Westtown Church
Westtown Church
Love Is Patient
When Americans think of a long nose, we typically think of Pinocchio and his lying. But the Bible speaks of a different kind of long nose. The Bible tells us that God is "slow to anger"--literally, "long of nose." In other words, God is very patient because God is love. We see that loving patience of God most supremely in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Savior of impatient sinners. Through the grace of the Holy Spirit we, too, can grow in love by becoming a more patient people to those around us.
Good morning. I invite you to turn your Bibles this morning, if you have them, to 1 Corinthians, chapter 13. We're going to continue in the love hymn. I'll be there in just one second. There we go.
Speaker 1:Last week we looked at the first three verses of 1 Corinthians 13, and there the Apostle Paul was talking about the necessity of love in the Christian life. And he said you know, even if I can move mountains by my faith, if I give up my body to be burned, if I have not love, I am nothing and I gain nothing. Pretty strong words, and so love in its fullness is not a mere decision. It's not a mere decision. Sometimes, in this fallen world, our feelings are not what they ought to be, our affections and desires are not what they should be in the heart, and so sometimes we do have to love out of something closer to raw duty. But that's not love at its best, that's not love in its fullness. I recall John Piper, a good many years ago, commenting on the fact that if he gave his wife flowers for their anniversary and she said, oh, john, you shouldn't have, and he says, oh, don't worry about it, sweetheart, it's only my duty as your husband, that would not be a heart warmer for the wife? Because we know love in its fullness. We know love and its sincerity flows from the heart. Sincerity flows from the heart and it results in action.
Speaker 1:And so we're going to come this morning to verses four through seven and look at love a little bit deeper. We know love flows from the heart because we see Jesus interacting with the Pharisees, and you remember they were doing many religious things but they didn't have a heart, and that's why he called them whitewashed tombs, because their love for God was just almost raw duty. They did not have a heart and a love or an affection for him. All outward action, no heart. But Christian love is not simply a warm feeling either, and Paul's going to pound that home in verses four through seven. This morning we're going to see as we make our way through this passage, that love is emotion and action. Love is heart, emotion that results in action. And so love does does have a heart. But a love also has hands, and where you have one without the other you get into problems. If it's all heart and no hands, then we have just mere sentimentalism, and that's no good, because sentimental folks will get a warm feeling in their heart about something and then do nothing about it and just move on with whatever they were doing with their day. But true love is not like that.
Speaker 1:So, with that brief introduction, I'd like to invite you. If you're able to stand, I'd like to read God's word to you from the first eight verses of 1 Corinthians 13. This is the infallible and errant holy word of the living God, and so I want to remind you once again. He sends it to you in love. He sends it to you for your good. So let's hear him with faith and love in our hearts.
Speaker 1:If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have and if I deliver up my body to be burned but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way, it is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of the Lord endures forever.
Speaker 1:God's people said amen, you may be seated. Thank you, father. We come now to your word. God, you are love Father. We come now to your word. God, you are love Father. You've loved the Son and the Holy Spirit from all eternity. Lord Jesus, you have loved the Father and the Holy Spirit from all eternity. And, holy Spirit, you've loved the Father and the Son from all eternity. I pray now, god, that you would pour your love into our hearts and open our eyes to your glory In Jesus' name, amen. Well, everything I say today is related to one point, and here it is Love is patient. That's really your one point for the day, and everything else is going to flow from that.
Speaker 1:Before we dig into these attributes that are listed here about love in the weeks ahead, I want to point out to you that in your English translations, where it says love is patient and kind and so on and so forth, they're presented to us as adjectives, because that's the nature of it, and that's not wrong, by the way, but it is interesting that the apostle Paul in the original, here they're actually verbs these are 15 verbs, and that's important because it tells us that love is patient. This tells us that love not only has a heart, but it has hands and feet, like Jesus Christ, our Savior, and it means that love acts with patience and love behaves in patience. Scholars point out, too, that this word that's used here for patience, it's talking about patience with people. So there you go. It's not about patience with a flat tire. It's not about patience for what we might call a leaky pipe. Whatever the case is, although it has secondary implications for things of that nature, its primary emphasis is on patience toward a family member, co-worker, neighbor, perhaps a fellow Christian.
