Reformed Baptist Church in O'Fallon, Missouri
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OMG: God’s Longsuffering

Sermon Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.

Introduction

Why don’t you open your Bibles to 2 Peter 3. We’ve been studying God’s attributes, so we’re going to continue today, and we’re going to talk about God’s longsuffering. His longsuffering. Now, longsuffering is not a word we use much today. Instead we use the word patience, right? But what’s interesting is when you study the word, you will see that there’s actually a difference between longsuffering and patience, which we’ll point out in just a moment. But let’s read 2 Peter 3, starting in verse 1. It says:

Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder), that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Amen? Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.

(2 Peter 3:1–18)

That’s good, isn’t it?

What Longsuffering Means

When we talk about God’s longsuffering, which Peter highlights here, we have to understand the meaning of the term. So let’s talk a little bit about that very term longsuffering, since it’s not very common anymore. It literally means to suffer long. How’s that? You’re thinking, wow, we pay him to tell us that. It means to be long, and it actually comes from two Greek words. One means long and one means temper. To be long-tempered, really. It really means to be slow to anger. You know anybody who is quick-tempered? I do. Long-tempered, longsuffering is that quality, is that quality of self-restraint. Now listen, self-restraint in the face of provocation, which does not hastily retaliate or punish. I want to say that again. It’s that quality of self-restraint in the face of provocation which does not hastily retaliate or punish. So what this means is, God has control over Himself, and God has control over His temper, if you will, over His anger. And so He is not quick-tempered, but rather the Word of God says that He is slow to anger. Slow. Look at Psalm 103 for a moment. We’re going to come back to Peter. Psalm 103. It says in verse 8, it says:

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.

(Psalm 103:8)

We study these attributes of God, have we not? His mercy and His grace. He’s merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. And so we see in the Word many places, when God’s grace is mentioned and when His mercy is mentioned, we see the same attribute of Him being slow to anger.

Look at Exodus 34 for another example. You don’t mind if we look at a lot of Bible verses, do you? Are you sure? This is the passage we looked at quite often, because this is where He reveals Himself to Moses. Remember Moses’ prayer? What was his prayer? It wasn’t bless me, it was, Lord, show me Your glory. Show me Your glory. Moses wanted to know God more than anything. Show me, God, who You are. Show me Your glory. And so, God says, I can’t show you My face because no one can see My face and live, but I’ll let you see My back. And so, the Lord appears, if you will, to him. And it says in 34:5 of Exodus, now the Lord—and the word Lord here capitalized always means Jehovah. So Jehovah descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of Jehovah. So God is telling him who He is. The name of the Lord is the description of His character. It’s not just a title. It’s who He is. So I’m going to tell you My name, He says. And it says:

And Jehovah passed before him and proclaimed, “Jehovah, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”

(Exodus 34:6–7)

So Moses made haste, he bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. That’s the only response to God’s self-revelation, amen. Ultimately, that’s it. When you see who God is, that’s the only proper response: to worship. So God is merciful, God is gracious, God is kind, God is loving, God is longsuffering. He is slow to anger.

And another word that’s used in our Bibles for God’s longsuffering is the word forbearance. Forbearance. And this word literally means in the Bible to hold back, to hold, that’s all it means. It denotes a delay, a delay of punishment, a suspense of God’s wrath. Look at Romans chapter 2. In Romans 2 and Romans 3 we see this word used, this word forbearance. [audio unclear] Verse 3. Paul says here in Romans 2:3–4:

And do you think this, O man, 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 longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?

(Romans 2:3–4)

So here Paul uses both of these terms in regard to God. [audio unclear] in the Bible. Now in your version it actually might be, because we don’t use the word longsuffering much, and forbearance, we don’t use that often either. So I think in many modern translations, they’re starting to substitute the word patience, but when you look at the Greek terms, or the Hebrew terms, the word patience is not used of God, because patience has the idea of resisting trial and resisting despair. Well, God’s not in a trial. God isn’t tempted to despair. So the word patience isn’t used of Him. But we use patience the way the Bible uses longsuffering or forbearance, so if I refer to God’s patience, understand that it’s a concession to the way we’re using the word today. So what the Bible tells us is that God is slow to anger. God has control over Himself, and therefore He restrains the execution of His righteous judgment.

