Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: I thought the youth service takeover last week was an awesome success.
[00:00:14] Speaker A: My friend Jeremiah reminded us how important it is to nurture the good seed.
And.
[00:00:23] Speaker A: I tried to practice that in my life this week. So thanks, Jer. You did a good job.
[00:00:34] Speaker A: I'll tell your boss you deserve a raise.
[00:00:39] Speaker A: Can't say oh. This morning I guess I'll have to say I you.
[00:00:47] Speaker A: Our dear Heavenly Father.
[00:00:51] Speaker A: How significant and magnificent you are.
[00:00:57] Speaker A: And what a incredible thing you do.
[00:01:02] Speaker A: When you go out of your way to help us understand who you are.
[00:01:13] Speaker A: I pray that your Holy Spirit would make us interested and fascinated in a new way with your moral attributes.
[00:01:24] Speaker A: And I pray that we would think about you in holy and healthy ways and that as we think about you in these healthy ways, our eternal souls would be nurtured.
[00:01:37] Speaker A: And I ask this through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
[00:01:43] Speaker A: We're studying the moral attributes of God.
[00:01:48] Speaker A: I want you to be able to put concrete thoughts.
[00:01:56] Speaker A: To the name God.
I don't want God's name to be a vague and nebulous thing.
[00:02:08] Speaker A: So when we say God, what do we mean?
[00:02:13] Speaker A: Well.
[00:02:15] Speaker A: We mean to begin with that he is true and trustworthy.
God is incapable of being untrustworthy.
He is good.
I have to remind you the definition of good.
He is and does exactly who he is supposed to be and what he is supposed to do.
He is a God of steadfast love.
He is merciful.
He is righteous.
[00:02:53] Speaker A: This morning we're going to look at he is a God of forbearance.
[00:02:58] Speaker A: And then in the coming weeks, we're going to study he is holy, he is loving, and he is gracious.
[00:03:06] Speaker A: So that when you think about God, you start connecting these qualities of his personhood and he stops being a higher power or some vague thing, and you start seeing in him the beauties and the perfections of his character.
[00:03:30] Speaker A: So God is a God of forbearance.
If you grew up reading the King James version, then you know the word long suffering.
[00:03:43] Speaker A: Probably.
[00:03:45] Speaker A: Forbearance is closer to our word for patience.
But it really means that it is innate to God's nature.
[00:03:57] Speaker A: To put up with stuff he doesn't like long enough to help people change.
[00:04:07] Speaker A: Forbearance means that God doesn't step on us instantly when we do wrong.
He creates space and time for you and I to repent and and become better people.
That is the forbearance of God.
[00:04:28] Speaker A: I grew up expecting to be hit by lightning any second.
[00:04:34] Speaker A: Because I wasn't taught that God was a God of forbearance.
But in the majesty of his personhood.
God says, I will be patient and I will work in this person's life.
[00:04:53] Speaker A: And by patience and good work, I will make them more and more of the person I want them to be.
[00:05:01] Speaker A: The Bible is full of examples of this forbearance of God.
[00:05:08] Speaker A: When Adam and Eve sinned, God was forbearing, and he created another way for them.
When Cain killed Abel, God didn't execute him.
He gave him a lifetime to repent and become a different man.
When.
[00:05:30] Speaker A: When Moses killed the Egyptian, God gave him a lifetime to repent and become a better man.
When David killed Uriah, the Hittite, God gave him a lifetime to repent and become a better man.
When Saul persecuted the church and threw people like you and I in jail for being followers of Christ, God was patient with him and brought him to repentance on the Damascus road.
[00:06:02] Speaker A: The God that we worship is a God of forbearance.
[00:06:09] Speaker A: There's a beautiful story in the Book of Numbers.
[00:06:16] Speaker A: The Lord brought the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage with seven great displays of his power.
They crossed through the wilderness and they came to Mount Sinai.
And God met them on Mount Sinai. And.
[00:06:39] Speaker A: For two years he gently taught them his law.
[00:06:46] Speaker A: And then after two years, they moved to Kadesh, Barnea and Joshua And Caleb, with 10 other spies, spent 40 days exploring the promised land.
[00:07:02] Speaker A: And when they came back, they. They made a report.
[00:07:07] Speaker A: And the. And this was their report.
It is a land flowing with milk and honey.
It's everything we ever dreamed of.
It's. It's all a person could ever want.
[00:07:23] Speaker A: However.
[00:07:26] Speaker A: The people who dwell in the land are strong and the cities are fortified and large.
