some people think you're either born or not. But that kind of thinking doesn't square with what the Bible teaches. And today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg illustrates how God models patience for us. We'll learn today how trials, the very thing that tests our patience, are used by God to develop our patience. Then Peter came up and said to him, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him?
As many as seven times? Jesus said to him, I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times. Jesus is pointing out that this matter of forgiveness is not a matter of calculation.
It is an affair of the heart. Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold with his wife and children and all that he had and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees imploring him, Have patience with me and I will pay you everything. And out of pity for him the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. When he found out he'd found one of his fellow servants, who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, Pay what you owe. So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, Have patience with me and I will pay you. He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, You wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt, because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?
And in his anger his master delivered him to the jailers until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. Amen. Father, we thank you this morning that you have given to Christ the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. There's no other name given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved. And so we pray that as we study the Bible now, that the Spirit of God will enable us to understand what it says, and that beyond the voice of a mere man we might have that direct encounter with you, so that what happens is not simply the discovery of fresh information but an encounter with you, the living God, through your Word. Only you can accomplish this, and to you alone we look. In Christ's name.
Amen. Well, for those of you who are visiting with us, we've taken a pause from our studies in Ephesians at the end of chapter 2, and we have begun to look at the fruit of the Spirit, which we've been reminding one another every Sunday is singular, that these are not fruits of the Spirit, but that what we have here is the expression of, if you like, full-orbed Christlikeness. The fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5.22, is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Against such things there is no law. Not only have we been pointing out that it is singular, but we've also been pointing out that this fruit is not artificial, that it is real, and that it is, as Jesus taught, the true evidence of Christian discipleship. It is by their fruits that they will be known, said Jesus, and it is a wonderfully attractive picture in a world that is increasingly unattractive. The social interaction of our day seems to be marked by spite and by hatred, by all kinds of abusive language and intolerance, and it is a wonderful thing to move amongst the people of God and to encounter, at a very realistic level, a genuine understanding of love and of joyfulness, a joy the opposite of which is not sorrow but the opposite of which is hopelessness. Because even in our sadness this morning and the loss of members of our family, there is a joy that is unsettled by that loss—at least not entirely destabilized by it. And the attractiveness of peace in an angry world is without question.
And now, this morning, we come to this matter of patience. The real impact of the gospel, of the good news of Jesus, the best of evangelism, takes place in and through the lives of those who embody the message we proclaim. Indeed, to the extent that we don't embody the message that we proclaim, we make it relatively easy for people to say, Well, I guess that's just your opinion. But when there is, within a life, joy and the amazing reality of deep sorrow, peace when turmoil invades and so on, then it causes people to wonder. The reverse, of course, is also true. It's a sad indictment when onlookers see little evidence of this fruit in the lives of those who profess to be the followers of Jesus. The second president of India was Dr. Radhakrishnan.
He was the president between 1962 and 1967, that is. And on one occasion, addressing his community, he challenged the Christians who were listening as he said, You claim that Jesus Christ is your Savior, but you do not appear to be more saved than anyone else. So in other words, he says, I hear your story, but I'm not seeing the evidence. It is quite challenging, isn't it? We remember that little poem we used to say, You're writing a gospel, a chapter each day, by the deeds that you do and the words that you say, and people read what you write, distorted or true, so what is the gospel according to you? And it is this very matter that we are confronted by as we come this morning to the fourth element in the fruit of the Spirit, namely, patience. I want us to consider it from three angles, as it were. First of all, to think in terms of how it is to be defined. Secondly, how it is developed. And thirdly, as we have time, how it is then displayed or demonstrated.
All right, so first of all, defined. Now, what I want to do is not define it in terms of the Oxford English Dictionary—I think any of us would be able to do that—but rather to start, if you like, at the only place that we should start, namely with God and his revelation of himself. I'm going to mention one or two verses.
You may look them up if you choose, or you can check afterwards to make sure that they're actually in the Bible. When God reveals himself to his people in the Old Testament, he consistently does so in terms that establish the fact of his patience. Exodus chapter 34 and God's encounter with Moses, and we read in verse 6, the LORD passed before Moses and proclaimed, The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. A God whose patience is not limitless, there will come a day when he will execute his just justice on the wicked, but for now it is a story of his mercy, of his forbearance, of his peculiar kindness. And that message, ringing out from God, is seen, as you read, through the journey of God's people in the Old Testament. So, for example, when Jonah, the prophet of God, is dispatched to Nineveh, an idea that he doesn't like, he decides that he will head off in a different direction. You remember, he gets himself in a whale of a problem as a result of that, and when he is finally spat up and reconfigured, he does what God told him to do, and that is to preach to Nineveh the patience of God and the need for repentance.
