The Divine Long-suffering

Do you know what is one of the hardest things to develop in life? It is godly patience, which is called long suffering in the Bible. We live in an increasingly impatient age. People want things to be done now. Immediately. Few have much patience. It's a go-go-go world, and people are becoming very rude.

They butt into lines. They drive and many times cause accidents because they're impatient. Honking the horn immediately. These are signs of an impatient age. Let's hear the Apostle Paul's classic description of the people in the end times found in 2 Timothy chapter 3, 1 through 4. I'd like to read it to you from the Message Bible. A little more picturesque, a little more lively. Sometimes it's not a good translation, but sometimes it is. It says the following, you can be certain that in the last days there will be some very hard times.

People will love only themselves and money. Does that sound like a good description today? Love themselves and money? Time magazine mentioned decades ago about the me generation. And now it's the me-me generation, because it's even gotten worse. They will be proud, stuck up, rude, and disobedient to their parents. They will also be ungrateful, godless, heartless, and hateful. Their words will be cruel, and they will have no self-control or pity.

Very impatient in word and in action. These people will hate everything that is good. They will be sneaky, reckless, and puffed up with pride. Instead of loving God, they will love pleasure. That's a characteristic of our age. Some ancient historian would come to our generation here on earth, and you would let him travel around. I think this would be kind of a good description of what he would find. Yes, there are kind of people, but they're becoming rarer and rarer.

Now, as it is in many things in life, there is what you can call a natural patience. Some people are born with a certain amount of patience. They just don't get upset about too much, and they wait in lines, and they have a good disposition, but that's something that is just hereditary. It's been inherited, and it's something normal and natural.

But it's not the same as godly patience. Why? Because godly patience in its origin comes from God's Spirit. You have to have God's Spirit. Now, like I said, people can imitate it, but it's not the same thing. The origin comes from God's Spirit. It is one of the fruits of God's Spirit, godly patience, and it is linked to obeying God's laws. So godly patience originates from God and His Spirit, and it is also linked or connected to obedience to God's laws and following His truths.

That doesn't mean, again, that there are not a lot of fine people and fine gestures. But again, I'm looking at it from the spiritual side, not the physical. And so its origin has to come from God, and also it has to be linked to God's laws. And the first thing about this godly patience in the Bible is to know there are two Greek words that are translated as patience in the Bible.

So this can cause some confusion because when it says patience, it might mean one of those words or the other words. So it's good to understand this. One of those words emphasizes the time element and restraint. The restraint that you have a long time and you restrain yourself from acting in a wrong way. The other word focuses more on the quality of patience, which is hopeful endurance under a trial. Many times it's translated as patience or perseverance. So it doesn't have to do with the length of time and restraint, but it has to do how you weather that trial.

So these two words, we're gonna focus on the main one. The one that has to do with enduring and persevering is hupomone, which means patient endurance. But the one I want to focus on is another Greek word, macrothumea. Macrothumea. I hope you become familiar with this word because it's translated in the Bible as long suffering. And it comes from this compound Greek word.

Macro means large and thumea means suffering. So it's long or large suffering. You wait it out. You don't instantly get angry. You don't fly off the handle if you have macrothumea.

This is actually the word translated as patience in the Bible. But if you notice in Galatians 5.22, it has the term long suffering, macrothumea. That's the word used as one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. So long suffering. Does that sound like it is a fun word?

No. It doesn't sound fun at all. Who wants to suffer for a long time?

But that's not exactly what it means that way. It's not like, well, here I am sick and I have to suffer a long time and I hope I get well. We're going to see that this means a person that is slow to anger, that does not pay back. When offended, we covered some of this already in the first message. So if we want to be part of God's kingdom, that's one of the fruits of God's Spirit being long suffering. It's interesting that in those days of the apostles and in the past, the Greeks didn't think much of this word. They didn't like it very much. Long suffering.