Speaker 1:I saw on a mug once. I've seen it on t-shirts. You've probably seen it. It's a little people-y outside today, right? I know some of you have seen it because I see your heads. So the point is patience.
Speaker 1:This word love is patient. It's a highly relational word, and so we need to think about our relationships with other people as we ponder what patience is. It can be peopley outside. It can also be peopley inside, right? Sometimes, even at home, we can lose our patience, and so patience has been called love's restraint. Patience is love's restraint. It's called that because patience is the kind of love that we show other people, and it's obviously not the kind that we show when they're at their best. It's the kind we show them when they're even at their worst. That's the kind of love that we're talking about here.
Speaker 1:I love that the King James Version puts it this way that love suffers long. Love suffers long With people. Love suffers long. Love suffers long with people. Love suffers long for people and for their good, for the good of other people. We see that most clearly and most supremely in Jesus Christ, as he's dying and suffering on that cross for our good. The King of heaven, having come out of heaven clothed himself in humanity, he's suffering with us and praise his name. He's suffering for us and for our eternal good.
Speaker 1:In the Old Testament there's a word for patience. I think it's a little humorous. It's long of nose. You know we think of pinocchio and lying, but that's long of nose. It's. It's as if the red that fills your nose when you're angry. It a long nose. It just takes longer to fill the nose, and so it's the hebrew expression and way of saying patience. Usually slow to anger is how it's the Hebrew expression and way of saying patience. Usually slow to anger is how it's mentioned, and so we don't want to have a short fuse or a short nose, so to speak. Patience has a long fuse and a long nose.
Speaker 1:Christian patience is more than just overlooking irritations, although certainly it involves that. The early church father, john Chrysostom, was a great preacher. They called him golden tongue, golden mouth. This word for patience is used of the man who's wronged and who has it easily in his power to avenge himself, but he'll never do it. This word is used for those who have been wronged. They have it in their power to crush you and they will never do it. You can see something of the character of God in that.
Speaker 1:Now, can't you, james Renahan, the heart that's filled with this kind of divine love, this Christian patience, it's willing to receive blows. He says it's willing to receive blows, as Christ did, whether physical or emotional or social blows, and not pay back in kind in reality, in any way at all. The patience of Christian love will not meet sin with sin. I don't know about you, but sometimes on social media I have to say to myself, corey, don't do it, don't hit, send, am I right? You see our impulse to want to, even on social media. You know that's just John MacArthur. I like what he says here about this kind of Christian patience. It's an outflow of Christian love and it's radically different than the world and how the world responds. In the ancient Greek world, he says, self-sacrificing love and non-avenging patience. They were actually considered weaknesses. They were considered weaknesses. This kind of patience was unworthy of the noble man or woman MacArthur says.
Speaker 1:The famous Greek philosopher Aristotle taught that the great Greek virtue is the refusal to tolerate insult and the refusal to tolerate injury or to strike back with retaliation. For the slightest offense, vengeance was a virtue. For the slightest offense, vengeance was a virtue. If you're a Christian for any time at all, that sounds odd, but this is the world that Jesus was born into. The Greco-Roman world, vengeance was a virtue. And I ask you, has the world changed all that much? Our world's filled with this desire to carry out vengeance. Look at the history of mankind, not just in personal spats, but nations warring with one another. The world's filled with those who want to get back at those who insult or hurt us or sin against us.
