God's Patient Longsuffering

Good morning, everyone. It's nice to be here in your Sunday school. I gather that I'm assuming that you've put all the Sunday school classes together. Is that what you've done today? Because I see young people and kids here and we're so glad to have you all.

Have you have you ever heard a sermon as your pastor or someone preach the sermon? To you on the topic of God's patient long-suffering. God's patient. Long-suffering. That's what we will be talking about in our Sunday school hour today.

Reading the Psalms and Prophets on God’s Mercy

Come in kids. We're glad to have you all. I want to begin this morning our Sunday school class by simply reading several portions from the Word of God, I'm not even going to give the references, but if you want the references Later on Luke.

He's the only one who's been coming up and asking for them. But if you want the references later Luke you can get them. All right. Just listen for a few moments. Let the let the Word of God minister to your spirits.

Praise the Lord. Oh my soul all my inmost being praise his holy name. Praise the Lord. Oh my soul. And Forget not all his benefits. Who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases. Who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion.

Who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the Eagles. The Lord works righteousness and judgment for all the oppressed. The Lord is compassionate and gracious. Slow to anger abounding in love.

He will not always accuse nor will he harbor his anger forever. He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth so great is his love for 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 has compassion on his children. So the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. For he knows how we are formed.

He remembers that we are dust as For man his days are like grass. He flourishes like a flower of the field. The wind blows over it and is gone and its place remembers it no more but from everlasting to everlasting.

The Lord's love is with them who fear him and His righteousness. What kind of righteousness his distributive his imputative righteousness with their children's children. Praise the Lord. Oh my soul. Another passage that's all one passage from Psalm 103.

Another passage the generation of your people will celebrate your abundant goodness and Joyfully seeing of your righteousness. What kind of righteousness God's distributive righteousness. The Lord is gracious and compassionate.

Slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is good to all he has compassion on all he has made. The Lord is loving toward all he has made. The eyes of all look to you and You give them their food at the proper time.

You open your hand and you satisfy the desires of every living thing. Ezekiel 33 as Surely as I live declares the Sovereign Lord. I Take no pleasure in the death of the wicked but rather That they turn from their ways and live.

Turn Turn from your evil ways. Why will you die. Oh? House of Israel. Another passage. Who is a God like you? Who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance. You do not stay angry forever, but you delight to show mercy.

The Shorter Catechism and the Need to Speak of God’s Love

Well That gets the picture of our that's a side of God that I want to talk to you about This morning. I want you to I want to ask you to consider in some detail with me the divine attribute of God's patient long-suffering.

The shorter catechism as You know teaches us that God is spirit infinite eternal and unchangeable In his being wisdom power holiness justice goodness and truth. Now, you know, I love the Reformed Faith and I love the shorter catechism.

I've memorized all of the questions of it. I I regularly cite it. When when I was a pastor and people would come to me with questions if I could I would have usually start my answer by citing Some response of the shorter catechism and it sounded so intelligent That that was sufficient for them, you know, but they walk away say boy that pastor he just comes up with answers.

Well, I had memorized those answers as a kid even I Can appreciate and I understand I love the shorter catechism and I can appreciate and understand that the children's Catechism should be a model of brevity.

But I must say that I believe our catechism First is not as sensitive as it should be To its intended audience namely children. It's it's it's indeed shorter in my opinion that it should be by at least two attributes.

I wish that our catechism describing God to children had included something about his patient long-suffering and his love oh I know the word the word is there the word good is there. He is good. And the word goodness is a beautiful it's a beautiful word and it is an attribute of God.

But I do wish that the shorter catechism had not subsumed under the attribute of God's goodness. The love of God and his patient long-suffering towards sinful children but even then of course the larger catechism for pastors and And for the elders of a church the larger catechism definition of God Fails to mention his love.

It talks about his goodness. And there's no chapter on God's love either in Stephen Charnock's 1100 page Volume on the existence and attributes of God. There's no chapter on love in Herman Bovink's the doctrine of God.

It's always subsumed God's love and his patient long-suffering is always subsumed under That broad category of God's goodness so and goodness is a wonderful word. But I'm just wishing that our reformed tradition might have Been more willing to talk about God's love openly.

