Our study tonight is on the patience
of God, the attribute of God's patience. I want you to keep
your Bible handy because I want to turn to several scriptures
with you as we go through our study tonight. Just one verse
in Romans chapter 15 and verse 5. Now, the God of patience, that's
what we want to talk about this evening. The God of patience. That's who God is. That's His
attribute. He's a God of patience. And consolation, comfort, grant
you to be like-minded one toward another according or after the
example of Christ Jesus. Paul identifies the Lord, our
God, here in different ways. Look in verse 13 what he says
about Him. Now, the God of hope. The God
of hope. And then verse 33, the God of
peace. What an endearing title that
is given to the name of our God. Peter referred to Him as the
Father of mercies. Maybe it was Paul, the Father
of mercies. Peter said He's the God of all grace. He's the God
of comfort. What an endearing title this
is then in our text here. The God of patience. the God
of patience. This word, patience, means to
cheerfully endure. Cheerfully endure. And it's very
much akin to the word that we often use, the Bible often uses,
as longsuffering. It even interchanges these two
words sometimes you'll see in the New Testament. Instead of
using patience, it'll use longsuffering. Or instead of using longsuffering,
it'll use patience. But it's the same word in certain
places in the Scripture. But it means cheerful endurance,
the patience of the Lord, the long-suffering of the Lord. Peter
said, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count
slackness, but is long-suffering to us. He is patient to us, not
willing that any of us should perish, but all come to repentance. And Peter said, account that
the Lord is long-suffering, the long-suffering of our Lord, is
salvation. And Numbers chapter 14 and verse
18, I love this passage. I love the passage that tells
us this. The Lord is long-suffering, great in mercy, forgiving iniquity
and transgression and sin. And you remember when the Lord
told Moses, I'm going to show you my glory. And He put him
in a rock and He passed by and He proclaimed the name of the
Lord. He said, The Lord God merciful and gracious and long-suffering. That's patience. Patient. The patient God. Forgiving transgressions
and sins and iniquities. Keeping mercy for thousands. Long-suffering or patience is
mentioned in the same sentence, in the same breath, as God's
divine goodness and mercy. Stephen Chanock, he was an old
Puritan writer, And he had some interesting things to say concerning
God's mercy and His patience. I wrote down some things. Let
me read this to you. He said, Patience is a part of
the divine goodness and mercy. It's a part of divine goodness
and mercy. But it differs from them both. God's slowness to anger is a
branch of His mercy. The Lord is full of mercy, slow
to anger. So those two go closely hand-in-hand. Because he's merciful, he's patient. He's slow to anger. Because the
Lord is good and merciful, he's slow to anger. He's patient.
Yet mercy and patience, he says, differ in this sense. And I like
this. Mercy respects the creature,
that is, man, as he is miserable. Mercy looks upon us as we're
miserable. But patience respects the creature
as criminal. Mercy pities him in his misery. Patience bears with the sin which
brought the misery. I like that, don't you? Mercy
respects us in our misery. But patience respects us and
bears up under our sin that brought the misery. So that's the difference
between mercy and patience. When the Apostle Peter said,
God is long-suffering to us-worth, not willing that any should perish,
but all come to repentance, he is really saying, God patiently
bears with our sinning until we are brought to repentance
and salvation. Account that the long-suffering
of our God is salvation. Aren't you glad, brothers and
sisters, that God is patient? Where would you and I be if God
wasn't patient? Through all our long life of
sin until He brought us to repentance, God was long-suffering to us. I want you to look over here
just to your left in the same book in Romans chapter 2 and
look here in verse 3. Romans chapter 2 and verse 3. He speaks here of the long-suffering
of the Lord, the patience of the Lord. In verse 3 of Romans
2, thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such
things, ungodly things, as he's been talking about in chapter
2, chapter 1, and doest the same, that you shall escape the judgment
of God? Or despisest thou the riches
of his goodness, and his forbearance, his tolerance, and longsuffering,
his patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee
to repentance. But after your hardness and pittant
heart, you treasure up unto yourself wrath against the dead wrath
and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." So what is
it that bears up with us until we're brought to repentance?
