Opening Joke: Did you hear about the teacher who was helping one of her kindergarten students put his boots on? He asked for help and she could see why. With her pulling and him pushing, the boots still didn’t want to go on. When the second boot was finally on, she had worked up a sweat. She almost whimpered when the little boy said, "Teacher, they’re on the wrong feet." She looked and sure enough, they were. It wasn’t any easier pulling the boots off then it was putting them on. She managed to keep her cool as together they worked to get the boots back on - this time on the right feet. He then announced, "These aren’t my boots." She bit her tongue rather than get right in his face and scream, "Why didn’t you say so?" like she wanted to. Once again she struggled to help him pull the ill-fitting boots off. He then said, "They’re my brother’s boots. My Mom made me wear them." She didn’t know if she should laugh or cry. She mustered up the grace to wrestle the boots on his feet again. She said, "Now, where are your mittens?" He said, "I stuffed them in the toes of my boots..."
1. Review
a. We have been talking about the patience of God (as opposed to the patience we need) –
b. The bible speaks clearly and loudly about the patience of God.
c. Last week
i. We learned that God’s patience is the characteristic of His nature that holds back His wrath from consuming that which is contrary to His Holiness.
ii. We learned that Paul experienced God’s patience, having deserved death and punishment for what he had done and yet had received not only forgiveness but a calling to spread the message of Christ to the entire Mediterranean region.
iii. We also learned that every breath we take is gift from God, not owed to us, but graciously given to us through His patience and love. God knows our past, our present and our future, He knows all that we have done or ever will do, yet He doesn’t give us what we deserve.
iv. Last week I shared some insights into the Greek word for patience (Greek being the language that the New Testament was written in).
1. We found out that the word for patience is the Greek word Macrothumeo – which is a combination of two words (macro – long, holding out far) and (thumeo – anger, wrath)
2. In simple terms, patience means to be slow to anger, to hold back from destroying someone even though you have the right, the power and the ability to do so.
v. (Ps. 145:8) God’’s slowness to anger is a aspect of His mercy: "the Lord is full of compassion, slow to anger".
2. This week we are going to examine the limits to God’s patience.
a. Many people believe that because God doesn’t punish wrong doing immediately that God doesn’t punish wrong doing at all.
b. But God works a bit different than human beings.
i. In human parenting and in social training, it is important to have immediate consequences to our actions so that we learn from those consequences.
1. When a person can break the law and get only a slap on the wrist, it communicates to him that he can do it again without severe consequences.
2. If a child is not corrected immediately for antisocial behavior, he or she will continue in that behavior, and possibly even worsen in it.
ii. But God is not a human being.
1. In the garden He told Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or they will surely die.
2. When Eve ate of it, Adam watched to see if Eve would die…when she didn’t, then he ate it as well.
3. What they didn’t realize, as we often don’t realize, that our actions on this earth have ramifications in the unseen, spiritual realm.
4. Adam and Eve didn’t immediately die physically, but they did die spiritually…in their relationship with God.
a. They lost the pure unhindered access to God that they once had and passed that lostness on to all of their descendents, including you and me.
5. Death was the ultimate consequence of their actions, even if God withheld his hand from inflicting it upon them immediately. That is a display of God’s incredible patience.
Let’s examine our passage for today’s sermon:
3. Romans 2:4 Or do you think lightly (scorn) of the riches of His kindness and tolerance (anoche) and patience (macrothumeo), not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? 5 But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, 6 who will render to each person according to his deeds.”
a. Paul is addressing those in the church at Rome and in the first three chapters is making his case for the absolute depravity of mankind.
i. Depravity is the utter inability of mankind to consistently produce truly unselfish acts or deeds.
ii. In these several verses that I just read, he speaks of how we tend to “take advantage” of God’s graciousness.
iii. For some reason we think that we “deserve” the graciousness of God.