Speaker 1:In the Corinthian church. They had an issue going on with this Paul had earlier in one of the earlier chapters if you were here for that portion of the sermon series they were carrying out unnecessary lawsuits for one another. They weren't settling these lawsuits in love and so Paul rebuked them. Could there be something still lingering in our hearts this morning where we're not carrying out that same spirit of love that Paul calls us to here and our Lord calls us to here? Who are we not patient with this morning? Who have we lost our patience with? Each person can examine their own heart and as we think about ourself now, I want you to look in a separate place. I want you to look this morning at patient Jesus and marvel and wonder at his character, his pure and holy, loving character, as it's displayed in patience.
Speaker 1:There he is on the cross. Go back 2,000 years. Put yourself at the foot of the cross of Christ. Spikes have gone through his hands and his feet. He's nailed to that Roman cross. His back has been whipped into something unrecognizable, something you and I would not want to look at Crown of thorns pressed into his skull. As those thorns were pressed into his skull, they mocked him as the king. They spit on him, they laughed at him as he suffers the most horrible death a human being could suffer. The Romans created the cross because it maximized the pain and humiliation of the sufferer. And they lied about him and they slandered him. And this all came after they'd convicted him in a kangaroo court. He was unjustly there. But there's patient Jesus and this same Christ, patches of his beard pulled out, he was stripped naked, dying the most shameful death, the worst of criminals. The dregs of society in the Roman eyes were stuck there. That's where they were put. But he was not only bearing the wrath of the Romans and the wrath of the unbelieving Jews of the day, the mobs. He was bearing the wrath of Almighty God, a crucifixion like no other crucifixion, bearing down upon him not for his sins, but for our sins.
Speaker 1:Patient Jesus, you see the holy love of God in his patience as he suffers long for you and for me. It's even more remarkable that you can think about. He's the Lord of hosts. You see that phrase, the Lord of hosts. He's the commander of heaven. He could have commanded legions of angels to come down and wipe off the face of the earth and plunge into hell immediately those who were mocking him and spitting on Him and the ones that drove the nails through His cross or through His hands on that cross. He could have done that, but he did not. What does he do as he's suffering long? He's praying for His persecutors. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Don't you marvel at the compassion of Christ that is filled to overflowing with patience. How do we respond to other people? Isn't it true that we're often short with them? Well, I'm hangry. Jesus got hungry too. Jesus had a holy anger too, and yet he never one time sinfully lost his patience. Do we have compassion for those who have failed us? Are we patient? Do we have that mercy and grace of God that fuels patience with other people? And I know in that moment we'll say well, they deserve it.
Speaker 1:In Matthew, chapter 18, the apostle Peter God bless him. Don't you love that? Peter's in there? Peter was often shoot ready. Aim Peter would get out there. He wasn't afraid to ask questions and to speak up. He says Lord, how often will my brother sin against me? And I forgive him? As many as seven times. I mean, I have to believe. When Peter asked that question, he was a little bit proud of himself. Right In America, here we sometimes say three strikes you're out, kind of baseball language. But Peter's like you know, seven times if I forgive him, I mean that's a little different. Now that doesn't mean on the 491st time If you're married, remember that, okay. But Jesus is saying, see, there's no limit to how much you should forgive your brother.
Speaker 1:Then he tells a parable which is fascinating to me. He told a parable about the king who wanted to settle accounts, and he wanted to settle accounts with two debtors, and one debtor owed the king 10,000 talents and the man could not pay it. I had to go back and look up how much a talent was. I'd forgotten. 20 years of wages as one talent. So 10,000 talents year-round, I don't know. 200,000 years, whatever the case is, it's a lot 204 metric tons of silver. It was 10,000. He couldn't pay it. He couldn't pay it. It was an amount he couldn't pay.
Speaker 1:And so the king ordered him, along with his wife and children, to be sold into slavery, sold off all that. They had to at least pay a portion of the debt. And the man pleaded with the king have patience with me and I will pay you. I'll pay you everything he says. So the king looked upon him with compassion and he forgave the whole debt. But the same forgiven man.