The Greeks were pleasure seekers in general, and so they didn't want to suffer long. As Barkley, the commentator, brings out, he says, quote, the great Greek virtue was megalopsukia, which Aristotle defined as the refusal to tolerate any insult or injury. To the Greek, the great man was the man who went all out for vengeance.

But to the Christian, the great man is a man who, even when he can, refuses to do so, refuses to wreak vengeance. The Greeks, like that spirit, like in a duel, oh, you have offended me. Oh, you have dishonored me. And so they just said, well, you've got to stand up. And just like men did for many centuries about duels, because somebody offended the other, well, I'll see you there, Twilight or at dawn, and we'll choose our pistols. That's the way Alexander Hamilton was killed, one of the founding fathers in the U.S., killed by Aaron Burr, because they just couldn't let it go by. No, they had to restore their pride, and a great statesman was killed as a result.

Now, macrothemia means to resist the natural tendency to get back at somebody, to retaliate for an insult or an offense.

There is a lot of the spirit of macrothemia in Proverbs 19, verse 11, which says, The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger, and his glory is to overlook a transgression.

God's word version, a modern version, has it, a person with good sense is patient, and it is to his credit that he overlooks an offense.

So let's see some of the examples of macrothemia in the Bible.

Number one, the greatest example is the long suffering of God, the long suffering of God, the divine patience. We should be thankful, very thankful, that God is long suffering toward all of us.

Notice in Exodus 34, in verse 6, Exodus 34, verse 6, I'll read it to you.

It says, And the Lord passed before him, talking about Moses, and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abounding in goodness and truth. Those are characteristics of God. He's describing himself.

In God's word version, a modern version, it says, The Lord then passed in front of him and called out, I am the Lord, am a God who is full of compassion and pity, who is not easily angered.

Again, long suffering describes that, not easily angered, and who shows great love and faithfulness.

So, one of the problems is that we admire long suffering in others, but we don't actually consider that as something that we would like to apply, because it is hard. It goes against the grain. It's hard not to be offended when somebody insults you or does something, and human nature just says, well, retaliate.

Talk back to that person. Put them in their place. Get offended. Get nasty.

You have the right. They did it to you. You do it to them. But thankfully, God is not that way. We wouldn't be around. He would have blasted us into smithereens a long time ago. In Numbers 14 and verse 18, we see the long suffering of God toward Israel. In Numbers 14 and verse 18, Moses is praying to God, and he says, the Lord is long suffering. Notice how many times this word pops up in Scripture.

An abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation. There are many things when people rebel against God and sin and have grievous effects that it affects not only that generation, but the next two generations. People are already transmitted with a curse because of what the parents or the grandparents did. God says his law, if it's not respected, is going to have consequences many times into the third and fourth generation, as it says here. Verse 19, he says, pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray, according to the greatness of your mercy, just as you have forgiven this people from Egypt even until now. The patience, the murmurings of Israel, the rebellions of Israel, God forgave them.

Then the Lord said, I have pardoned according to your word, so they weren't going to be destroyed.

But truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, because all these men who have seen my glory and the signs which I did in Egypt, they saw the seven plagues, all these miraculous things, having the manna every day except on the Sabbath. And on Friday, it was twice the manna, so they wouldn't have to be worried about going hungry on the Sabbath. All of these things going on, and he says, and in the wilderness, and have put me to the test now, these 10 times and have not heeded my voice, they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected me see it. And so the point is here that long suffering doesn't mean just putting up with things eternally. No, it does have a limit.

Now, long suffering comes from God and is motivated by God because it desires repentance.

As long as there's a chance for repentance, God extends his mercy and his forgiveness.

He is long suffering. And I really like the word in Spanish for long suffering. It's a longanimidad because, see, it even has a longanimidad, and then they have what's called longanistas, which are all of these sausages that are put together. So you see, it's this long suffering that it's just one thing linked to another that God puts up and puts up a chain of these types of sausages. And so God is that way. There were these 10 events and God put up with them, but he said, now there's going to be a punishment because they did not repent of their attitude like Caleb, which he goes on to say here. He says in verse 30, except for Caleb, the son of Tephunneh and Joshua, the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land, which I swore I would make you dwell in. Why? Why? Because Caleb and Joshua did obey God, did change when they made mistakes. They did repent. And so the divine patience of God depends upon eventual repentance, or else it is taken away. So long suffering and repentance go together. Continuing on in Romans chapter 2, we see that long suffering is a chief characteristic of God.