[00:07:36] Speaker A: And we look like grasshoppers in their sight.
[00:07:41] Speaker A: I'm not making that up. And we ourselves. And we seem to ourselves like grasshoppers. And so we seem to them.
[00:07:53] Speaker A: But one man spoke up. His name was Caleb.
And Caleb said, you're looking at this the wrong way.
You're seeing this through your own sense of.
[00:08:08] Speaker A: Lack.
There's another way to look at this.
Caleb said, let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.
[00:08:23] Speaker A: Look at this as what has God already done for us?
He's already delivered us from Egyptian bondage. He's already brought us through the Red Sea. He's already met us on Mount Sinai. He gave water out of the rock and fed us with manna and quail.
Why would you not believe that, that he will give you the land?
[00:08:51] Speaker A: And still.
[00:08:54] Speaker A: 10 of the spies said, you're nuts.
This is Suicide.
It's not possible for us to take this land.
[00:09:06] Speaker A: Ah.
[00:09:09] Speaker A: And then.
[00:09:11] Speaker A: They pushed it one step farther, and they tested the forbearance of God.
[00:09:19] Speaker A: And all the congregation of Israel raised a loud cry.
And the people wept that night.
And all the people grumbled. The whole congregation of them said, would that we had died in the land of Egypt, or would that we had died in the wilderness.
Why is God bringing us into this land to fall by the sword?
Our wives and little ones will become prey.
It would be better for us to go back to Egypt.
And they said to one another, let us choose a leader to lead us back into Egypt.
[00:10:04] Speaker A: This is a moment where God shows the nature of his forbearance after everything he had done.
They had no faith and no gratitude.
In fact.
[00:10:21] Speaker A: They said, it would be better for us to walk back to Egypt and become slaves again than to do what God is asking us to do.
[00:10:44] Speaker A: And Joshua and Caleb tried again.
And they said.
[00:10:49] Speaker A: Look, you're making a bad mistake.
You're making a bad mistake.
The land we pass through to spy out, it is an exceedingly good land. And if the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us. A land that flows with milk and honey.
Do not rebel. Do not be afraid.
[00:11:20] Speaker A: But they couldn't hear it.
And in a moment of absolute folly, all the congregation.
[00:11:30] Speaker A: Said, let's stone Joshua and Caleb.
[00:11:37] Speaker A: The two people who trust in the Lord, the two people who hope in the Lord.
Let's get rid of them.
[00:11:45] Speaker A: Church.
[00:11:49] Speaker A: It is taxing.
[00:11:53] Speaker A: To the soul of the Almighty to be treated this way.
[00:12:00] Speaker A: I hope you know that faithlessness is a terrible sin.
I hope you know that without faith it is impossible to please God.
[00:12:12] Speaker A: I hope you know that when we grumble against God after He has been infinitely good to us, it taxes his righteous soul.
But in spite of that, he is a God of forbearance, and he creates time and space for people to change.
[00:12:38] Speaker A: I do want you to know, though, even though he is a God of forbearance, he will not be despised.
The Lord said to Moses, how long will this people despise me?
How long will they not believe in me? In spite of all the signs that I have done among them?
I will strike them with pestilence and disinherit them. And I will make you a nation greater and mightier than they.
God said to Moses, I do have my limits.
I am a God of forbearance.
I am a God who is my inclination to create time and space. But I do have my limits. And these people are on the very edge of my limits.
[00:13:28] Speaker A: And because God had made Moses into an incredible man, God spoke. Moses spoke back to God and said.
[00:13:38] Speaker A: I know what kind of God you are.
[00:13:41] Speaker A: You are a God of forbearance.
And you will not destroy this people.
[00:13:48] Speaker A: You will create time and space to change them.
[00:13:55] Speaker A: And Moses said, you are a God who deserves to be glorified in all the earth.
And if you destroy these people now, if you don't show them forbearance, the Egyptians will say, it was because you weren't able to bring them into the promised land that you killed them in the wilderness. And your glory will be diminished.
[00:14:23] Speaker A: And then Moses said, now please let the power of the Lord be great as you have promised.
And like in every single one of these sermons, we've had a cluster of divine attributes. Well, here's the cluster.
[00:14:42] Speaker A: Let the power of the Lord be gate as you have promised, saying the Lord is slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity, transgression. And he will by no means clear the guilty.
Visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation again. I want to remind you that in the Bible it's like just saying one quality of God is never enough.
And the biblical authors always feel the impulse to. To add quality to quality, to keep stretching our thinking about who God is.