Speaker 1:Then, when he himself went out into the community, he runs across a guy who owes him 100 denarii. Now, that's, a denarii is one day's wages, so you know what? Three, maybe four months of wages at the absolute most compared to a couple of hundred thousand years. So he owed him a tiny fraction of what that forgiven man who'd been forgiven 10,000 talents. He'd been forgiven that from the king. Well, the man in debt, he begged that same forgiven man. You know, have mercy on me, but you know, be patient, I'll eventually pay you this debt. But the forgiven man refused. He threw that debtor into debtor's prison until he should pay it.
Speaker 1:Well, then some others saw what the forgiven man had done. They went back and reported that to the king. And the king then said to the forgiven man 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 have had mercy upon you. And so the king then put that previously forgiven man in prison until he paid his debt. And Jesus said and commented upon this parable with this so also my heavenly father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from the heart.
Speaker 1:It's not that we're saved by our forgiveness of others. It's that if we're saved and we understand the God's forgiveness of us, we will be ready to forgive others. If we understand our debt against an infinitely holy God who has forgiven us of our infinite debt, we will then be in a position to forgive others of their 100 denarii kind of debt. And so God is love and therefore he acts patiently towards sinners and he acts patiently towards His own covenant people. Christian God is patient towards you as well. He's patient towards you. Remember that. Why is God patient? Why is he like this? And the answer is that he's love.
Speaker 1:The son's nature is to do what To brighten a room and to warm a room God's very nature. God doesn't just exercise patience. His very nature is to act patiently, just like the sun's rays warm and brighten a room. That's how he is. It's a glorious thing, isn't it? That is what God is like. He doesn't have to work up patience to be with us. He is patient because he's love and love is patience. Ponder the beauty of that this morning, the glorious character of God, and you know what he's like, that even when we've offended Him, even when we've committed great sins toward Him Great sins he's like that. Love for God is not a cold and raw decision, and so patience is not a mere decision for God. God doesn't merely exercise it.
Speaker 1:I want you to grab hold of that, because often we think that God's patience is like our patience. Sometimes we have to bite our lip when we're trying to exercise patience. But you see, god, it flows out of his being, it's holy. That's what we mean by the holy love of God. This is why the angels are singing, because this is exactly what he is like in his very heart, and this is why God then acts and behaves this way towards sinners, because God is love. Now, if you're glad for that, give me an amen. I am so glad that God is patient with me and you.
Speaker 1:The Old Testament we see God, the Lord, is what Slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love. If you've read through your Old Testament somewhere along the way, how often do you see that phrase? God is slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love. You see, he's slow to anger because he abounds in steadfast love, and that's why it's so important. We have faith in Jesus Christ that His Holy Spirit will dwell in us, come and make His home in us. Not only that, we would have our sins forgiven, for all of our sins of impatience with other people, maybe even our impatience with God himself. But he might then forgive us of our impatient sins and then begin to transform us to be a patient people and more and more have that perfect patience like Christ. We'll never be perfectly patient in this side of glory, but we can be substantively patient. We can grow in remarkable ways in our patience by the grace of God.
Speaker 1:Now I've got to qualify this. There are limits to even the patience of God. Jesus, we see this in Christ. He was just and sinless and holy and he had a holy anger and there were times when he would pull out. Even in the temple. He'd pull out a whip and chase the money changers out of the temple. Temple. He'd pull out a whip and chase the money changers out of the temple. Time for patience was over right. You see it in Matthew 23. Jesus, he went back and forth with the Pharisees again and again and again. And in Matthew 23, he declares the seven woes of damnation upon the scribes and the Pharisees there. Time for patience was over. The final judgment's coming, we read in the book of Revelation. It's going to be Jesus Christ, the Holy Lamb of God, who will one day pour out His just wrath on the unrepentant. The day for patience will be over.