It's God's longsuffering, His patience with us. We thank and
we glory in the Lord Jesus saving that thief on the cross. And
rightfully so, because there we see such grace magnified. In his dying hours, he saved
that thief. And what could save a man that
can do nothing but hang and die, but grace, such free grace and
mercy? But we ought to thank also this. What was it that bore with that
thief through all of his days of sinning? Sinning against God
and sinning against his fellow man. Living a criminal's life. If it hadn't been for the patience
of the Lord, he'd have never lived to hang on that cross.
He'd have never lived to be saved. And Saul of Tarsus, he talked
about the grace that he obtained mercy. The grace of the Lord
Jesus was exceeding, abundant with faith and love. But not
just in his salvation. Look at God bearing with Saul
of Tarsus. in his self-righteousness, in
his blasphemous religion, killing his children. Paul lived to be
called and to be saved because of the patience of God. And you
and I can express the same feelings, can't we? Many, many times we
deserve to perish. Justice called for our everlasting
overthrow. Satan called for it. The law
called for it. Damn these people. They're miserable,
they're wretches, they're sinners against God. What was the one
thing then that kept you and kept me until our day of love
and salvation? God's patience. He's the God
of patience. Look over here back to your rites
over here in chapter 9 of Romans. Look at this. Not just until
He called us, until He calls all of His elect, but even the
reprobate. The Lord is patient with those
that He's left out of His election, those who live to be old men
and women and sin against Him and are so hard-hearted towards
Him. And all of us have seen this.
We have seen old men that were wrinkled up and weak, and yet
they used God's holy name in vain. They never feared God. They don't fear going to hell.
They don't fear death. Why does God let a person like
that live? Well, there's only one answer
for it. His patience. And look here at what Paul tells
us in the ninth chapter in verse 21 of Romans. Has not the powder power over
the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and
another unto dishonor? What if God, willing to show
His wrath and to make His power known, Endeared with, look at
this, much long-suffering. Much long-suffering. The vessels
of wrath fitted to destruction. It's the same thing the Apostle
Peter tells us when the Lord waited in the days of Noah while
the ark was being built. He waited for 120 years. He waited. He was patient. He was so patient. And then the
flood came and he took them all away. 120 years he waited. And when you and I look around
us today and we see all the violence, we see sin, we see lust, and
it seems like the world has just gone off into the murk and the
mar of immorality. And it's not just out in the
open and profane world, but look in the professing churches. I saw two preachers last night.
on TV, and both of them were supporting abortion and homosexual
rights. And I thought, how can this be?
Have we drifted this far that now we agree with and support
immorality and murder in the name of God? So it's not just
the world that's given over to this, but in Christendom it's
full of idolatry. We've thrown truth to the streets.
And you wonder sometimes, how in the world can God put up with
this suffering? Why hasn't his wrath just come
and consumed everything and everybody? And there's only one answer.
Much longsuffering. He's patient. He's patient. God is a patient God. And since patient isn't an attribute
of God, it has nothing to do with man. It doesn't depend upon
man, and this is one of the things that you and I have looked at
before concerning the attributes of God. They do not depend upon
man. God is not merciful because of
what he sees in man. He was merciful before there
was a man. Now, misery or mercy draws out
that mercy. But his attributes is not dependent
upon us. He doesn't look upon Terence
Whitehead and say, I love Terence because I see something in Terence. He doesn't give grace to a man
because of what he sees in the man. God's attributes is of himself. And when we talk about patience,
that's what's in God. That's his attributes. What is it that enables him to
be patient? What enables him? And that's
a strange statement to make, ain't it? When we talk this way,
what enables God? But you know, God has condescended
and give us language in his Bible that we can use to understand
him by. If he didn't condescend and relate to us and speak to
us, we couldn't understand a thing about him. So when I say what
enables him, there's something that enables God to be patient,
to be long-suffering. right in the face of his enemies
and in the face of sin. And what is that? I want to look
at that with you just for a minute. I want you to turn over to Numbers.
There are two things, I think, here in this Scripture that tells
us what enables God to be patient, what enables Him to be long-suffering.
And look here. You remember the context in Numbers
Chapter 14. Israel had sent out spies into
the land of Canaan. They'd come back and ten of those
spies had given an evil report and said, we can't take the place.
