I'm going to be reading from Matthew 18 and you'll recognize this parable. Then Peter came up and said to them, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times Jesus said, I do not say to you seven times but seventy times seven. Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wishes to several 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 in payment 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. But when the same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denari and seizing him, he began to choke him saying, pay what you owe. So the fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, have patience with me and I will repay 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. When they reported to their master all that had taken place, then the 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 anger his master delivered him to the jailers until he should pay all the debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart, the reading of the Lord. We are looking at the fruit of the Spirit. The picture that Paul has in Galatians 5 is the picture of a huge, bountiful harvest of a grain field. As we would call it, what the songwriter calls it, the fruited plain, the fruit of the Spirit is singular, one massive field of grain with an abundant harvest. And he begins to list them a ninefold, nine aspects of this fruit, love, joy, peace, and today we come to patience, patience. That is our focus today, the aspect of the fruit of the Spirit. We've mentioned each and every time we've spoken of this, that it is the fruit of the Spirit. It is an outworking, a harvest. It begins with the planting of the seed, of regeneration, when the Spirit of God comes into our hearts and we are born again and then begins to work in us all the things that he does and he begins to work in our hearts and in our mind and our conscience and begins to teach us and show us and buff it us about a bit. For whom the Lord loved it, he chases it and he corrects and scourges every child that is his. So the Lord begins to teach us, and if you don't hear anything else, if I stop preaching right now and I may not have even started preaching yet, get this, everything you're going through right now, whatever it is, I don't care what it is, a financial situation, a relationship, a situation at home, an irritation that you think you do not deserve, and some kind of vexation that's come upon you that is just really not should not be your lot is the thing that God is using to work on you, to correct you, to knock off the rough edges, to shine and polish, to cleanse and purge, to strengthen and to temper and to harden you so that you might be able to endure. You may be able to persevere, you may be able to continue in the life of faith. So a different way of looking at problems and it's hard to do because we tend to look at them differently with the eyes of flesh and not with the eye of faith that sees in them the fingers of God crafting the circumstances of our lives. And that's what we have here in this particular passage. One of the aspects of the fruit of the Spirit is what's translated here, patience. In the Greek it's the word macro themia, or fumia, and its derivation is a little bit difficult to follow along, but basically macro, I think we know what that means, that means big, large or long elongated, macro as opposed to micro, which is that which is smaller, shorter, diminutive, macro, big, long, and then the word fumia, which is the word for wrath, or the word for anger, it's literally the word for heat, we get our word thermometer from it, and that is the basic idea of the word is long wrath and anger, long suffering is
the old King James translation, and I'd like to suggest it is a pretty good one, and it is long suffering is what the fruit of the Spirit is in this aspect. It means patience forbearance, it even has come to mean kind of a resignation or a force acceptance, and it even can mean in some of its other connotations, endurance, very similar to our word perseverance and to endure, and then it can also mean just simply procrastination that is putting something off, delaying it and putting it off, but the root idea I think is found when we look at how the Bible uses the concept, and I'm going to point you to three places very briefly, one you've already seen, and that's the parable of Jesus, but the first one I want to show you goes back to the Old Testament, and it's found in the book of Exodus, and this is the passage where God is giving to Moses, not only the commandments, but also the particulars on how to build the tabernacle, and a number of other things that Moses needs in order to lead God's people in the wilderness, and they're around about the Mount Sinai, and Moses goes up to Mount Sinai, and this particular episode occurs. It's recorded in chapter 34, so Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first. Do you remember what happened to the first? The first set of tablets were crushed when Moses witnessed the profound and unbelievable depravity and disobedience and godlessness of the people around
the calf in their worship, and so now the Lord is picking up, and we're doing a redo here. Here's a do-over that is very, very important, and Moses is an interceded for the people, and now God is meeting with Moses again. So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first. He rose up early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and he took in his hand two tablets of stone. The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there. Oh, my goodness, that's just, that's enough right there to preach a little bit. The Lord came in the Shaqaina glory, the glory cloud, and he stood there with Moses, and he stood with him. Oh, that's what the Lord does. He comes to us even before he's going to give us a commandment, even before he's going to require ought of us. He is going to stand with us, stand beside us. This is operational within the presence of God, the spirit of God must be in us, working in us in order to affect the fruits of the spirit. And this is, of course, exactly what we see here in the life of Moses. The Lord stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. Do you know who the first and premier preacher in the Bible is? The Lord Himself. You need to listen when the Lord preaches. When the Lord proclaims, the Lord's the preacher. He preached the gospel to Adam and Eve in the garden. He preached the gospel to Abraham. He preached the gospel to Noah. God is the first preacher of the gospel. And listen to what the Lord said. And he proclaimed the Lord, the Lord. The Lord here is speaking about Himself. 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 in iquity and transgression and sin. Before the Lord ever gave a commandment, he told us about his character. He said, I am merciful. I am gracious. I am slow to anger, patient, long suffering, bountiful in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love to generations to thousands. The love in mercy of the Lord extends down through the generations and across the masses of humanity. Let's not forget the background. Contemplated here is the wrath of God. God's fumea, God's anger, God's hot, white heat against all that is sinful in his sight. God's wrath is God's settled disposition against everything that opposes Him, everything that defiles Him, everything that is against his word and against his character and against his will and against his commandment. Our God is a consuming fire. Our God is a God of wrath. He will certainly execute that wrath. But the Bible teaches us here and all throughout that our God graciously restrains His righteous wrath, divine forbearance, divine patience, but He's doing it in order that we might repent. He's giving us time to repent, perhaps if God allows enough time, we will see the destructive path upon which we walk. Perhaps if God allows enough time and His patient and long suffering and forbearance, that is, He holds up the execution of His righteous sentence, waiting for us to turn, to turn from our sin, to turn from our self, to turn from our wicked ways, to turn from our all of our addictions and turn to Him in faith and in obedience.