Speaker 1:So there are limits even on the patience of God, and this is important for us to understand, because God, even when he's patient, and even though it flows from his being to be patient, he cannot and will never ignore sin, he'll never make light of sin. So God's love and patience is not where he turns a blind eye to sin per se. It's that he sees sin for what it is and he's patient, loving in the face of it. He's not asking us to turn a blind eye to sin when we're patient with other people, but we should reflect his character and therefore, even though there's limits even to God's patience character and therefore, even though there's limits even to God's patience, the default of God, the default of the Lord Jesus Christ, is a heart of patience. That's his default. And so we have to ask ourselves this morning is that my default? Is my default patience and patient towards sinners and also toward other Christians who have let me down. God is patient with sinners, but he's also patient with Christians. Remember that, christian.
Speaker 1:Sometimes Christians think well, god forgave me, I know better. I want to have a word about that. Sometimes you hear oh, the God of the Old Testament, he was kind of mean. And the God of the New Testament? Well, he seems a little nicer. But of course God's the same yesterday, today and forever. And some people see God that way as they read the Old Testament. But that's not how the Old Testament interprets the Old Testament, nor our understanding of God.
Speaker 1:In the Old Testament, nehemiah, chapter 9,. Nehemiah records the long history of Israel's sins and failures, one after another, and then he interjects what God's like again and again and again in Nehemiah's prayer, throughout his prayer. And here's what he says. And he says this type of thing over and over and over again after each one of Israel's failures. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger there it is Long of nose and abounding in steadfast love and did not forsake them even when they had made a golden calf and had committed great blasphemies. You and your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. God is patient and he's patient with you. That's the same God of the Old Testament as we have in the New. Slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, even when His own people had committed great sin and even great blasphemies. Your sins are not beyond the patience and grace of God, even within the Christian life. You remember that Christian God loves you. He loves you. Slow to anger, ready to forgive, gracious and merciful that's the heart of God. Slow to anger, ready to forgive, gracious and merciful that's the heart of God.
Speaker 1:Ezekiel 33, 11. The Lord says to his own wayward people that are in Babylon they've been disciplined. As I live, declares the Lord. God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way. And what? And live. Do you see the heart of God, even toward the wicked? In 2 Peter 3, verse 9, the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. Do you see the heart of God? Sometimes we wonder how can God be so good? Look at that wicked person over there and how wicked they're living and how kind God is to them. Do we despise the patience of God upon the unbeliever, when God has been so patient with us. Luke 15,.
Speaker 1:The father sees the prodigal son coming home. He'd lived a filthy life, took his inheritance early, went and blew. It lived a vile life. He got sick of himself. He came to his senses, he went home repentant, full of guilt and shame. And what does the father do? As soon as the father sees the prodigal come over the horizon, what does he do? He takes off running full blast at his son. And you see, jesus is telling us that parable, because he's saying that is what the heart of God is like. The father wasn't waiting for the son to come home and demonstrate some great record. He had no record to give. What he had was repentance in his heart and he just wanted to come home. And the father runs and embraces him. And not only that, he puts a coat upon him, puts a ring on his finger and celebrates and has a feast. That is the heart of our God. God doesn't. If you've lost your way, even within the Christian life, just come home to God. He'll run to you, he'll run to you and heaven will celebrate.
Speaker 1:Now. How do we become more patient Now? How do we become more patient? Well, first you must be in a saving relationship with the patient Heavenly Father, with God, the God of patience. You have to be in relationship with Him. And how do you do that? You just trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of all your sins, of impatience and all your other sins, and he will cleanse you of all unrighteousness and he will send his Holy Spirit who will dwell in you, make his home in you and then, as you live out your life, you're a branch now grafted into Jesus, the vine, and you can draw your strength and life and be filled with the patience of Jesus, because now you're spiritually united to him.
Speaker 1:It's not a matter of you just trying harder. That's not the Christian life, it's. We pray Lord, help me If you just try harder to turn a new leaf and in your own natural strength, I'm just gonna work on patience. Well, even if you succeed, what will happen to you is you will become self-righteous and proud. Do you see what I've done? Look at how patient I've become. And Isaiah the prophet says in God's nostrils that's filthy rags.