And we see this illustrated in the Word of God three ways. And what we need to understand in order to appreciate God’s longsuffering is we need to understand, one, the degree, meaning how long He waits; secondly, the kind of provocation that He endures; and then thirdly, what does He do while He’s waiting? In other words, the manner in which He is exercising longsuffering.

How Long God Waits

About the degree, or how long God waits. We read in Genesis God creates the world good, He creates man good, paradise is good, everything is good, God looks at it and says everything is very good, and before you know it there is sin, then there is murder, and then it says the imagination of man’s heart—Genesis chapter 6—the imagination, every imagination is evil. Well, of course, God eventually brought the flood. But by some computations, that was 1,600 years after God had created the world. That’s a long time to wait, isn’t it? But think of Israel, when they were in captivity, they were in captivity in Egypt 400 years. And so God’s chosen people were in bondage and they cried to Him and they cried to Him. And God waited, and God waited 400 years. That’s a long, long time to wait. And think of God’s patience toward Israel. Beginning from the exodus of Israel from Egypt to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD was approximately 1,700 years. He waited that long. Think of God’s patience toward the entire world. After the flood, God says, I will never destroy the earth by water again. And so He established the rainbow. And when we see a rainbow, that is a sign of God’s covenant promise, in Genesis chapter 8, and we may see one today, we may get to see His covenant promise in the sky. He will never destroy the earth by flood again. So think of the length of time from the creation—we don’t know how long that is really—[audio unclear] 10,000. Some [audio unclear] go on, just the way they always have. So when we talk about God being longsuffering, we can emphasize the word long, right? Longsuffering. But we also have to emphasize the word suffering. And that’s what I love about that word because it brings out the fact that God, as God waits, what is happening as God waits is that God is being provoked.

The Provocation God Endures

This is where, as we’ve seen, as we’ve studied God’s attributes, when we look at God and we talk about things like His love and His grace and His mercy, these things don’t—we can’t really appreciate these attributes if we don’t understand at the same time the reality and the gravity of sin. Because you know it’s easy to love the lovely, isn’t it? Isn’t it? Of course. It’s easy to do that. And that’s what Jesus said in Matthew 5 when He’s saying to us to love our enemies. He’s saying, you know, God gives His rain to the unjust and to the evil. That’s the exact opposite of “God gives His rain to the good, God brings His sun and the harvest and His blessings to the good.” God gives His rain and His sun to the evil and to the unjust. So He highlights God’s goodness and God’s love for His enemies. So God, as He waits, God is being provoked, because God abhors sin. He doesn’t like it at all. We see all throughout Scripture God pleading with men regarding their sinful behavior. Because God knows what we don’t want to know.

You know, the key to happiness in the Christian life is holiness. The more sanctified you are in the Lord, the more peace and joy you will really have. Because it’s sin that, like a worm in that apple, just eats away at the core. It’s sin that destroys the joy and the peace of the Christian life. When we look at our world and we see the devastation in our world, we see the poverty and the trafficking, and we see the weakness of our world. People are pursuing phantom dreams. They’re pursuing happiness in things that will never fulfill them, because those things are sinful. And the end of sin is always the same. And Proverbs warns us, it says, the way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the end thereof is what? The way of death. It looks good, but in the end, it always brings misery. And so [audio unclear] not just of God’s love, it was the ultimate display of God’s hatred. His love for us, His hatred of sin. If God could have dealt with sin any other way, if He could have swept it under the carpet, just said, okay, I’m just going to forgive people and we’re just not going to talk about this, He certainly would have done it. Certainly the death of Jesus and the suffering of Jesus was the only means to take care of the sin problem, or otherwise God would not have resorted to it. There is no way God would have given His Son unless there was no other way to save us apart from His terrible death. But there was no other way.