God’s Love Revealed in Christ’s Cross Work

Let me give to you. Let me give to you Lewis Burkhoff. Now, you all know Burkhoff's systematic theology well regarded highly respected revered volume here is Burkhoff's definition of God's love and He gives 16 lines 16 lines in his systematics To talking about God's love.

16 lines, that's all. But here's his definition of God's love. That perfection of the divine nature By which he is eternally moved to self-communication. Now doesn't that kind of leave you cold? Here is Henry Kappa's definition of God an equally revered reformed scholar.

Here is Henry Kappa's definition of God's love. God's love is a Certain benevolent and Beneficent propension toward the creatures. Doesn't that kind of That somehow it doesn't seem to be saying everything that it ought to be saying.

Do such definitions of God's love as I just read to you. That perfection of the divine nature by which he is eternally moved to self-communication a certain benevolent and Beneficent propension toward the creature.

I ask you. Do you think these definitional? These definitions do justice To the word of to the to the love of God. Particularly when I call your attention that to the fact that in the writings of the New Testament God's love is portrayed as the very essence of his nature.

First John 4 8 God is love the source of our election the fountain from which flows all of his gracious redemptive activity. And It is and God's love is the supreme message of Calvary. Doesn't the Apostle John inform us in first John for that?

God's very essence is love and doesn't he go on to say and this is how the love of God Was manifested toward us. He sent His one and only son into the world. That we might live through him. This is love.

Not that we loved God but that he loved us and Sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Twice in these verses the Apostle John singles out God sending his son first into the world and then to Calvary as the tangible concrete Revelational expression of God's great love for people.

Does not the same Apostle also tell us God so loved the world? That he gave his one and only son. Does not the Apostle Paul say virtually the same thing God demonstrated his love for us in this way. While we were yet sinners Christ died for us.

Does he not also say that Christ loved me and Gave himself for me and that Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her all of these statements regarding divine love self-expression. Focus our attention on God's love gift to mankind of the cross work of Jesus Christ.

So in my opinion Our reformed tradition Its dogmatic pronouncements have been guilty by guilty of heresy by disproportion when it subsumes God's love in his patient long-suffering under his goodness and Fails to mention them in their definitions of God of God.

Therefore I want to spend a few moments this morning morning in this Sunday school class and later in my Sunday morning sermon Rectifying this disproportion and I want to expound upon God's patient long-suffering and his love for sinners.

For if I have one crusade left in me and there aren't many left. I'll tell you I'm 73 years young 73 years old and if I have one crusade left in me it is to elevate the New Testament emphasis on these marvelous attributes of God's patient long-suffering and His love for sinners exhibited in the sinners behalf to their rightful place in our dogmatic declarations and expressions of the Reformed Church.

God’s Slowness to Anger and His Reluctance to Judge

So I want you to think with me now in this Sunday school class about the first the patient long-suffering of God his slowness to anger his slowness to wrath. Now my beloved Although our sin Infuriates God Moses informs us That our God is slow to anger as does Nahum as does David as does Joel as Does Jonah as does Nehemiah and even God says it of himself?

I'll have all those references if you want them. Luke all these biblical writers tell us That our God is slow to anger And abounding In steadfast loving-kindness. David tells us that God is slow to anger and rich in steadfast loving-kindness.

Hosea employs a very bold figure in Hosea 11 When he has God deliberating with Ephraim. Listen listen to the God how How can I give you up? How can I give you up Ephraim? How can I hand you over Israel?

How can I treat you like Adma? How can I make you? Like Zeboaim. Adma and Zeboaim you may recall were two cities destroyed along with Sodom and Gomorrah. When God poured out fire and brimstone upon those cities.

My heart is moved within me. All my compassion is aroused. I will not carry out my fierce anger. Nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim. For I am God and Not man. I'm the Holy One among you. I will not come to you in wrath.

Micah asks who is a God like you? Pardoning and passing over transgressions for the remnant of his inheritance. You do not retain your anger forever. Because you delight to show Loving-kindness. Ezekiel states twice that the Lord takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked.

But rather is pleased when men turn from their ways and live. Jeremiah strikingly declares that the Lord does acts of kindness and Righteousness. What kind of righteousness distributive righteousness in the earth?

For in these God states I delight and One of the most beautiful statements. It's I've never heard a sermon on it. It's from lamentation. 3 3 our translations hide what the Hebrew says and I'm sorry for that for the Hebrew literally says God does not from his heart.