You remember that story. Joshua and Caleb said, God's
given us the land. Let's go in and take it. But
everybody began to lift up their voice and say, oh, we can't go
in. God's brought us out here to kill us and let's make a captain
and go back to Egypt. This confusion, confusion. And
the Lord said, let me along. And Moses, I'll kill them, every
one of them, and I'll make of you a great nation. This is the
context in which this is written here. Look in verse 12. Numbers
14, verse 12. I will smite them with a pestilence
and disinherit them, and I will make of you a greater nation
and mightier than they. And Moses said unto the Lord,
Then the Egyptians shall hear it, for you brought up this people
in the sight from among them. Did I say, did I give you the
right Numbers 14, okay. Well, you brought up this people
in thy sight from among them, in thy might from among them.
And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land, for
they have heard that thou, Lord, art among this people, and thou,
Lord, art seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over
them, and that thou goest before them by daytime in a pillar of
the cloud and in a pillar far at night. Now if you kill all
these people as one man, then the nations which have heard
the fame of thee will speak, saying, Because the Lord was
not able to bring these people into the land which he swore
unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness. And now I beseech thee, let the
power of my Lord be great, according as you have spoken, The Lord
is long-suffering and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and
transgression. Now, you remember when the Lord
first told Moses this? Back there when he showed him
his glory? Moses remembered that. When the Lord said, I'm the Lord,
gracious, merciful, long-suffering. Now Moses remembers that and
he takes this to the Lord and he said, Lord, remember what
you said. You're long-suffering. What enables
God to be long-suffering? Verse 17 hints at it. And now
I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great. What is it that lets God be long-suffering? It's His power. It's His power. I beseech thee, let the power
of our Lord be great. According to how you've said
it, the Lord is long-suffering. His power. Have you ever lost
your patience with somebody? I mean, they tried your patience.
And they brought you to the end of yourself. And here's really
what you said. I don't have the strength to
be patient anymore. Sometimes that's why we lose our patience,
why we get angry, why we get upset, frustrated with somebody.
We just don't have the power to refrain anymore. So we lose
our patience. You know that's not so with God.
His power restrains His anger. His power restrains His wrath. His power enables Him to be patient. Listen to Proverbs 16, verse
32. He that is slow to anger is better
than a mighty man. And he that ruleth his spirit
than he that taketh a city." He rules his spirit. God rules his spirit. He controls
his anger and he controls his wrath. And that's called patience. When you have control over yourself,
that's patience. And the reason we can't always
be patient with people, we can't control our impatience. We can't
control our anger. But God can. God can. Let the power of my Lord be great. Be long-suffering. It takes power.
Does people abuse this? Well, sure they do. We do. Do
we not? Let's be honest with ourselves.
Don't we try our Lord's patience sometimes? Well, sure we do. We confess that, don't we? We
hate ourselves for it, but we just have to be honest. Do lost
men, do the wicked abuse this? Why, absolutely they do. When
they hear about it, they use it as an excuse to go on in their
sins. David said this about the wicked,
because judgment against an evil work is not executed speedily. If God don't smite them down
as soon as they sin, you know what they say? There's no God. He don't care what we do. Because
judgment against an evil work is not executed speedily, the
heart of man It's fully set in him to do evil. Sure, he abuses
that. But aren't you glad that God's
patience is not dependent upon man? It's what's in God. He regulates his patience. He doesn't look upon you and
regulate it according to what he sees in you. He regulates
it according to what's in himself. And secondly, not only power
enables him to regulate and control his anger and his wrath, But
he said there in verse 18, he has mercy. Look at that. The
Lord is long-suffering and of great mercy. If you really pity
somebody, and that's what mercy is, it's pity towards the miserable.
If you see somebody and they're miserable, and your heart of
pity goes out to them, don't that enable you to be patient?
I have a neighbor. And bless her heart, she's got
so hateful in her old age. She's told me off now I don't
know how many times. Told her children off and her
grandkids off. And she's so difficult to get
along with. But you know, I pity her. And I don't lose my patience
with her because I pity her. She's a pack of bones. She probably
weighs 70 pounds. Just looks like skin scratched
over bones. She can't hardly lift her head
up. And you sit there, and when she opens her mouth and says
something hateful to you, it just goes in one ear and out
the other. Because you see that poor old lady sitting there,
and you think to yourself, how? How could I reprove her? Surely,
how could I reprove her? I pity her. So I let it go in
one ear and out the other, and her children do too. You know,
there's a good passage that tells us exactly this is so. God is
patient with us because He's so merciful to us. He pities
us. You don't see that? Look over
here in Psalm chapter 103. Psalm 103. Very familiar scripture. And look in verse 8. Psalm 103
and verse 8. The Lord is merciful and gracious. And look here what else He has.