What happens? Well, the people respond to the preaching, and many of them repent. And Jonah is actually angry about it. And this is what he says, O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country?
He's trying to justify his running. That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish. Here we go. For I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. I knew that you are that kind of God. Now, the prophets bring this message again and again. For example, you can read in Isaiah chapter 30, where Isaiah, speaking from God, confronts his people, pointing out to them that in their rebellion they have put themselves in a bad situation.
They are culpable because they have been unwilling to listen to the word of the Lord, Isaiah 30 verse 9. You didn't listen to me, he says, and the reason you're in the mess you're in is because you chose not to listen to my word. And then he says, Therefore… And if you don't know your Bible and you're not looking at it, you perhaps assume what now follows is a word of judgment and of punishment. You were rebellious.
You didn't listen to me. Therefore, look out, here it comes. No, therefore, the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.
Why? Because patience is ultimately defined in terms of the nature and the character of God. When you jump from Malachi into the New Testament, you are not surprised to discover that the New Testament reiterates the same song. For example, Peter, when he's writing his second letter, alerts his readers to the fact that they can anticipate that people, unbelieving people, will scoff at the whole story that the followers of Jesus tell.
The followers of Jesus are going to proclaim that Jesus is the Messiah of God, that he came, that he died an atoning death, that he was buried, that he was raised to life, that he has ascended to heaven, and that he's actually going to return. That's the story of the Bible, in case you've just been wondering. That's the story of Christianity.
If anybody told you that when you remove all those difficult parts you have the essence of Christianity, no, when you remove all those difficult parts, you have no Christianity. And so the people will scoff at that, Peter says. They will say, Where is the promise of his coming?
Life's been going on like this forever, and there's no reason for you to believe these things. So what does Peter say? He says, Well, you should make sure that you do not overlook the fact that one day with the Lord is this a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day, and the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness. So what is it, then? Well, he is patient toward you.
Why is he so patient? Well, he doesn't wish that any should perish but that all should reach repentance. The patience of God in tolerating the resistance and the rebellion of men and women throughout all of time and in every generation, including all who are within earshot of my voice right now, that God, in the awareness of that, displays the wonder of his love and his steadfastness and his patience, granting the opportunity for men and women to turn from their foolishness and to turn to him. When Paul writes of it in Romans, he says, You should not mistake God's kindness and his delay. It is simply there in order that you might have the opportunity to repent.
Don't presume on it. It is in order to lead you to repentance. And Paul knew a lot about that. His whole testimony was of a patient God. Some of you who have come to faith in Jesus Christ in later years of your life, you sometimes come and say to me, or I overhear this kind of thing, you know, I went a long way in my life resisting God and paying no attention to him at all. And you've often had occasions to say, It is a wonder to me that he has been so kind and so patient toward me. Now, when you say that, you're actually saying what Paul had to say when he told his testimony, which he did on a number of occasions. When he writes to Timothy in his first letter, he puts it as follows. I thank God who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent.
There's a resume. So how was life for you, Paul, before you met Jesus? Well, I blasphemed, I was a persecutor, and I was absolutely insolent in my opposition to Jesus and the followers of Jesus. So, did you just turn over a new leaf? Did you make a change in your life?
Did you decide that you wanted your best life now and that that would be far better? No. I received mercy. And the grace of the Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost—that is, the worst fellow in the whole group—that the worst fellow in the whole group in me, Jesus Christ, might display what? His perfect patience as an example to those who believe in him for eternal life. The patience of God manifested in the child of God in order that the person who says, I'll get round to it in my own time, might be made aware simultaneously of the fact that the return of Jesus will come like a thief in the night, and also that the end of our life may come in a moment our dying breath may be now. And in light of that, the wonder of God's love is a pursuing, forbearing love—the patience that has sought out Paul and sought out others to eternal life. So it is the patience of God which defines the patience that his children are to show to others.
That's enough by way of its definition. When you think about it, it is, if you like, a family characteristic. Children are supposed to bear testimony to who their father is. It's a strange thing as you grow old, isn't it? I can speak to this every so often. Does this happen to you? Perhaps I'm shaving, and I look away, and I look back, and I thought I saw my father in the mirror. But it was me. I get up from a chair, and it reminds me of the way he used to rise from a chair.
I fall asleep reading a book, and my wife tells me, That's exactly what your dad used to do. It happens. It's supposed to happen. Paul Overstreet, the country western singer, encapsulated it in a song with a refrain that goes like this, I'm seeing my father in me.
