The Fruit of The Spirit - Longsuffering
Scripture:Gal 5:22-23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self–control. Against such there is no law.
Introduction
The past few weeks we have been studying the fruit of the Spirit. Thus far we have looked at the manifestation of this fruit described as Love, Joy and Peace.
It is interesting to note that there are nine manifestations or graces listed to describe the Fruit of the Spirit. They can be grouped into three groupings of three.
1.The first group contains those things that impact our relationship with God, The Love of God, the Joy of the Lord and the Peace of God.
2.The second group impact us in our relationship with others, longsuffering, kindness and goodness.
3.The last three impact our character and person directly, Faithfulness, gentleness and selfcontrol.
Today I want to focus our attention on the grace of “Longsuffering” that God wants to develop in our lives.
Longsuffering Defined – (Vines Expository Dictionary)
A. Noun.
“forbearance, patience, longsuffering”
From two words meaning “long,” “temper”),
B. Verb.
meaning “to be patient, longsuffering, to bear with,” lit., “to be long-tempered
Note: “Longsuffering is that quality of selfrestraint in the face of provocation which does not hastily retaliate or promptly punish; it is the opposite of anger, and is associated with mercy, and is used of God,
Ex. 34:6; And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth,
Rom. 2:4; Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
1 Pet. 3:20; who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.
Patience (longsuffering) is the quality that does not surrender to circumstances or succumb under trial; it is the opposite of despondency and is associated with hope, 1 Thess. 1:3; it is not used of God.”*
What is Patience (longsuffering)?
James Russell Lowell
"Patience is something you admire in the driver behind you, but not in the one ahead."
Sometimes we may mistake patience for something else. A man was walking through a supermarket with a screaming baby in the shopping cart. A woman nearby noticed that time and again the man would calmly say: “Keep calm, Albert. Keep calm, Albert.”
Finally, in admiration for the man’s patience as the child continued to wail, the woman walked up to him and said: “Sir, I must commend you for your patience with baby Albert.” To which the man replied, drawing himself up: “Madam, I am Albert!” (Guy McGraw - www.sermoncentral.com)
That great theologian Charles Schultz once drew a Peanuts cartoon strip in which Lucy comes up to her brother Charlie Brown and does something that is very unusual for her. She says--I love you. But Charlie Brown keeps responding by saying: no you don’t. And each time Lucy answers a little louder: yes I do, I really love you. But Charles Brown has been rejected so many times he keeps saying: it can’t be true. So in the last square, Lucy has reached the limit of her patience and she screams out in a loud voice: Hey stupid, I love you.
John Wesley the Great preacher in his sermon on patience wrote, “We do not now speak of a heathen virtue; neither of a natural indolence; but of a gracious temper, wrought in the heart of a believer, by the power of the Holy Ghost. It is a disposition to suffer whatever pleases God, in the manner and for the time that pleases him. We thereby hold the middle way, neither holigOrountes_, despising our sufferings, making little of them, passing over them lightly, as if they were owing to chance, or second causes; nor, on the other hand, _ekloumenoi_, affected too much, unnerved, dissolved, sinking under them.”2
I. The Long Suffering of God
God has shown longsuffering and patience with Man.
•As demonstrated at the time of the Flood
o1Peter 3:20 says “who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.
oGod waited
•He demonstrated longsuffering with his people Israel
oNehemiah 9:16-20 summarizes God’s patience with them.
o6 "But they and our fathers acted proudly, Hardened their necks, And did not heed Your commandments. 17 They refused to obey, And they were not mindful of Your wonders That You did among them. But they hardened their necks, And in their rebellion They appointed a leader To return to their bondage. But You are God, Ready to pardon, Gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, Abundant in kindness, And did not forsake them. 18 "Even when they made a molded calf for themselves, And said, ‘This is your god That brought you up out of Egypt,’ And worked great provocations, 19 Yet in Your manifold mercies You did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of the cloud did not depart from them by day, To lead them on the road; Nor the pillar of fire by night, To show them light, And the way they should go. 20 You also gave Your good Spirit to instruct them, And did not withhold Your manna from their mouth, And gave them water for their thirst.
•The Patience that God demonstrated is more than just waiting, putting up with. As Edward Bulwer puts it, “Patience is not passive; on the contrary it is active; it is concentrated strength.”