Slow to anger. patient and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide, neither
will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us after
our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. Why not? Why is He so patient with us
day after day? As the heaven is high above the
earth, so great is His mercy towards them that fear Him. As
far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions
from us. Lack as a father pitieth his
children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. You know why he restrains his
anger towards us, and his wrath, and he don't fall on us. He pities
us. He pities us. Oh, he looks upon
us, Shannon, in our dust, in our unworthiness. And he said,
Oh, child, I pity you. I really pity you. And he's patient
in his long supper. Aren't you glad for the patience
of our God? Now, look back over at Romans,
two more things, and we'll close with this. Just two more quick
things. Romans chapter 15 and verse 5. The God of patience. I'm thankful
for the God of patience and consolation. Grant you to be like-minded,
one toward another. Now, if you study the context,
that every man please his neighbor, even as Christ pleased not himself,
but the reproaches of them that reproached you, fellow man. He's
saying here really and basically, be imitators of the Lord Jesus
Christ. God is a God of patience, and
God grants you that you can be like-minded one toward another. Be like God. As your Father in
heaven is perfect, seek to be perfect. Seek to be like Him.
Be followers of God as dear children. Be patient. Be patient. Patience
is the fruit of the Spirit. You find that in Galatians 5.22.
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, Peace and what? Long-suffering. Goodness, gentleness,
long-suffering. That's the fruit of the Spirit.
That's why I have made this statement to you so many times. It's the
easiest thing in the world to love somebody when the love of
God is yet abroad in your heart. It's the easiest thing in the
world to forgive somebody when you've obtained forgiveness yourself. It's easy. And it's easy to be
patient. Listen now, see if this ain't
so. It's easy to be patient when the Holy Spirit is working in
us by His mighty power. You can even be patient and joyful
in your hour of severe trials when He gives you strength, when
He gives you power to be patient. Listen to Colossians 1.11. I
want you to mark this down, but I want you to turn over there
sometime at your leisure and read it. Colossians 1.11. with all might, according to
His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with
joyfulness." Ain't that amazing? You mean I'm facing this trial
and I can be so patient that I'm joyful in it? If He strengthens
you to that point, you can. You can. David said, I was in
a horrible pit. I was in the martyr clay where
there was no standing. Now, if you can imagine being
in a place like that, that's a severe trial. He said, I was
sinking. I was sinking. But what did he
say he did? Anybody remember? I waited patiently. How in the world could a man
be sinking in quicksand and said, I waited patiently? The Spirit
of God strengthens us with His mighty power in our hearts. That's
what I say, living the Christian life and being as our Father
in heaven, merciful and kind and forgiving as He is and patient
after example, it's easy when the Spirit strengthens us to
do it. I tell you when we struggle, when we're dying to self, ain't
that so? When we get out here and we worry
ourselves sick, boy, and we start struggling, we start struggling,
we have to go back to our bedroom, get out on our face, Lord, I
need strength. I need grace. We get up and go
back, Lord, Lord, I ain't got enough strength. Give me strength.
He gives us strength, and don't He take it away? If you ever
experienced that, boy, you're facing a trial, and it's an awful
trial. It's fire until He gives you
grace. He may not even take the trial
away. The thorn may still be there. The more when you give
strength, then you can face it with patience and even a good
degree of joyfulness. There's two things that cause
impatience in us. Many things, but here's two things.
One is pride. Pride is one of the chief things
that causes impatience in us. I don't deserve this trial. I
just don't deserve to be tried like this. I deserve really better
than this. I don't deserve to be persecuted.
What did I do that I'm persecuted? I don't deserve this misfortune.
Isn't that pride? What do we deserve then? If we're
going on desert, what do we deserve? Here's what the wise man said
about this. He said, the patient in spirit
is better than the proud in spirit. When we get proud, we get impatient. Because I just don't deserve
what I'm going through. I deserve better than this. That's
pride. Covetousness is another thing that makes us impatient.
