word consolation is the same word that our translators translated
comfort in verse 4. I don't know why they didn't
translate it comfort in verse 5, but I'm sure they had a reason
for it. But that's the meaning of the
word consolation. It's comfort. The God of all
comfort. What a dear name that is. The
God of all comfort. Hold your place there again and
turn over to II Corinthians with me in chapter 1. And look at
this. Paul calls him the God of comfort,
and then he writes another letter to him, and he enlarges upon
this in II Corinthians chapter 1. And look in verse 3. Blessed be God. Even the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, we have not
got time to get into that, but that is another endearing name,
isn't it? And the God of all comfort. God is the God of all
comfort. Why does that mean so much to
us? Because you and I are living
in a world that's infested with sin. We look within us and sin
has ruined us, hasn't it? Mixed with everything we do.
We look around us in society and look what sin has done to
the human race. It's miserable, isn't it? Living
without hope and without help in and of itself. But here's the thing. Even though
that is true, and even though we are living in a world full
of sin and dying and death, every man has a degree of comfort. Find the most ungodly person
you can find, the most open and profane man in this world, and
that man has his degrees of comfort. He's not as bad off as he deserves
to be and should be. Everybody has been given comfort. Comfort in their body? Boy, you
see somebody that's really, really sick. I mean, they're diseased
and you can tell by talking with them and listening to them that
they're pitiful. They're in great pain, sickness.
But you know something? They're not as bad off as they
could be. And why aren't they? Why do they have the least comfort? Because the God of all comforts. It not only extends to the physical
person, but the mental person. I tell you, anxiety and mental
affliction is one of the greatest afflictions in this world, is
it not? I mean, it's awful. It can weaken
you, make you sick. But you take a person that's
most afflicted mentally, he still has his comforts. And he has
comfort because the God of all comforts comforts him. Any legitimate comfort in this
world, whether it's towards the Lord's people or towards the
ungodly, it comes from God. He's the God of all comforts. And you and I, when we first
begin to come to the Lord, I tell you, I can only say this for
myself. I was miserable. I was miserable in my conscience.
I was anxious. I didn't think the Lord was going
to save me. I was afraid. And He comforted me. The blood
of Jesus Christ cleansed my conscience. It cleansed my guilt. He comforted
me. I love the way he says it there
in the fourth verse, who comforteth us. He's the God of all comfort
and He comforts us. Some of you know something about
comfort, don't you? God has manifested Himself to you as the God of
all comfort. You've been in some deep waters
of trials. You've been in the fire. Or you're
going through a deep valley that's dark, or you're climbing some
hill, difficulty, and a voice comes to you and says, you'll
never get through this. You'll never make it over this
mountain. And you almost despair. But almost secretly, the God
of all comfort, He comes and comforts you. And every means
in the world is available to Him to comfort you. I remember
one time we were at this place and I was so down and discouraged
and almost despairing. And there was a dear old saint
that looked at me and just smiled at me. He just smiled at me. And that smile was the smile
of God upon my soul. It was like God was smiling at
me. And it encouraged me and lifted
me up. Sometimes when you're down, a
preacher will preach a message and you're comforted. Sometimes
a psalm, sometimes a verse of scripture. But when you are legitimately
comforted, God does that. You say, Bruce, how do you know?