I guess that's how it's meant to be. And I find I'm looking more like him each day. I notice I walk the way he walks. I notice I talk the way he talks. I'm starting to see my father in me.
Now, in every right sense, loved ones, that is a song for the Christian to sing in relationship to God our heavenly Father. God is a patient, long-suffering, forgiving God, and part of the fruit that he creates in the lives of those who he redeems reveals itself in that very characteristic. Now, from its definition, if you like, to its development. Well, how does this develop? How does this seed flower? How does it happen that that which is embryonic for so long and moves and comes and fits and starts, how do you finally get the plant out of the pot in such a way that people can remark on it? Well, it is God who does this. It is God who plants the seed. It is God's Word that waters the seed.
It is God's people that encourage and strengthen one another in the development of that seed. And at the very heart of it all is God's eternal purpose to make his people like their elder brother, namely, Jesus. And that's what Paul says in that great passage in Romans chapter 8, that those whom he foreknew he also predestined, and he predestined them to be conformed to the image of his Son. That phrase just simply means he was committed from the get-go to make them look like Jesus. When Phillips paraphrases, he says, Everything that happens fits into a pattern for good. God chose them to bear the family likeness in his Son.
So how, then, is it developed? If you turn with me to James, I'll use the opening verses of James to help us with this notion of development. James, the brother of Jesus, is writing a very, very practical letter, and he starts off very quickly in this realm of faith—faith in the Lord Jesus. When you are following him, when you are faced by challenges, count it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you meet trials of various kinds. Now, what James is actually saying here is very straightforward. Trials for the believer should not be regarded, first of all, as enemies or as intruders but as friends.
That seems immediately paradoxical, doesn't it? The word in ESV, if you're using it in ESV, here is steadfastness. In the King James version, it is patience.
The word—it's the same word, they've just chosen to translate it differently. Patience for our purposes this morning. You know that the testing of your faith produces patience, and that patience have its full effect. It's such a challenge, isn't it?
It's such a challenge. We've gone through love and have been confronted by the fact within about twenty minutes of the end of the service how unloving we can be. And then we moved into joy, and somebody had to say to us, I thought you were doing joy this morning. How did you get so crabby so soon after lunch?
Or was it only me that had that comment made to me? And then, peace. How wonderfully peaceful you've been feeling until the first bad telephone call of the week.
And then, apparently, peace went out the window. But don't worry, because we have patience to look forward to, and I'm sure we'll all be able to handle that. Some of you are incredibly impatient now, even as I speak.
Some of the boys and girls are going, turning to their mother. How long is it now? Are we well into it, or how long is it? Patience, impatience. Some of you have grown impatience, those little—what do you call them—busy lizzies, because of the way when they germinate, with just a slight bit of encouragement, they go like that, and they don't waste any time at all. And just, it's a good name for them.
It's a Latin name, I suppose. Busy Lizzie's a good name, too. But that's by the way. The fact is, patience is tough. And if you think it's hard listening to it, you should try preaching it.
Right? Because you can go away in your own silent little world and determine how patient, loving, joyful, and everything you are. But I'm exposed up here. I'm exposed. I'm exposed, first of all, to myself and to God.
I take that as part of the challenge. You're listening to Alistair Begg, and we'll learn more about patience tomorrow. We've been learning in our current series about how the fruit of the Spirit, described in Galatians 5, is on display in the lives of those who are genuine believers. This fruit comes from God's Spirit. He is the one who nurtures the character of Christ within us. To help you learn more about the fruit of the Spirit, we want to recommend to you a book titled, The Character of Christ, The Fruit of the Spirit in the Life of Our Savior. As you read this book, you'll explore what the fruit of the Spirit looks like, as it is modeled for us perfectly by Jesus. For example, Jesus showed kindness with a pure heart. He was without any selfish ambition or manipulation.
He was always looking for the recipient's welfare. This book gives you a glimpse into the heart of Christ and a foretaste of what those who trust in Jesus will one day be like as we're progressively made into His image. Ask for your copy of the book, The Character of Christ, today when you donate to support the ministry of Truth for Life. You can give through our mobile app or online at truthforlife.org slash donate, or you can call us at 888-588-7884. And if you'd rather mail your donation along with your request for the book, write to Truth for Life at P.O.
Box 398000, Cleveland, Ohio 44139. Thanks for studying God's Word with us. It's clear that advances in technology have made everything faster these days, travel, communication, entertainment. So why hasn't this resulted in greater patience? Tomorrow we'll think through this together. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.