You ever get covetous? You ever get coveting something?
Wanting something. You want something. You want
something. And you won't wait on the Lord. You're going to
get it. And you're going to get it now. And you get impatient. This is what Paul said about
pastors. not greedy of money, not greedy
of filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not covetousness. Patient, not covetousness. Covetousness is something that
will make us very, very impatient. And I tell you, brothers and
sisters, and you've experienced this yourself, only the Spirit
of God can subdue these things in us. We humble ourselves before
the Lord, that's what we're told to do. But I tell you what, we
cannot, we cannot pull this pride from our heart. It's there by
our nature and like the one man said, I'm so humble that I'm
not proud anymore. Pride, we're proud of our humility
and covetousness. People may not see it. You can
clothe it behind, you know, a look of contentment. But in your heart,
in your heart, and when the Spirit of God comes, boy, He can humble
that pride. He can evase it. He can remove
discourages and show us where our true treasure is. Christ
our true treasure. And one last thing in closing
is this. He said in the last portion of verse 5, Now the God
of patience and consolation, Grant you to be like-minded,
one toward another, after the example of Christ Jesus. You see the patience of Christ
talked about in different places. John even talked about the kingdom
and patience of Christ. Patience. Let Christ be our example
in patience. Everywhere you see the patience
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Before the world was, He was
set up to be the Redeemer of His people, to be the surety
of His people, to come and do the will of God. And you know
something? From that point, if we can say
that, from the beginning to creation, He was patient. He patiently
waited. From creation till He was born
of a virgin, can you imagine how patient the Son of God was?
Knowing that He was coming, And he rejoiced to come, and yet
he was patient. And then when he got there and
was born to a virgin, for the first thirty years of his life,
you know we hear nothing of him. But one time, he was twelve years
old, and he wanted to go down and begin his father's work.
Twelve years old. During the temple, talking about
the things of God. And he said, don't you know that
I must be about my father's business? But from the time he was 12 years
old until he was 30 years old, what did he do? We don't know,
do we? He was probably a teenager, a
holy teenager, submitted to his father and his mother, his earthly
father and his mother. But you know, he didn't begin
his ministry He didn't begin doing openly the will of God
until he was 30 years old. Can you imagine the patience
that he had to exercise? And then patience with his disciples,
patience with the ungodly, patience with those Pharisees, long-suffering
to them. And then when he went to the
cross and patiently endured all of the suffering that took to
redeem us, went back up to heaven, and then he began to wait. until
each elect soul was brought to Him in repentance. And don't
you think sometimes He has to exercise a lot of patience? Because
you know so many of His elect people, some of them go until
they're old before He brings them to Himself. Can you see
Him watching them when they're born? Paul said, He separated
me from my mother's womb. He's known me all my life. And there He patiently waited.
And justice says he needs to be put in hell. No, you ain't
going to put him in. He's mine. He's mine. What are you going
to do with him? I'm going to wait on him. I've got a time. I've got a Damascus rubble. I've
got a cross. I've got a time. I'm just going
to wait. And he waits. You know what he
said about a sinner being called to repentance? You know he says
heaven rejoices. There's rejoicing in the presence
of the angels. I wonder who that is. Well, it's
probably saints if they know about it, but I'll tell you somebody
else rejoicing and that's the Lord Jesus. You bet he rejoicing
because he said, I'm that shepherd that I go after my sheep and
I search for my sheep until I find it. And when I find it, what
does he do? He rejoices. He rejoices. Isn't it? Isn't
it something? Isn't it amazing that he has
patience to wait until it's time to go looking for that sheep?
And he puts it on his shoulders and he says, come rejoice with
me. And you know the Lord is waiting. He's been waiting now
for 2,000 years, hasn't he? The Lord Jesus Christ has been
waiting for 2,000 years. And I don't know how much longer
he's going to wait until he has all of his church, every last
member of it, home in heaven with him. So be patient. Let him be our example of being
patient. When the Lord saves us, One of
the first things we begin to do is wait on Him. We spend a
lot of time waiting on Him. Well, He waited too, didn't He?
Let Him be our example. We don't want to get too anxious
when we've did the will of the Lord. We patiently wait to obtain
the promises. Let Christ be our example.