So God waits, and as God waits, He is being provoked. And this is the thing we must understand about His longsuffering, is that because He’s waiting doesn’t mean He doesn’t care. Because He’s waiting doesn’t mean, well I guess God thinks this sin is okay. You ever scan the American landscape and say, wow, wow. You see the sin, you see the oppression, you see the suffering, you say, how long, O Lord? Ever said that? How long, O Lord? How long, O Lord? As we see perversity in our streets, as we kill unborn children, how long, O Lord? How long, O Lord? And if we’re provoked, if our souls are, as it says of Lot, when he was in Sodom, if our souls are vexed by the sin around us, how much more God? Because He sees sin, He sees sin in its true light. So He’s provoked, but that’s the beauty of it. Because He continues to restrain Himself even though He is being provoked. Even though men are literally poking God in the eye with their sin and rebellion, He controls Himself, He restrains Himself. Even though men take His blessings and never give Him any acknowledgement, receive many blessings, never respond with gratitude, still God restrains Himself. And I think one of the worst things that men do to God, and I did it to God for 20 years, is they just act like He isn’t there. I don’t know about you, I’d rather have somebody insult me than ignore me. Because at least they acknowledge I’m there. But to totally ignore someone is to say they’re not even worthy of your attention. And yet, how many do this to God daily? They take His blessings, they take His rain, they take His Son, they take all that He gives them and never acknowledge that He’s even there.

[audio unclear] Jesus tells this parable in Mark 12 starting in verse 1. [audio unclear] It says:

Then He began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a place for the wine vat and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country.” [audio unclear] “And again he sent another servant, and at him they threw stones, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated. And again he sent another, and him they killed; and many others, beating some and killing some. Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, ’They will respect my son.’ But those vinedressers said among themselves, ’This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’”

(Mark 12:1–7)

So it’s not just that God’s blessings are rejected, it’s not just that His Son and His rain and the prosperity that He’s bestowed upon us is taken and gratitude is not returned. But in the meantime, as God appeals to us through His Word and through His prophets and through His preachers, those appeals are rejected and rejected and rejected and rejected. And then eventually He says, wow, I sent them My prophets, I guess I have to send them My Son. They’ll listen to My Son. And so He sends His Son, and we all know what happened to His Son. That’s provocation. Is it not? [audio unclear] Deal with someone’s kid, it’s not your kid, and you see mama bear come out of mama, papa bear come out of papa. And how do you think God feels about the way His Son was treated? So God suffers long in the sense that He is provoked continually, daily, by men’s sin, by their ingratitude.

What God Does While He Waits

But the amazing thing to me about God’s longsuffering, this is the most beautiful thing about it to me, is that while He’s waiting, He isn’t doing nothing. While He’s waiting, as we see in this text and many others, while He’s waiting, He is appealing. While He’s waiting, He is pleading. So the very Person who’s being sinned against, the very Person who has every right to walk away, if you will, that’s the Person who is initiating, that’s the Person who is seeking, that’s the Person who is pleading. And we see this all throughout Scripture. You go back to the beginning. When Adam and Eve sinned, God comes to the garden and He did not come to the garden ready to cast them out. He comes to the garden seeking them and saying, Adam, where are you? He seeks them out. We think of the antediluvian world, the pre-flood world. It says God raised up Noah, and Noah preached to them for 120 years. That’s a long time before He brought the flood. So in other words, when God is suffering long, while He’s waiting, He’s not doing nothing, He is warning people. You see? So He warns of what will happen if men continue to reject Him. We see it in the case of Nineveh. God took Jonah and sent Jonah to go to the pagan city of Nineveh, and to cry out against them that God was going to judge them if they did not repent. However, they averted the judgment of God. Amen. We see in Israel that God repeatedly sent His prophets to them. Jeremiah 7, look at Jeremiah 7. No, go there. Jeremiah 7, there are many passages like this, and in Jeremiah, [audio unclear] He says in verse 21 of chapter 7:

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat. For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. But this is what I commanded them, saying, ’Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.’”