Because He's the God of all comfort. All comfort. And He comforts
us. I love to see people trouble
sometimes. Sometimes people need to be troubled. Trouble is like
working a job. It builds character, doesn't
it? And sometimes when you're troubled, God troubles us and
permits us to be troubled that He may reveal Himself as the
God of all comfort. I have seen His ways. I will
heal Him and I will comfort Him, saith the Lord. I love that passage where the
Lord Jesus told about Lazarus, full of sores, and the angels,
when he died, come down and got him in their arms and bundled
him up in their bosom and carried him up into heaven. And the Lord
Jesus said, Now he's comforted. Now he's comforted. If God comforts His people upon
this earth, When they are troubled and He comes to them and comforts
them, and He does that upon this earth, how much more in heaven? Do you know anything about the
God of all comfort? You do! And knowing about Him
here, and being amazed that He can comfort you here in the time
of your trouble, what will heaven be like? Where there is no more
sin and sorrow. And that is what will make hell,
hell. It won't be just the flame that's
there. I think one of the things that will make hell, hell is
there will be no God there to comfort. When God utterly abandons
a sinner, there can be no degree of comfort. Because all comfort
in this life comes from the God of all comfort. That rich man may have lifted
up his eyes and said, have mercy upon me. There's no God here. Have mercy on me. There's no comfort here. He's
the God of all comfort. I love that, don't you? There's
not an ounce of legitimate comfort in this world, brothers and sisters,
but it comes from the God of all comfort. That should be enough
to cause lost people to seek Him, shouldn't it? How many times
does lost people... How many times when I was lost
and I was sick, so sick or in trouble, and I cried out to the
Lord, Oh, have mercy upon me. Deliver me from this. I wasn't
praying that He save me, but I wanted to be delivered from
trouble. And He did it. He comforted me. And there was
no doubt that He did it. But right back to my misery I
went. Look back over at our text again.
Here's the third place, and we'll look at these two real quickly.
Here's another title that he puts upon God in verse 13. Look what he calls Him in verse
13. Now, the God of hope fill you
with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope through
the power of the Holy Ghost. The God of hope. I love that, don't you? Knowing
what you know this morning about an absolute holy God, and only
the church knows Him, only the children of God knows Him in
that way, that He is of two pure eyes to behold evil. He can't
look on sin. And you knowing that this morning,
you knowing something about the exceeding simpleness of sin,
you know something about eternity, The long home for saints and
sinners. What would it be like? What would
you feel like this morning if you could have all hope removed
from you that you would ever be saved? How would that make
you feel? I'd be devastated, wouldn't you,
Greg? I could not walk to that back door and go home. If all
hope should be removed that I could ever be saved, I would utterly
despair. Men or angels could not comfort
us. There would be no rest or peace
for one moment's time in this world. And then when you come
down to the pillar of your dying head, dying without any hope,
wouldn't that be the most terrible thing? You're here this morning
and God has given you hope. You have a good hope? A good
hope through grace? Where did you get it? There's
only one place to get a good hope, and that's from the God
of hope. Angels cannot give us a hope.
The church cannot give us a hope. He's the God of hope. He's the
author of hope, and only He can give it. I want you to look for
proof of that in II Thessalonians. Hold our text and look over there
right quickly. You know this verse probably
by heart, but in 2 Thessalonians 2. Look at this. Chapter 2 and
look in verse 13. Peter made the statement to gird
up the loins of your mind and hope to the end, hope to the
end for the grace that is to be brought unto you. And David
the prophet made this statement. He said, Lord, Remember the word upon which
you have caused me to hope. You have caused me to hope. Look here at what Paul says in
2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and look in verse 13. He is speaking
here about men being given over to reprobation
and God sending them strong delusions and so on. But he says in verse
13, But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you,
brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit
and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel to
the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore,
brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you have
been taught, whether by word or our epistle. Now our Lord
Jesus Christ Himself, and even God, even our Father, which hath
loved us, and hath given us everlasting comfort and good hope through
grace." He has given us good hope through grace. The Holy Spirit comes to us.
He kicks all the crops out from under us. And He leaves us dangling,
hopeless and helpless in ourselves. And then He says, as it were,
He points our minds, our hearts to Jesus Christ, and He says,
hope in Him. There's your hope. Hope in Him. And that's why you
hope. That's why you're always Look
in to the Son of God. He is your hope. And why do you
look to Him? God gave you grace to. You hope
because He gave you that good hope. And it is a good hope because
He is the author of it. The Bible says we are saved by
hope. Saved by hope. You hope to be saved this morning,
don't you? And it's a good hope. Tomorrow you'll hope to be saved.
When it comes down to your dying breath, you'll die in hope. When you stand before His judgment
seat, your hope is that you'll be saved. And it's a good hope.
It's a good hope. You are saved by hope. And Peter says, hope to the end.
Just keep on hoping. Sometimes it seems hopeless,
doesn't it? But it's not, because He's the God of hope. And somebody just dropped a kettle
back in the kitchen. Shouldn't be back there anyway. Hope you dropped it on your toe,
bless your heart. They'll come running out there.