Romans chapter 2 in verse 3.

Paul is speaking here, writing these words, verse 3, and he says, And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things?

So he was criticizing the Christians in Rome for being judgmental and for being very hard on the sins of society. But you see, they weren't repenting of their own sins. They were judging others, but they were not looking at their own problems. So he says, And you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God?

Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and long suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart, you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. So again, out of God's love is this desire for a person to mend his ways. He removes any curse, any punishment. He doesn't want that, but his long suffering depends. Is the situation getting worse, or is it getting better?

And so he judges mankind. God is going to intervene. That long suffering of God, as he sees the world continually deteriorate in its moral principles, and it's getting so much worse. The long suffering of God depends on whether he thinks mankind has a chance to repent. When he sees there is no chance, he will intervene. Let's continue on to show this.

The long suffering of God was shown in the greatest extent while he waited for repentance before the flood, before the biblical flood. Notice in 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 18.

It's talking here about Christ, who was the pre-existent Word with God the Father. It says, The just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit. He was resurrected. And then he talks about a time when the Word was here on the earth, who became Christ, the Word who became Christ, by whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison. These are the demonic forces that were corrupting mankind.

Excuse me. 20 verse 20.

I got a little bit of a cold myself.

Who formerly were disobedient when once the divine long suffering, and that is the title of this sermon, the divine long suffering.

waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is eight souls, were saved through water.

So God was hoping for repentance at that time. He gave mankind a hundred years while the ark was being built to see if there was going to be an improvement.

He gave the Canaanites, oh, around four generations for them to repent before he would come and punish them and bring the Israelites to populate that land. So you see the pattern repeated time and time again.

Notice in 2 Peter chapter 3 and verse 9, it says, The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness, but is long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. So again, the key here, long suffering, is connected to repentance. And by the way, these are important principles in a family and with children.

Parents should be long suffering, but there also should be an expected repentance from the children.

They shouldn't get away with things, and then parents just let them go and they can do whatever they want and have tantrums in front of you and you just have to put up with them. No, they're long suffering. Yes, you're patient. Yes, you're guiding them, but you also have expectations. If they get out of hand, if they go into a rebellious attitude, they have to repent of that, and responsibilities have to be withdrawn, and a certain amount of warnings are there.

I remember in our home, we had a wonderful, happy home, but the girls knew there was just a certain line that they shouldn't cross, and there were going to be consequences. And they knew that was going to be respected by my wife and myself, and they tried a couple of times, and then they finally gave up. And then the rest of our lives, they went through teenage years, and you know what? They respected that. It was something that was able to be controlled. So the idea is, nip it in the bud. Don't let that rebellious attitude grow and become unmanageable and uncontrollable. Nip it in the bud. Let's continue on.

I was reading here about 2 Timothy 3 verse 9 and verse 15. It says, "...and consider that the long suffering of our Lord is salvation." That's what he wants.

So it's not only repentance, but it's salvation. It's being able to enter into that relationship, where God is going to be bringing you as part of his family. That's the ultimate goal, but it has to go through obedience, repentance, and he is long suffering toward us. He does not pay us as we deserve. The scripture in Psalm 103, which shows this long suffering of God as well, Psalm 103, we call this the mercy chapter. Psalm 103 verse 1. It says, "...bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the children of Israel.

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger." That's the Hebrew word for long suffering.

Slow to anger and abounding in mercy, he will not always strive with us, nor will he keep his anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west so far has he removed our transgressions from us, as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him, who deeply respect him and obey him. For he knows our frame, he remembers that we are dust.

So thankful to know that about God's nature.