[00:15:23] Speaker A: And then Moses said, please pardon the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your steadfast love.
Just as you have forgiven this people from the. From Egypt until now.
Moses said, I know who you are.
[00:15:42] Speaker A: I know what kind of. I know what kind of being you are.
And I've seen you be a God of forbearance. From the very first day I knew you.
And you are the God who does not change.
And I am certain that you will forbear and you'll create time and space for these people to change.
[00:16:08] Speaker A: And the Lord said to Moses, how long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me?
I have heard the grumblings of this people of Israel, which they grumble against me.
[00:16:25] Speaker A: But I am going to be forbearing.
[00:16:29] Speaker A: I am going to do something that is unpredictable.
[00:16:35] Speaker A: He said, Everybody who is 20 years and younger, from this moment right now, they'll all go into the Promised Land.
Everybody who is 20 years and older. None of them will go into the Promised Land except Joshua and Caleb. Because they trusted in me.
He said, I'm going to forbear with this generation for 40 years.
[00:17:04] Speaker A: For 40 years. I'm going to endure them for 40 years. I'm giving them a lifetime to think about what I have done for them and how they have responded to me. I'm giving them 40 years.
[00:17:21] Speaker A: And then I'm going to give the promised land to their kids.
[00:17:24] Speaker A: I, I find this very interesting.
God said.
[00:17:34] Speaker A: I would like to just end this all right now and start fresh.
[00:17:41] Speaker A: I would like just to end this, this generation's failure right now and start fresh with the 20 year olds. He said, but I am a God of forbearance.
And even though these people have failed to do what I hope they would do, even though they have failed to believe me, even though I've done miracles in their sight, I'm still giving them an entire lifetime.
[00:18:09] Speaker A: Because I am a God of forbearance.
Do you hear this?
Some of you need to hear this this morning.
Some of you need to open your heart real wide this morning.
[00:18:22] Speaker A: Maybe you heard when you were younger that if you offended God, he would somehow or another put you on the shelf. Did you ever hear that phrase? I used to hear it when I was a boy. If you mess up too much, God is going to put you on the shelf.
[00:18:39] Speaker A: Always struck me as an odd phrase.
[00:18:43] Speaker A: All right, some of you have this sense that.
[00:18:49] Speaker A: There was a time that.
[00:18:54] Speaker A: God may have been able to work in your heart in a beautiful way.
[00:19:01] Speaker A: But that time has passed.
[00:19:04] Speaker A: Or maybe you're thinking, if only I were younger and I could do this all over, I would make, I would do things radically different.
But now, now I've spent too much of my life and. Okay, I want you to hear at the depths of your soul with the God of forbearance.
He is always looking to create time and space for you to become what he wants you to be.
[00:19:39] Speaker A: He doesn't have a calendar with an X on a certain date and he doesn't say, ah, if you get it right by this date, we're good.
[00:19:53] Speaker A: If you don't get it right by this date, you're done.
That is not the God of the Bible.
He is a God of forbearance. And time and time again, he in my life, I look and see the forbearance of God and God saying, I'm not done with you yet.
I'm not happy with you right now, Horse. You're not living up to my expectations and we got some stuff we got to fix. But I'm not done with you yet.
I'm going to forbear.
I'm going to create a little more time. I'm going to create a little more space.
I'm going to work in your life in a new and better way. I'm going to help you to understand something you haven't understood in the past. I'm going to bring somebody into your life. The Holy Spirit is going to whisper to you in a way that will make a change in your life. And the God of forbearance meets us in the riches of his character and says, I'm not done.
You're not done.
[00:20:59] Speaker A: I'm not done. You're not done.
There is still time, there is still space, and we can still glorify God in your life.
[00:21:11] Speaker A: Thank you, Therese.
[00:21:18] Speaker A: Having said that, I do need to say the forbearance of God does not preclude the justice of God.
Because God forbears doesn't mean that there isn't ultimate justice. Do you hear this?
Ah, Christianity let a heresy sneak in called antinomianism.
And antinomianism basically says that you don't have to worry about sin at all because.
[00:21:56] Speaker A: God's not worried about it.
You don't have to worry about sin because.
[00:22:03] Speaker A: God is.
He forgives everything.
And you don't have to worry about being the good person he created you to be because.
[00:22:17] Speaker A: It'S not an issue with God. All right, That's a heresy.
We do have to worry about sin. We have to worry about a clean heart.
We have to worry about a clean mind. We have to worry about living the life that Christ redeemed us to live. It does matter to him. And there is ultimate justice in this story.