•God is still demonstrating his great patience with us today
o7 But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. 8 ¶ But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 ¶ The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
•How did Vine’s dictionary describe it, “Longsuffering is that quality of selfrestraint in the face of provocation which does not hastily retaliate or promptly punish; it is the opposite of anger, and is associated with mercy..”
•Since God is longsuffering then it would make perfect sense that if the Spirit of God dwells within us then he will begin to demonstrate, manifest this same characteristic within us as a Fruit of the Spirit
In his study notes on Galations Mark Copeland shows three reasons why this demonstration of the Grace of the Spirit in our lives is necessary.
A. NECESSARY IF WE WISH GOD TO BE LONGSUFFERING TO US...
1. As Jesus illustrated in "The Parable Of The Unmerciful Servant" (note particularly Mt 18:32-35)
2. Compare also the following verses: Col 3:12-13
12 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering;13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.
a. Christ has forgiven us
b. Therefore we must be longsuffering and willing to forgive one another!
B. NECESSARY TO MAINTAINING THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT...
1. A task we face, in keeping with a walk that is worthy of our calling - Ep 4:1-3
1 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, 2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love,
3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
2. Without longsuffering, the sins and transgressions we commit against one another will quickly destroy the unity for which Christ died!
C. NECESSARY FOR PREACHERS AND TEACHERS OF THE GOSPEL...
1. As Paul charged Timothy - 2 Ti 4:2
"2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching."
2. As Paul had demonstrated by example - 2 Ti 3:10
But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance,
3. No servant of the Lord can faithfully correct those in opposition, without the quality of longsuffering / patience - 2 Ti 2:24-26
24 And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient,25 in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth
The Impact of Patience
Patience is like good seasoning, it transforms the flavor of life.
•Have you ever eaten an unpeeled, unripe BANANA? I understand you might be hungry and I get it when you say that you are hungry, but eating an unripe banana with the skin on is disgusting ... there is no satisfaction there! God wants us to develop patience that flows from love. Without patience, the love that we show has a disgusting taste. (www.sermoncentral.com)
Like many seasonings you would not want to put them directly in your mouth, yet they are needed to bring out the best flavor of everything else they come in contact with. So to, none of us enjoy the bitter taste of affliction or trial yet it is necessary if we are to enjoy the sweetness that patience rewards us with.
Patience empowers and protects us
Leonardo da Vinci said, "Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases it will have no power to hurt you. So in like manner you must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your minds."
Patience Keeps us upright and stable
"Patience is the ballast of the soul, that will keep it from rolling and tumbling in the greatest storms."(Charles Hopkins – www.sermoncentral.com)
Patience is that quality of being that unlocks the door of achievement
WATCH A SPIDER?
Have you ever watched a spider? The spider will spend many hours, days, in great effort spinning a web. As the spider spins the web, the key factor will become patience. Many hours after the web is completed, the spider waits and waits. The spider must be very still and quiet. The spider has a plan, but the plan can never develop without patience.
As the spider waits, one day the spider will feel the web moving, the food has come suddenly. But there was nothing sudden about it. It was patience released that achieve the goal. Wade Hughes, Sr (www.sermoncentral.com)
The Development of Patience
Of course Patience doesn’t come over night nor is it without price.
A young man, a Christian, went to an older believer to ask for prayer. "Will you please pray that I may be more patient?" he asked. The aged saint agreed. They knelt together and the man began to pray, "Lord, send this young man tribulation in the morning; send this young man tribulation in the afternoon; send this young man...." At that point the young Christian blurted out, "No, no, I didn’t ask you to pray for tribulation. I wanted you to pray for patience." "Ah," responded the wise Christian, "it’s through tribulation that we learn patience."(Phil Mellar – www.sermoncentral.com)
James says it this way, 2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
It is only through the fire of opposition and trial that the Holy Spirit can burn out the droughts of impatience in our lives so that the manifest presence of God and His patience can be seen in us.
Jean Jacques Rousseau said it this way, "Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet."
But God has a purpose in developing patience in us. He reveals it to us in those verses in James. In particular verse four where it says, 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
God’s intended purpose is to make us totally complete, mature in Christ, so that the image of Christ might be manifest in us and through us.