Listen. God does not from his heart bring affliction or grief to the children of men. That is to say because the Lord delights to show them his loving-kindness. His heart simply is not in afflicting the sons of men as If it brought him any positive joy.

Peter asserts that the Lord is patient with you Not wanting any of you to perish, but every one of you to come to repentance. All these declarations now get it class. All of these declarations mean that we must never think of our God as eagerly and longingly panting to judge sinners.

Our God is not eagerly and longingly panting To judge sinners. He is not in haste to slay. He is not swift to condemn. If only ten righteous people he declared could be found in Sodom. He would have spared even Sodom and Gomorrah.

His hand of mercy is ever outstretched toward the sinner remembering that he is but dust. He never smites without first warning. Does he not first dig around and fertilize the barren tree that simply encumbers the ground Before he removes it.

Does he not gives will give warnings by acts of providence. Such as natural disasters and lengthy and chronic illnesses to remind us of our mortality. And from the world's evangelical pulpits does he not often tell the sinner of his sins urging him to repent and of the judgment that will follow after death and Only after much sin has stirred the lion from his lair.

Does he make hell with all its dreadful terrors stare the sinner in the face? In order to frighten him and push him toward repentance. And even then. How slow he is after such warnings to punish the criminal.

He informs him first that he will punish him unless he repents. But oh, how long a time does God normally give the impenitent to do so? He is not swift to execute judgment. Our God is indeed get it. He is a reluctant judge.

You get it. He is a reluctant judge. His judgment of sinners is what Charles had in the Spurgeon called God's strange work. It is not from his heart in the sense that it brings him any pleasure. And all of us should be very grateful that it is so we should realize that the riches of his kindness and his patience with us were intended and Our intended to lead us to repentance.

For if he had judged us as soon as we deserved it We would hear all of us this morning. We would have already already been cast into hell. No earthly father in this world Would ever endure the rebellion of his children.

Had his sons and daughters provoked him even a nano amount as much as we the sons of Jacob corporately and individually Have provoked the one holy living and a true God Even in the state of grace. Our best works are mixed with so much weakness and imperfection That they cannot endure the severity of God's judgment they are in themselves our works even in the state of grace are in themselves blameable and Reprovable in his sight and they are accepted by God as good only Because we are in Christ.

Christ’s Righteousness, This Nation, and God’s Long-Suffering

Oh We're in Christ and therefore God imputes Christ righteousness not only to us but to our works. He imputes Christ vicarious repentance Expressed in his accepting John's baptism of repentance. He he imputes Jesus repentance to our poor imperfect repentance.

He imputes Christ perfect prayer of intercession to our frivolous silly lazy soon forgotten prayers of adoration and confession and supplication. This nation is also the beneficiary of God's long-suffering.

Its iniquities are great and It is liable to divine judgment. No nation with the exceptions of Israel and the United Kingdom has ever played so fast and so loose with bestowed divine truth as these United States of America.

But God is slow of anger Abounding and rich in his steadfast love and he keeps the sword of his sheath Wrath sheath that sword I can imagine struggles to get free. But God's patient long-suffering Puts its hand on the sheath and says stay not yet.

And so he continues to give this nation along with all of the other nations of the world as Well as the Mafia dons and the goons of this world and the Muslim terrorists of this world who would take over the world time to learn of him and to repent In order that he may bring all of his chosen ones to himself.

And this is all because God is long-suffering and Because he takes no pleasure in In punishing the sinner But rather is showing he is slow and He shows his mercy. Someone may object and point to the curse section of the Deuteronomic Covenant in Deuteronomy 2863.

Someone might object and point to that verse in which Moses informed Israel That just as it pleased the Lord to make you prosper. So because you will not obey the Lord your God it will please the Lord to destroy you.

They might point to that but God's statement here Does not contradict his later statements in Ezekiel 18 32 and 30 and 33 11. Let me illustrate Robert Lewis Dabney The Southern Presbyterian theologian who served for a time as a senior staff officer under General Stonewall Jackson during the war between the states.

Robert Lewis Dabney provides a fitting story From the life of George Washington that I offer here as a helpful analogy To what I mean regarding God's pleasure to destroy in Deuteronomy 28 not standing in contradiction To his later statement that he takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked John Marshall Third Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court Writes of President Washington signing the death warrant of a certain Major John Andre.