Let's look briefly now at example number two. The long suffering of Abraham, the father of the faith. Did he develop long suffering? He certainly did.

He had to wait a very long time for many of those promises to be fulfilled, and some weren't even fulfilled in his day, and yet he was long suffering. He didn't get angry at God. He didn't get turned off by God. He waited on God. There were three great trials in the life of Abraham. Number one, he had to leave the comfort of his home and go to a place that was unknown to him, the land of Canaan. So he had to exercise a lot of long suffering, as he and his family with all his intourage had to go across that arc of what they call there in the Middle East, the Fertile Crescent, and all the way to Canaan from Ur, and he didn't give up. He didn't turn around. He did say, well, this is taking too long. I'm going back to my native country. I had a nice job. This was a wonderful civilization. I remember he had heard he was a prosperous man when he left, so he could have gone back. But no, he was long suffering. He was willing to wait it out patiently and endured the trials. Secondly, it took a long time to wait for the birth of Isaac, his heir. He waited 25 years since God said, well, you're going to have a child.

And Sarah already was at the age that she couldn't have children. And he waited 25 years until that miraculous birth took place. So again, he applied long suffering.

You don't get everything immediately. You have to suffer long while you wait for that promise to be fulfilled. And thirdly, he was willing to sacrifice that heir. And he was still waiting that God would carry out, if necessary, to resurrect Isaac from the dead. He waited on God.

God could trust Abraham to do his will. And Abraham was to say, well, God, I expect this blessing by next week, or else I'm going to give up the faith. He never did that. He never put a clock in front of God. He waited. He knew God was faithful. Notice Hebrews chapter 6 verse 15.

Hebrews 6 15.

Talking about Abraham, it says, And so after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. Yes, he was patient.

He extended that time until things were accomplished. He didn't give God this end end period for things to be carried out, or else he was going to break the contract or break faithfulness with God. He didn't do that.

The third example we have is the Apostle Paul. He describes his ministry as having patience. He uses both words, hupomony and also macrophobia. Notice in 2 Corinthians 6 6.

2 Corinthians 6 6.

He's describing all of the sufferings he was going through, and he says, By purity, by knowledge, by long suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love. He says this as ministers of God. He had to apply macrophobia time and time again with a brethren.

In 2 Timothy 3 10, he instructs his young prodigy and minister, 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 10.

He says, But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long suffering, love, perseverance.

So that was one of the attributes that Paul had developed.

And why did Paul develop it so well? What made him motivate to develop that long suffering?

He reveals the motivation and the reason for it in 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 16. 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 16.

It says, However, for this reason I obtain mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might show all long suffering as a pattern to those who are going to believe on him for everlasting life.

So why? Because he knew how patient God had been toward him, the long suffering of God, how many things did Paul do wrongly that God had to pass over as he was training him and developing him. So if you feel God has been long suffering with you, you can be long suffering with others as well. The fourth and last example we have is the long suffering needed in respect to God's second coming, the second coming of Christ. We need to have this attribute of long suffering. In James chapter 5, he has a whole section using the word macrothumea and also hupomone.

Or yeah, hupomone. In James chapter 5 verse 7, I'll read it here first in the New King James, and then I'll read it in the Message Bible. It says, Therefore, be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. In all of these, it's a word macrothumea. So it means having patience to wait the time necessary. You're not going to get upset. You're not going to lose your temper, and you're going to expect things in the future, but you keep investing in it until you finally reap the results.

He says, verse 8, You also be patient, macrothumea. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. My brethren, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering and patience. Now this is the word, hupomone. Indeed, we count them blessed, who endure. Hupomone, you have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord, that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. So this whole section is, be patient. Don't get desperate. Some people have left the church because they thought, well, Jesus Christ was supposed to come. He hasn't come yet. So I've given up hope. And they go back into the world. And they think, well, nothing's ever going to happen.