(Jeremiah 7:21–23)

Obey My voice so I can bless you. That’s God’s heart. Obey Me, because righteousness leads to prosperity and sin leads to destruction. Verse 24: Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but followed the counsels and the dictates of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward. Now look at verse 25: Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have even sent to you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them. From that day to this day, He says, I have repeatedly sent My prophets, rising up early, getting up, doing their job. I sent them out to warn, to warn, to warn. They would not listen, and the end was they ended up in captivity. So God isn’t waiting passively. God is waiting actively. God is waiting and He is pleading. God is waiting and He is beseeching.

The ultimate example was that God sent His only Son. They did not listen to the prophets. The pagan world was in darkness, so God sent His Son, the light of the world. And through His Son, His own dear Son, who was God in flesh, God pleaded with Israel and with the world to come to Him. Well, we know what happened to His Son. His Son was rejected. So what did God do? God didn’t even quit then. God decides that He would gather an elect people, give them the Holy Spirit, and through them God would continue to plead. He continues to plead with the world. He sent the Spirit, and Jesus said the Spirit was sent to convict the world of sin, righteousness, [audio unclear] He does it through His church. He pleads. So while God is waiting, He warns. So He warns through the preaching of His Word, the sending of His people. But God also warns this way. He warns through temporal judgments. Temporal judgments. Look at Luke 13, because there’s a value here for us. Luke 13, if you share the gospel with people at all, you will find there’s basically a handful of stock objections, and one of them is the problem of pain. Well, if God’s so good, why’d You let this happen? Many, many, many books written on this. But this is Jesus’ answer to the problem of pain. Luke 13:1:

There were present at that season some who told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answered and said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.”

(Luke 13:1–5)

What’s the point? The point is that when we see temporal judgments, we see famine, we see drought, we see pestilence, we see disease—when we see these things, these things are warning signs. [audio unclear] and they are to be like a megaphone at us: pay attention to how we are living and to realize that a real judgment is coming someday. [audio unclear] if men would heed why they are sent. In other words, the lesser judgment is a warning of the greater judgment.

But God isn’t just judging people while He’s waiting, while He’s warning, while He’s disciplining, God is also blessing. He’s blessing people. Look at Matthew 5, which was alluded to, but let’s read it because it’s just an astounding passage. The gospel of Matthew. Jesus is trying to help us understand the true meaning of love. He says in verse 43, you’ve heard that it was said, 5:43, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. And by the way, the Bible never says, “Hate your enemy.” Nowhere. But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? It’s easy to love people you like. Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? So in other words, if we just love people we like, we’re no better than an unbeliever. Because even unbelievers do that. You probably know people that are unsaved and they’ll be chatting with the family member, love you, love you, hug you, love you, hug you. Right? Of course. But when the person is provoking you, and rejecting you, and demeaning you, and criticizing you, and hating you, what do you do then? Because to respond to that in love requires supernatural love, which we have in the Holy Ghost. And that’s what makes us different than the world. Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father is perfect. So God is blessing those that in the meantime are not acknowledging Him, responding to Him, have no thought or care about Him or the future world.

This is called the problem not of pain. This is called the problem of prosperity. And this is dealt with in Psalm 73, which we don’t have time to read. But the point is, it’s very easy when you’re down, looking at people that are up, and say, God, why are they being blessed? I’ve been there. I’ve been there. I remember years ago when I was a roommate with somebody, and a single guy and a couple guys living together in a townhouse, and we’re making our way in the world, as you will. I’m literally living on $11 a week for groceries. I got holes in my shoes, and I’m not exaggerating. The guy that’s living with me is living like a pagan and he’s just being blessed and blessed and blessed with money. O Lord, how long? He taught me at that point in my life the meaning of true wealth. And it’s not money. It’s not money. That’s why it says in James that God has chosen the poor to be rich in faith. There’s a richness, a quality of life that we can have that transcends our possessions, whether we have much or have little. That’s the kind of wealth that I want. Amen.