You've studied about Major John Andre Whose rash and unfortunate acts of treason had jeopardized the safety of the young nation. Marshall writes perhaps on no occasion of his life. Did the commander-in-chief obey with more reluctance the stern mandates of duty and policy.

Washington had plenary power to execute or to spare. His compassion for the criminal was genuine and profound. Yet Washington signed the major's death warrant for his. Washington's volition to sign the death warrant writes Dabney Did not arise from the fact that his compassion was slight or feigned.

But from the fact that his compassion was counterpoised by a complex of superior judgments and propensions of wisdom duty patriotism and moral indignation. The pity was real. But it was restrained by superior elements of motive.

Washington had official and bodily power to discharge the criminal. But he had not the sanction of his own wisdom and his sense of justice. So it is I would submit with God now, please. Listen to me the absence in God of a will to spare a particular sinner does not imply the absence in him a profound pity Toward him even as he consigns him to perdition.

Shall I repeat that I want you to get that. The absence in God of a will to spare a particular sinner Does not imply the absence in him a profound pity Toward him even as he consigns him to perdition.

Even as God with moral indignation consigns impenitent sinners to hell He profoundly pities them. His pity is genuine and profound. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He judges the wicked only reluctantly.

But because God as the just judge of all the earth is also governed by his wisdom His duty to his offended holiness and his moral indignation against sin in that sense It pleases the Lord to punish the impenitent Although he takes no positive delight in Punishing them just as it pleased the Lord When he made his son a sin offering for the elect to forsake him and to execute him at Calvary under his curse a pleasure That we may be sure caused the father Infinite sorrow.

Why Christians Should Not Rejoice in Hell

And right here. I want to address what I think is a grave misunderstanding That has been perpetuated in the church by such Christian thinkers of the past as Thomas Aquinas in his supplement to his Summa Theologica Dante in his Inferno and Jonathan Edwards in his sermon the torments of the wicked in hell no occasion of grief to the saints in heaven.

These Thinkers have suggested that at the last judgment the eternal torment of the wicked Will become a matter of eternal song to the redeemed. Because they say we in that day will have the mind of God on the matter and will therefore Rejoice with him in their actual destruction.

But wait my beloved Have we not read a bunch of passages that tell me and you that God has plainly declared that he does not rejoice In consigning men to perdition that he takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked.

That he judges the creature made in his image Because it is right and just to do so but he does so reluctantly and not because he relishes it as Something in which he takes any positive delight. So what gives God no pleasure?

Should give Christians no pleasure either and the more Godlike we become the less will we take personal pleasure in? The thought of anyone suffering in hell. Never should you and I ever say to any person with malice You go to hell.

Never should we wish any man or woman were in hell not even our worst enemy in that great day. Precisely because I will understand better the mind of God on the matter of justice. I Who deserve hell as much as those who will be consigned there Will not be praising God that they're going to hell.

I will be singing doxologically in The words of Robert Murray McShane not of their destruction and suffering. But I will be singing of God's grace shown to me in Jesus Christ. When this passing world is done When has sunk yon setting Sun.

When we stand with Christ in glory looking or life's finished story. Then Lord shall I fully know? Not till then How much I owe? When I hear the wicked call on the rocks and hills to fall. When I see them start and shrink on the fiery deluge brink.

Then Lord Shall I fully know not till then how much I owe. When I stand before the throne Dressed in beauty not my own. When I see thee as thou art Love thee with unsinning heart then Lord Shall I fully know not till then?

How much I owe? When the praise of heaven I hear loudest thunder to the ear. Loud as many waters noise, but sweetest harps melodious voice then Lord Shall I fully know not till then? How much? So when reflecting on God's long-suffering towards sinners One may even justly speak of the holy humility.

There's a holy humility In the triune Godhead Reflected in the fact that the three persons of the Godhead condescend to tolerate mankind's rebellion and hostility. Rather than to snuff us all out In an instant of time for that's what we all deserved.

Let us pray together our loving heavenly father in this moment in our lives. We thank you for your patient long-suffering toward us. Grant that all who have heard this Sunday school lesson are indeed trusting in your beloved son Who is the only Savior of men?

But if someone here is not yet trusting him Would you draw him or her by your spirit now? To your great salvation through trusting in Jesus Christ's work at Calvary and It is in his matchless name that we pray.

Amen.