People can lose their faith because they were not long suffering. This is a long-term hope. In the Message Bible, in James 5, 7 through 11, it says, Meanwhile, friends, wait patiently for the Master's arrival. You see farmers do this all the time, waiting for their valuable crops to mature, patiently letting the rain do its slow, but sure work. Be patient like that. Stay steady and strong. The Master could arrive at any time.

Friends, don't complain about each other. A far greater complaint could be lodged against you, you know. The judge is standing just around the corner. Take the old prophets as your mentors.

They put up with anything, went through everything, and never once quit. All the time honoring God.

What a gift life is to those who stay the course. You've heard, of course, of Job's staying power.

And you know how God brought it all together for him at the end? That's because God cares.

Cares right down to the last detail.

So we have these examples. It's a chief characteristic of God. We saw long suffering in Abraham. We saw the long suffering of Paul and his ministry. And we see the need for the long suffering in regard to Christ's second coming. So now let's wrap it up with three action steps. What can we do about this knowledge? Is it something to just leave out there in your notebook and then just close the notebook and forget about it? No, let's see if we can take some active steps.

Number one, for this to have effect, recognize we all need more of this long suffering in our lives.

Anybody here think they've got enough of this? That they can really last and they have enough patience and long suffering? I think not. People like to see that they are long suffering as far as our mistakes go, but we don't really like to be very long suffering about the mistakes of others.

So we need to develop more.

In Colossians chapter 3 verses 12 through 15, it says, and sums up what we can apply as a congregation. Colossians chapter 3 in verse 12. It says, Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long suffering, bearing with one another, and forgiving one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body, and be thankful. Are we too proud to ask forgiveness?

To say you're sorry? Can we make it up? Can we improve? We always have to be willing to do that.

We cannot harden ourselves or close ourselves off.

Here in Garden Grove, we're not farmers. We're city folk.

We live the stresses of modern life and the rat race.

People develop more impatience. They can be offended quickly.

Some people say, well, if I don't get my way, it's the highway. I'm out of here.

So again, we all need this. We need to apply it. Recognize before you can solve something, you have to recognize there is a need for it. We have a problem to solve.

Number two, ask God to develop long suffering in our lives and apply it to others, especially those closest to us. Do not be easily angered. Do not have a spirit of quickly retaliating. Do not want to get back at the other person who insulted or offended us. We need to develop this long suffering, quality.

Proverbs tells us again that it's an honor when you can overlook an offense. That a person that is not offended easily, that's a great attribute. People cannot be so prickly.

They're out there with their antennas and any little sign of something, they immediately say, oh, that's me. Oh, they're talking about me. Oh, this has to do with me.

Well, we're overreacting many times. I remember a classic example of this back in the college days at Ambassador College there in Pasadena, where this minister was talking about repentance and he was going over the scriptures and he noticed a girl in the front row and she was crying and boy, he thought, I'm really getting to her. Boy, she's really repenting. And so then after class was finished, everybody walked out and he noticed a girl was there. She came up to him and he said, well, it looks like this class really impacted you a lot.

And she says, oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Professor. You know, my contact lenses are killing me.

She had dirty contact lenses. And so people can assume a lot of things when they're not really that way. And the last action point, remember how much God is patient and long suffering with us and be willing to reach out to others in the same spirit. In Ephesians chapter 4, verses 31 through 32, I'll read it to you. It says here, I'll read it first of all in the New King James that we have. Verse 31, it says, let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God and Christ forgave you. A modern version says, get rid of your bitterness, hot tempers, anger, loud quarreling, cursing, and hatred. Be kind to each other, sympathetic, forgiving each other as God has forgiven you through Christ. We have to have tender hearts. We can't let the hearts get hardened. A hardened heart is what Satan wants. He can work with that.

It's like a chisel that he can use to just beat a person down, the hardness of a heart. So, to conclude, let's remember Christ's admonition in Luke 21, verse 19.

He says, by your patience, possess your souls. The message Bible puts it, staying with it, that's what is required. Stay with it to the end. You won't be sorry.

You will be saved. So, it's a process. Brethren, this is about the long-suffering of God, which should be in us. Let's be faithful to the end.