God is patient generationally. He will look at a family or a people or a tribe or a kindred or a nation and He will see that one generation will not return to Him. They will go into a perdition of their own free will. That's where free will gets you every time. It'll send you straight to hell. You do what you want to do. You do your will. You make your choices. You live according to the desires of your flesh. Be not deceived. God has not mocked whatsoever. Man sows. There's a sowing. He will also reap. There's an abundant harvest. But sometimes God gives a chance to the next generation. One whole generation was lost in the wilderness. But God was merciful to let their little children grow up in the wilderness. And when they came of age, they went into the land. They went into Canaan land. Time and again, the Lord will allow patiently generation. During the days of Abraham, the wickedness of the Canaanites was obvious to everyone, especially the Amorite and the associated tribes. But the Lord said, Abraham, the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full. And God waited about 400 more years before Joshua and his armies executed the wrath of God upon those people. 400 years, God waited until the iniquity of the Amorite was full. And the measure of God's wrath had reached the lip of the cup and was poured out upon them. God forebears. He restrains waiting, giving us an opportunity for repentance. God holds his fire. Doesn't mean he's changed his mind. Doesn't mean he condones our sin. Doesn't mean he's forgotten all about it. He just patiently informerants and patients for us to come, for us to call, for us to turn, for us to move toward him. The wrath builds up. But God is forbearing. We not only see the teaching of the Lord God himself, but we see the teaching of his son Jesus Christ, which we saw in the parable. Was that a complicated parable to understand? Do I have to be some shrewd, interpreture, scripture to help you understand the parable that was read a moment ago? Pretty clear, isn't it? Alarmingly, perspicacious, clear as it can be. Here's the story. There's a judge. The servant owns him. A daddy cannot pay. And the judge forgives it. Forbearers, patient. It's what he pleaded for. He fell upon his face, imploring him have patience with me. And that's what he was granted. Have we received forbearance, patience from the Lord? And then the servant goes out and fails to give that same measure of patience to one of his fellow servants. In fact, he's quite vicious in his treatment of the fellow servant. But listen to the alarming conclusion. Listen to what the master said. He summoned him. Here's a doctrine we don't preach much. Everybody in this room, one day, will answer a summons. It is appointed unto man once to die. And after that, the judgment. Paul says, we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ and give an account of the deeds done in our bodies.
I don't think of that too often, but the Bible teaches it often. And our confession is very clear in the very last of the chapters. We talk about things that will happen. And the final judgment is one of them. And it's a summons that we will answer. And the king summoned him and said,
you wicked servant. Jesus has already told us they'll come a day when the verdict very well may be depart for me, you worker of the niquity. I never knew you. And Jesus concludes when he sees that the master then delivered into the jailers until he could pay all of his debts. He didn't forgive the debt.
He was just long suffering toward the debt. The debt was hanging there at all times. And when it was exacted upon the servant, he had to receive the full just penalty of the debt.
Jesus should have said, that's awful cruel treatment. I certainly am not going to represent my Heavenly Father as being of that sort. Jesus said, my Father's not like it. Jesus could have said, I don't believe in a God like that. I don't believe that Jesus that my Heavenly Father would do that. But Jesus says, so also, my Heavenly Father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. See, here's what happens. Forbearance received demands forbearance given.
Forbearance in patience and long suffering in mercy and grace received requires forbearance given. See, that's what it means to be restored to the image of God. The image and likeness of God in Adam was, Adam was a creature that God had created to reflect the great character of God, the attributes of God, the mannerisms of God, the attitudes of God, the works of God. He was God's mirror to reflect. And that's what we are to do in our lives is to reflect the glory of God. And God is a forebearing, gracious, loving, patient, long suffering, Father and judge.
And His people are to reflect that in their lives. And so that's why we're ordered. It's in the imperative, I believe, that we've got to put on that particular quality of life. Listen to the text of Scripture that Paul gives us in Colossians 3. Seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and if put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator, it's a pretty good conditional statement right there. You've put off the old self with its practices and if put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator, God is restoring the image of Himself in humanity. And it's the believer, it's the Christian in the likeness of Christ who was the perfect image, the express image of the Father. Here's the imperative. Verse 12, put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, not all to warm our hearts right there. God's chosen ones, that is you, my brother and sister, chosen by God, holy, set aside, beloved, loved, intimately. Put on then compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, long suffering forbearance. What a garment, who can tailor a garment that can be like this? A garment that is made of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. And listen to the practical application, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Microthumia, patience, long suffering forbearance, forced acceptance. The Lord puts upon us some commandments and some requirements that we really have to contemplate and work at. One of the toughest ones to me is the commandment to love your enemies. I have a hard time loving my closest friends. Love your enemies, love your neighbor. And the Lord tells us to forbear, to forgive, to live a life of long suffering toward others. My fuse is about that short, with others in their behavior toward me. And when I get on the telephone with one of those, where you have to do punch three and then wait and punch, my fuse gets about that short. So the time I finally get to talk to the human that answers the phone, I'm pretty much steamed out. It happens over and over. And it is a besetting sin. The Lord won't let me get away with it. My conscience is stricken and yours should be too about something, some place, somewhere, somehow. Recently, you have just not been patient in forbearance with your fellow travelers, with believers, unbelievers alike. Forgiving each other has the Lord has forgiven you. So you also must forgive the Lord, give us patience.