1. Perhaps it is because God’s graciousness is so great that we end up presuming upon it.
b. People often see the tolerance and patience of God as a weakness in God which leads them to say things like "If there is a God in heaven, let Him strike me dead!"
i. When it doesn’t happen, they will say, "See, I told you there was no God."
ii. People misinterpret God’s tolerance and patience as His approval which leads them to continue living in the same self-destructive ways without concern for accountability.
iii. Yet the bible says that “God sends rain upon the just and the unjust alike.”
c. In the first half of verse 4 there are two words used together , “tolerance” and “patience” which have very similar usage and meaning.
i. 4a Or do you think lightly (scorn) of the riches of His kindness and tolerance (anoche) and patience (macrothumeo),
ii. Last week we looked carefully at patience.
4. Today, lets look at this word for tolerance.
a. Our society’s definition of tolerance has is much different from the original meaning of the word.
i. Our society tells us that it means to be objective, non judgmental and embracing of views that we may not agree with.
ii. The way that our society uses "tolerance" makes the assumption that we all hold different beliefs but those different beliefs are all equal.
iii. Abby Nye, a Christian college student who attended a secular university and who wrote “Fish out of Water” said, “If I’m going to take the time to believe in something, have a conviction, live it out, and stand up for what I believe in, what good is it if I don’t even believe that my beliefs are true? And if my beliefs are true, why would I even consider a conflicting belief to be on the same level? I wouldn’t! What good is a conviction if you don’t believe it to your core and reject anything that is in opposition to it? Yet, this is what the new tolerance is about. A man without convictions would have an easier time saying that all beliefs are equal”.
iv. G. K. Chesterton once said "Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions."
b. I venture to say that our modern day interpretation and definition of tolerance is flawed.
i. The dictionary tells us that it is the act or capacity of enduring something as in “My tolerance of noise is limited.”
ii. In Medicine it is the power of enduring or resisting the action of a drug.
1. It can also describe the level of immune response to a transplanted organ or other foreign substance.
iii. In machinery it describes the permissible range of variation.
iv. In coining it describes the permissible deviation in the fineness and weight of coin, owing to the difficulty of securing exact conformity to the standard prescribed by law.
c. All of this put together, we discover that tolerance is a measure of the limits of putting up with or enduring something that varies from a standard.
i. The standard of course, is God’s perfect holiness and righteousness that none of us can attain. When Jesus said to the crowds, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, you cannot see the kingdom of God” the crowd took a collective gasp. The Pharisees were the most righteous of all people, and Jesus said they fell short!
ii. What we need to achieve that standard is a righteousness that is not our own. It must be conferred and given to us by someone who has attained it. That is why Jesus, who was the perfect, sinless Son of God went to the cross to take our sins upon himself and to die in our place.
iii. The cross is a lot of things to a lot of people but it IS NOT a lesson in tolerance.
1. If God were tolerant of sin He never would have sacrificed His "Only Begotten" to suffer and die so horrendously for the likes of you and me. God would have simply winked at us and said, "Ah...That’s OK.
2. Instead, the cross is proof of God’s perfect holiness that He would give His only Son to bear the punishment our sin deserves.
5. So what then is the tolerance of God”
a. Tolerance or forbearance is the way that we translate the Greek word used in this passage : (anoche) - which means to be patient, enduring difficulty, and carries the idea of holding one’s self back.
i. Tolerance means to exercise self-restraint, to hold back, to delay punishment, or postpone divine punishment for the deviation from God’s righteous standard.
ii. It means refraining from the enforcement of something (like a debt, right, or obligation) that is due.
iii. Anoche was frequently used to describe an armistice or truce between enemies and implied something temporary which might pass away under new conditions.
iv. God’s tolerance represents His ‘truce with the sinner’.
v. We find this term used again in Ro 3:25 This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the tolerance/forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;]
b. What we are hearing here is that between the words for patience (long to anger) and tolerance (holding back from enforcing punishment deserved) that God has a reason for his conduct.
i. Before you became a Christian, God exercised tolerance. I mean, the first time you sinned, God had every right to just hit you with a lightning bolt, or just whisk you away right then and there.