And the first one they're going to get is Greg. He's on that
back row. The God of hope fill you with
all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope through
the power of the Holy Ghost. Has God given you hope? Believe
in that hope. Just keep on believing in that
hope. And here's the last one. Verse 33. Look what he says in
verse 33 of our text. Romans chapter 15. Now the God
of peace Be with you all. Amen. Here's another title of
God. Here's the way Paul describes
Him. Here's His name. He is the God of peace. The word
means tranquility. It means rest. It means quietness. God's a mysterious God, isn't
He? He's so mysterious to us, brothers and sisters. We can't
brag about how much we know about Him. We know so little about
Him. We can't figure him out. Brother
Mann used to say we put him in a little box and he breaks open
the box. You can't put him in a box. He's
a God of peace. On one hand, we read that he
can be grieved with sin and by sin. He repented himself that
he had made the old world. And he was grieved about it,
wasn't he? Grieved. He can be grieved. He
bore with the bad manners of Israel, but they grieved him
for forty years. That word grieved means to upset. He was upset. How does God get
upset? How does He get grieved? Then
on the other hand, nothing grieves Him. On the other hand, nothing
disturbs Him. He is the God of eternal rest,
of eternal tranquility and quietness. He is the God of peace. He was the God of peace in eternity
past before He created anything. He remained the God of peace
when men fell and became His enemies. And He'll be the same
God of peace when He's finished His eternal purpose and assigned
every man their long alm. He is the God of peace. You know why God made peace?
At a great cost to Himself. You know why He did that? Because
He's the God of peace. He's the God of comfort. What
does that mean? That means He's going to comfort.
He's the God of peace. What does that mean? That means
He's going to give us peace. Christ made peace by the blood
of His cross. And then He gives us that peace.
My peace I give to you. My peace I leave with you. And as soon as you and I believe
Him, the instant we believe Him, this peace becomes ours. Being
justified by faith, we have peace with God. And you know something?
That's the peace of God. And Jesus Christ made peace,
and now He gives us His peace. And that's why that some of you
face what you face in life and living. And why you go on with
a measure of quietness in your soul. Because you've got this
peace. One more scripture, and I'll
read this and I'll close. Look in Philippians chapter 4.
Brother David was just talking to me about this scripture this
morning. Philippians chapter 4. How can God be so tranquil when
this world is rebelling against Him? while he's involved in this war
against his own enemies, Satan and all of those that oppose
him. How could he remain so peaceful and restful and tranquil? Because
he's the God of peace. Look here what he tells us. Verse
4, Philippians 4. Rejoice in the Lord always. That's
not a suggestion. That's a command. And again,
I say rejoice. Let your gentleness, moderation,
be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious
for nothing. Don't be careful for anything.
But in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving,
let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God,
which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds
through Christ Jesus. Peace of God. I've never in my life seen like
the people that's on anxiety medication that's in our day. And I'll be honest with you,
I've had to have some of it myself. And maybe you have too. But you know the first remedy
that we should seek for anxiety? This peace. Peace. Sometimes we have these chemical
problems in our bodies and we've got to have some help. But sometimes
it simply becomes the cause of our unbelief, the cause of our
disobedience. And there's a remedy for that,
isn't there? And that's the peace of God.
The peace of God. The tranquility of God in your
heart. He's the God of peace. Father,
thank You. Thank you for the way that you
moved upon this apostle to identify you, the titles that he gives
you, and so comforting to us, so reassuring to us. Thank you
for it. Oh, our Father in Heaven, thank
you for the Lord Jesus Christ, who is truly our peace and our
comfort and our hope. Bless this message today. Forgive
the weakness. Thank you for these dear ladies
and those who have labored to prepare this meal for us. Thank
you for them. Thank you for the effort and
the time that they put into it. Thank you for this, dear people.
Thank you for the work that you're doing in their hearts. And Lord,
please be merciful to those who are sickly and weakly. And those who are going through
the fire, you put them in the fire. You put them in deep waters. Only you can help them. I cannot
help them. None can help them, Lord, but
you. Remember them, we pray, for Christ's sake. Thank you
for this day, our daily bread. In Christ's name we ask. Amen.