The Lord said, I'm giving every all this generation 40 years.
But there are 10 people that I'm not given 40 years to.
And it's the 10 spies who discouraged the people and caused them to make a bad decision.
[00:23:01] Speaker A: And the Lord said.
[00:23:03] Speaker A: The men who Moses said to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing a bad report of the land.
The men who bought the bad report of the land died by the plague before the Lord.
[00:23:22] Speaker A: I want you to know that one attribute of God does not exclude the other attributes.
I can't pick the attributes of God that I like and say, this is my God, and take the attributes I don't like and discard them. You see, I like the attribute of forbearance. I like the attribute of steadfast love. I like the attribute of mercy.
Ah, God is all of that. But he's also just.
He's righteous.
He always does what is Right.
And I can't ever deceive myself into thinking that there isn't.
[00:24:10] Speaker A: There isn't a deep part of the character of God that is absolutely committed to justice.
He is a God of truth, and truth matters to him. Justice matters to him.
These men forfeited their life because.
[00:24:33] Speaker A: In fact their bad guidance caused a whole generation to lose the best opportunity they would ever have.
So is God forbearing? Yes, with the congregation. He forbear. He forbore for 40 years with these 10 wicked men. God said, this is not an issue of forbearance. This is an issue of justice.
[00:25:03] Speaker A: There are five things I want you to understand about divine forbearance.
These would be good topics for your life group. 1.
[00:25:11] Speaker A: Divine forbearance is God's nature to deliberately restrain deserved punishment.
Did you get that?
Divine forbearance is the nature of God to deliberately restrain deserved judgment.
[00:25:35] Speaker A: When we do wrong, God deliberately restrains our proper punishment.
Almost nothing in life is immediately punished.
[00:25:47] Speaker A: Can you imagine living in a world where, where you got immediately, immediately dealt with for every wrong thing you ever did?
[00:26:00] Speaker A: Immediately.
[00:26:04] Speaker A: You thought an ugly sod. Bam. You got it in the teeth.
[00:26:11] Speaker A: You, you were angry driving.
Bam. Somebody ran you into the side of your car.
[00:26:18] Speaker A: Every misdeed got instantly whacked.
[00:26:24] Speaker A: What kind of world would that be?
It would be a world we couldn't live in.
[00:26:31] Speaker A: And thank God our Creator is not that way.
2.
Divine forbearance creates time and space for repentance. You've heard me say this a dozen times. It's the main idea.
[00:26:47] Speaker A: Listen what Paul wrote in Romans.
Do you suppose, O man.
[00:26:54] Speaker A: Who judges those who practice such things and yet do them yourself, that you will escape the punishment of God?
[00:27:03] Speaker A: Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness? And here it is.
And forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance, but because of your hard and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath, when God's righteous judgment is revealed.
[00:27:31] Speaker A: So Paul says, this works two ways.
The forbearance of God lead you to repentance or you refuse to repent and you treasure up for yourself more punishment in the day of wrath.
God said, I'm going to give you time and space to repent. But if you don't, you need to know there is a reckoning.
[00:28:01] Speaker A: Ah.
[00:28:06] Speaker A: I would say to you this morning.
[00:28:11] Speaker A: Seize the moment to repent.
[00:28:15] Speaker A: The space that God is giving you in your life right now.
The time that you have the health, that you have your capacity to think, seize the moment and repent.
Ah. Turn.
Turn away from wickedness and turn to the goodness of God.
[00:28:39] Speaker A: 3.
Divine forbearance displays the trustworthiness of God.
When God is forbearing, we see another part of his character, that he's trustworthy. First Timothy 1.
This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. Listen.
But I received mercy for this reason.
That in me as the foremost, Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who are to believe in him for eternal life.
This is what Paul says. When you look at my life.
[00:29:32] Speaker A: You see the forbearance of God.
[00:29:36] Speaker A: And because you can see the forbearance of God in my life, you can trust him to be forbearing in your life.
[00:29:49] Speaker A: Church.
God can not only be trusted with the best of who I am, God can be trusted with the worst of who I am.
[00:30:02] Speaker A: You know that.
[00:30:06] Speaker A: I've found over the years of pastoring this church, there are some people who cannot be trusted with. With knowing. Anything wrong with you.
Okay, look, I'm not Billy Graham.
He's a. He was a much better man than I am.
I'm struggling to walk with God just like everybody else in this room.
And if you need a perfect pastor, you probably going to have to start checking out somewhere else.
[00:30:38] Speaker A: I can tell you this. I. I am absolutely committed to doing the best I can to walk with God day by day.