ii. Aren’t you glad that God is tolerant?
iii. Aren’t you glad that God tolerated the world just long enough to allow you to be won to Christ?
iv. Suppose that for a certain purpose you take into your home a certain stranger. You support him entirely; you supply all his needs; he goes in and out among your family; he sleeps in your bed; he eats at your table; he buys with your money; he wears your clothes. But this stranger whom you support (for your own purposes) acts meanly toward you and your family: he ignores you entirely; he tries to assume the position of lord in your home; he acts as if you were not there; for all you give him he never acknowledges you; he does not say "good morning" when he rises, nor "good night" when he retires; a word of thanks never crosses his lips. Instead, he curses you to your face; he slanders you with your enemies; he tramples your name in the mud; he hates your children and abuses them. And yet you keep him in your house and feed him and clothe him until your purpose with him shall be reached. You tolerate the man; you hold back from throwing him out of your house and punishing him for the way he treats you and your family, because you want to attain your goal with him.
c. There it is…there is a REASON why you put up with his abuse. You have a goal.
d. And this example is an illustration of how God puts up with our abuse. Because God has a goal. God has a purpose! Do you know what it is? It is found in the last half of verse 4
6. “the kindness of God leads you to repentance.”
a. That’s God’s goal! That is why He puts up with our garbage, our abuse, our rejection…because His kindness will LEAD us to repentance.
b. Most of us misinterpret the reasons for God’s kindness. But His ultimate goal is to lead you and I to repent…to change our direction in life.
c. What is repentance?
i. The Greek word for repent means to do an about face, to make a change in direction. To turn from our self-oriented, self led, life and turn towards God and begin to allow Him to fill our lives with His love.
ii. Repentance is our response to God’s goodness.
iii. "In the New Testament, repentance is not negative. It means turning to a new life in Christ, a life of active service to God. Repentance should not be confused with remorse, which is a deep sorrow for sin but lacks turning toward God." (Morris)
1. God’s purpose in His patience is to lead you to turn to Him (repent) so He can unleash in your life his magnificent and glorious purpose.
2. He made you for a destiny, for a dream…but as long as you live apart from Him, rejecting Him, you will never realize that dream and His purpose in your life.
d. Are you waiting for God to drive you to repentance?
i. He doesn’t work like that; God leads (ago = leads, guides) you to repentance. "
ii. Notice that the Lord does not drive you to repentance.
1. Driving is the language of fear.
2. Fear will drive you to legalism, negotiation, and a life of worthless works trying to appease a God who cannot be bought.
3. It will only drive you to a god that does not exist except in the minds of cults and religionists.
iii. You drive cattle, but you lead sheep.
iv. Repentance comes not by driving, but by drawing: ’
1. Jesus said, “if I be lifted up (on the cross) I will draw all men unto myself”
2. The love of God leads you to repentance.
3. When I came to Christ it was the result of that sudden recognition that I had spent my life consciously and subconsciously rejecting God’s love and the gift of His Son.
v. What will you do with the patient drawing by God today?
7. Don’t let verse 5 describe you: Romans 2:5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.
a. Paul starts off this verse with a key word… “BUT”
i. If you resist God’s graciousness, if you refuse His love, there will one day be a time of accounting when His patience and tolerance will come to an end.
b. Stubbornness
i. Practically every instance of the word stubborn in the Bible, that I could find, appears in the negative sense. There are no good uses of the word.
ii. To be stubborn means that we are not listening.
1. Psalm 95:7-8 says, " Today, if you would hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts,"
2. Jesus would say again and again to people, “let him who has ears let him hear.”
iii. Are you sitting here digging your fingernails into your pew? Is God drawing you, do you feel His tug? Don’t resist Him. Release yourself to Him today.