Why God Waits

Let me conclude. God waits long. God waits while He is being provoked. And as God waits and as God is being provoked, He pleads, He warns. Sometimes He chastens and judges, but He even blesses. But He even blesses us. That’s because God is a good God. Do you ever want—do you want the Lord to come back right away? Say yes. Come on now. Usually when somebody is hurting you. Come on, Lord, do it. Let’s get it on. Let’s do that final-judgment thing. Yes! So why does God wait? He waits so that men will come to Him. He waits that men would repent. As I look back at the way that I lived as a pagan for 20 years, the mercy of God that He waited. And He did not return. And I’m sure when I was living as a pagan there were many Christians who were saying, come, Lord Jesus, come. And they weren’t thinking about me, that if He came, I would go to hell. Should we not desire His coming? Yes, we should. But we have to understand that God delays so that men and women and children will come into His kingdom. That’s why He’s waiting. It’s not because He’s indifferent to sin. It’s not because He doesn’t care about your suffering, but His agenda is bigger than any one of us. He feels your pain. He’s aware of what you sacrifice. He’s aware of what you suffer for Him, but He has other things He’s doing in the world. And you know, thousands and thousands of people are getting saved every day in parts of the world. Do you know this? In, say, South America and in Asia and in parts of Africa, there’s revival, just unprecedented revival. And so if the Lord came today, all of that would stop. It would be done. But the Lord’s in the middle of bringing in a harvest for His glory. And we want this to continue, amen. So He waits that men will repent.

Back to 2 Peter, read a few verses and we’re going to close. Verse 9:

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

(2 Peter 3:9)

Come to Him Today

Let me just say this. Hey, some of you here who don’t know the Lord Jesus, you have been given one more chance. And I know Christians who just tolerate going to church, they’re like those Jews that just rejected the prophets, rejected the prophets, rejected the prophets. Let me just say this. It is the mercy of God that you’re here today. It is the mercy of God that you can hear His Word one more time. And if you do not know the Lord Jesus, it is the mercy of God that God loves every one of us in spite of our situation, and He allots us blessings and trials according to His wisdom. But He has spared you one more day and He wants you today to come to Him. That’s why He waits. Come to the Lord Jesus. Some of you have heard the gospel. You heard it as children. You know it, but you don’t know it. You’ve heard it, but don’t understand it. I can’t think of another way to say it than the way that you’ve heard it. I don’t know what to say that will make it different. But you know that God loves you because He gave His Son for you, for every sin of yours, so that you could come to Him and know Him. And salvation isn’t just averting judgment later, salvation is coming to know Him now, having [audio unclear]

But the thing about longsuffering we must remember, although God suffers long, there will be a point at which that longsuffering ends. I don’t know when that will be. I don’t know when that will be for you, because we have no guarantees on this life, do we? I got an email a week ago. A friend of mine has two grown daughters who have their own children, young children, toddlers, and so her two daughters decide to get together and have a play day for the cousins, you know, so the two gals are out. And they both have a number of kids, so the cousins are playing, and one of the girls’ two-year-old sons drowned in a pool while they were there watching. They just turned away for long enough. A two-year-old child, dead. There’s no guarantee for any of us. And if you don’t know the Lord Jesus, and if you don’t know that you know the Lord Jesus—I mean, you know you know—then you must get this settled, because we have no guarantees on tomorrow. Do you think those two young ladies, when they wanted to have a play day with their children, thought they would come back with one of their children dead that day? Well, of course not. We don’t know the future, but God does. And He’s giving you one more chance to come to Him in true saving faith. So as Paul says, let today be the day of [audio unclear]

Closing Prayer

[audio unclear] who may have come in not knowing You, that today would be their day. Have mercy, O God. I pray that they would know Your great love in an experiential way, that they would surrender to Your love. But I pray that for all of us, even we Christians, that we would repent of the things we’re tolerating, the things we’re doing wrong, and Lord, maybe the things [audio unclear] us, Lord, never make light [audio unclear]