[00:30:52] Speaker A: But I screw up just like you do.
And here's what I found.
God is trustworthy.
[00:31:01] Speaker A: God is trustworthy.
Ah.
Ah.
He says to us, if you confess your sins, I'm faithful and just to forgive your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.
Is that a beautiful thing?
God says to us, you can trust me with the ugliest part of your soul.
I am a God of forbearance. And it's my job, it's my desire, it's who I am to bring you to repentance.
[00:31:39] Speaker A: For divine forbearance reveals the power of God.
Romans 9.
What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, endured with much patience the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?
In fact, forbearance is a quality of self control.
[00:32:07] Speaker A: If you can endure unpleasant people being unpleasant around you, it is a expression of self control.
[00:32:19] Speaker A: If you cannot abide unpleasant people being unpleasant and doing ugly things, you have a self control problem. Church.
I can't control what others do, but I can control what I do.
And if I'm going to be more like Christ, I got to come to terms with the self control that expresses itself in forbearance.
Just because somebody says something ugly to you doesn't mean you have to say it back.
[00:32:50] Speaker A: You have to have self control.
You have to have forbearance.
Just because somebody doesn't do what you hope they would do, you have to.
It doesn't mean you can respond in an ugly way.
[00:33:04] Speaker A: We have to have the self control of forbearance.
[00:33:11] Speaker A: Five.
Divine forbearance reveals God's timing in History First Peter.
[00:33:21] Speaker A: Because they formerly did not obey when God patiently waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared. Listen what Peter says.
Ah.
[00:33:37] Speaker A: God patiently waited.
[00:33:42] Speaker A: God put up with a wicked world while he patiently waited for the right time and for Noah to get the ark prepared. And then he brought justice.
Ah.
Do you understand that the forbearance of God affects the timeline of history?
The forbearance of God allows history to to flow the way it does back to our story in numbers.
The forbearance of God.
[00:34:19] Speaker A: Postponed going into the promised land for 40 years.
[00:34:27] Speaker A: He allowed 40 years of time to pass in his forbearance.
[00:34:33] Speaker A: So much of history is God creating time and space and waiting on his perfect timing for things to transition and happen the way he wants them to do. God is a God of forbearance, and it affects the timeline of history.
[00:34:56] Speaker A: Our favorite American theologian, Charles Hodge.
[00:35:00] Speaker A: The history of man is to a large degree the history of sin.
But if God be wholly wise and omnipotent, how can we account for this widely extended and long continued prevalence of sin?
Hodge says, if God is holy, wise and omnipotent, how do we explain him putting up with sin so much?
Well, here's the answer.
[00:35:31] Speaker A: Even though God knows the results of history.
[00:35:35] Speaker A: In his forbearance he puts up with sin so he can create time and space for us to change.
To get this, God says, I don't like evil, and one day I'm ultimately going to banish it from my creation.
But between now and then, I'm going to let history unfold and I'm going to create time and space in the unfolding of history for people to become more of what I want them to be.
[00:36:12] Speaker A: Six.
[00:36:18] Speaker A: Divine forbearance calls us to be forbearing because God is patient. Because God is forbearing, he calls us to be forbearing. Colossians 3 put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate, hearts, kindness, human humility, meekness and patience.
You get this.
God said, I want you.
[00:36:51] Speaker A: To show the quality of my character to others.
And because I have been forbearing with you, I want others who can't see my forbearance to see my forbearance in you.
I want other people to see the quality of my character that they can't see and I want them to see it in you.
And God says, as I have been forbearing with you, I ask you to show that same forbearance to others.
I ask you for your family.
I want them to see my forbearance in you.
I ask you for your workplace. I I want them to see my forbearance in you.
I ask for your neighbors to see my forbearance in you.
I asked for the knuckleheads you're going to run into on the street every day.
I'm asking for you to let them see my forbearance in you.
And God said.
[00:37:53] Speaker A: My name will be glorified in all the earth because I am a God of forbearance and I create people.
And by forbearance I create people who are forbearing.
Our dear Heavenly Father, thank you for your rich and beautiful character.
[00:38:16] Speaker A: Thank you for your divine nature.
[00:38:21] Speaker A: Thank you that you are true and trustworthy.
Thank you that you are good.
Thank you that you are full of steadfast love.
Thank you that you are merciful. Thank you that you are righteous.
Thank you are a God of forbearance.
And I pray that as we become more aware of your forbearance we would express that same divine nature in the world around us.
And I ask it through Jesus Christ our Lord.