1. In a little while you will have an opportunity to do just that.
2. At the conclusion of our service, we will have a time of ministry…if God is drawing you today, it will be your time to respond to Him.
a. Many will slip out of their pews and make their way to the front; some to pray at these kneeling rails, others will come forward to have me pray with them as they surrender.
b. If God has been speaking to you, you will want to slide out of your pew at that time and come forward, to respond to God’s love.
c. An Unrepentant Heart
i. What is an unrepentant heart?
1. A heart that refuses to admit guilt.
2. It is a heart that refuses to admit that, you know maybe I was wrong. An unrepentant heart is a care-less heart.
3. A heart that, because it has not sought after God’s kindness, becomes self-righteous.
4. It is a heart that rationalizes everything that it does as being the right thing to do.
ii. Can a Christian have or develop an unrepentant heart? I think so. T
1. here are Christians today that have trouble saying, maybe I was wrong, or, maybe I’m being hardheaded in that area.
d. Day of God’s Wrath: I mentioned earlier that there will come a day when God will have an accounting for every person. In verse 6 it says that God "will give to each person according to what he has done."
i. Think about that. God will give to each person according to what he has done.
ii. If you have not received the forgiveness that Jesus offers from the cross, then you will be judged on your deeds which fall far short of God’s holiness.
There is one parallel verse I wish to read to you today found in 2 Peter 3:9
8. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
a. God’s patience exists to lead us to the place where we might change our mind toward Him.
b. Failure to respond to God’s patience is making a decision to reject his love
c. Paul made it clear in our earlier passage that there is a judicial pay day for every human being.
d. Jesus told a story of God’s patience in Luke 13:6-8 And He began telling this parable: "A man had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and did not find any. "And he said to the vineyard-keeper, `Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?’ "And he answered and said to him, `Let it alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer; and if it bears fruit next year, fine; but if not, cut it down.’ "
e. There is a limit to God’s patience, it will one day come to an end.
i. Jeremiah 44:22 "So the LORD was no longer able to endure it, because of the evil of your deeds
ii. Over and over in the bible, there is story after story of how mankind throughout history has stretched God’s tolerance to its limit until God ultimately called an end to his patience and held that populace accountable.
iii. The Amorites
1. Genesis 15:14 16 "But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions. "As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age. "Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete (full)."
iv. Noah
1. According to Genesis 6:7, "The Lord said, ’I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the ground, man and beast and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.’" Then in verse 13, "God said to Noah, ’I have determined to make an end of all flesh; for the earth is filled with violence through them; behold, I will destroy them with the earth.’" And in verse 17 God says that his wrath will come as a flood: "I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall die."
2. According to Genesis 6:3, the flood was delayed 120 years. That is a long time. That is more, I’m sure, than any of us here will live. 120 years the flood was delayed. Why? Because God was patient. God was hoping that more people would repent and change their lives and turn to Him, but it didn’t happen. Ultimately, there was only Noah, his wife, their three sons and their three wives.
3. The day came when those eight individuals got on board the ark and the Bible says that God closed the door.
4. The day is also coming when God’s patience will be brought to an end.
a. His Son will split the sky open with lightening from East to the West.
b. The dead in Christ will rise first and be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.
c. And those Christians who are living will then be caught up to be with the Lord.
d. And those who have rejected Christ’s love will realize that God’s patience has run out. We hope that you are not in that final group of people.
9. Grace Period: have you ever experienced one? Maybe with a license plate renewal? Perhaps with an automobile insurance payment? What happens when that grace period comes to an end? The “tolerance” limit is reached.
a. Should you reject God’s offer, should you refuse to admit your need for a Savior, you are treating God’s kindness with contempt.
b. Don’t be like the man who fell in a river and is drifting down river toward a massive waterfall. He is thrown a life preserver, but he refuses it because he sees no danger. Later a boat comes by and warns him to climb in the boat, but he still refuses to see the danger. One last effort is made to save him before he falls over the waterfall to his death, but he still refuses to admit the danger, and he goes over the waterfall and is smashed on the rocks below.
c. God has sent his son to die on the cross for our sins. God has sent a life preserver.
d. The question is will you place your faith and trust in him today?