Speaker 1:But when we become more patient because God is working, the patience of Christ in us, that's a patience that is rooted in the love of God for us and our response of love to him. And our response of love to him involves Lord. I want to glorify you by being more patient and you see, god is pleased with that when we aim to glorify his son, jesus Christ, through our patience. Thank God, many unbelievers. God has given many unbelievers temperaments that show patience. You probably know some non-Christians who are quite patient in many ways and that's just a kindness and mercy of God, but that has nothing to do with their relationship with God. That's just His mercy to those who live around. Those people Praise God. There's many patient unbelievers.
Speaker 1:But before God, to be right with God, anything not done in faith is sin. So the Bible says. God says no. I want you to work on your patience by being in relationship with me so that I get the glory. Second, we must rely on the beauty of the patience of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:Listen to what Peter says in 1 Peter 2, for to this and now. He's talking about us suffering for good. We do good and we suffer for it. That's what he's talking about. That's what the this refers to, for to this you've been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin. Neither was deceit found in his mouth when he was reviled. No sin. Neither was deceit found in his mouth when he was reviled. That is when he was abused with language and insults and anger. He did not revile in return when he suffered. He did not threaten, but he continued entrusting himself to him.
Speaker 1:Who judges justly? He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. You see, we're called to follow in the footsteps of Christ. He did good, he suffered for it, but he didn't strike back. He entrusted himself to God and was patient with those around him. And that's our high calling too, and it's nothing we learned in a day. But patient people are a people of the cross. We're called to suffer long for other people and their good, to the glory of God, just like our Savior did for us.
Speaker 1:Thirdly, we must rely on the grace of the Holy Spirit. Patience is not a natural thing. True patience is not even just biting our lip. True patience flows from a heart of love for those who fail us, and that is not a natural thing. That is something that comes by the grace of the Holy Spirit and we are able then to demonstrate it when life hurts and is frustrating and isn't fair, when we're in the trenches of life. And so patient people pray because they know it's not natural for them to be patient.
Speaker 1:Psalm 119.11,. I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Stored up, I've hidden, as the NIV says, or I've treasured up, as the NASB says. I've treasured up your word in my heart. Why? That I might not sin. Let me encourage you If you want to work on patience or any other thing in your Christian life, memorize just one, two or three key Bible verses that have gripped you about that very thing, three key Bible verses that have gripped you about that very thing. And when you're in the trenches on Thursday afternoon or Saturday morning, when life is getting confusing and beating on you, call those things to mind and pray to God. Call them in that moment to your heart or to your lips and pray to God and he will help you. Store it in your heart and let it be there and God will work His power through His Word and Spirit in your life. And then, fourthly, we must remember the second coming of Christ.
Speaker 1:Paul Gardner says Christian patience flows through a people of the last days. We're humbled when we realize we'll give an account, and we're humbled when we realize, when Jesus returns, the people that are frustrated will either be all their glory, they'll be fully glorified, or they'll be a horror in hell, and so we need to learn to see other people and other things through the second coming. So we have humility and compassion, realizing that we too will give an account. James says be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it until it receives the early and late rains. You also be patient, establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. You see, god, help us be spiritual farmers, help us to be patient and, lastly, be encouraged.
Speaker 1:I want to end with this Be encouraged by the promise of God, dear Christian, he who began a good work and you will bring it into completion at the day of Christ Jesus. Do you know? A day is coming for those who believe in Christ, we will never have another sinful, impatient moment, ever. Won't that be a great day? Do you know? There's not one bit of sinful impatience in heaven this morning. Do you know? There's not one bit of sinful impatience in heaven this morning, and that's where we're going. For those who believe in Christ, that's our destiny. God's not done with you. Christian, march on Persevere. God loves you and he will forever be patient with you who are in his son. Let's pray.