SEMESTER 2
129 – THE LONGSUFFERING OF GOD
BIBLE INSTITUTE OF CORRESPONDENCE
COURSE: THEOLOGY II LESSON # 29
THE LONGSUFFERING OF GOD
Read Psalm 103:6-14
. (Note particularly verse 8.)
INTRODUCTION:
1. All of God’s attributes are perfectly reconciled, while we are quite schizophrenic.
III: “Oh, consistency, thou art a rare jewel.”
2. God’s creation reveals His power and wisdom, but not His character.
3. If we learn that, it will be through His various revelations of Himself.
4. This attribute of patience, or longsuffering, is a most wonderful, yet most abused one.
I. IT BELONGS TO GOD’S VERY NATURE
1. I struggle for patience, not so with God. It is perfectly natural with Him.
2. God revealed this as a basic attribute when He gave the law. (Ex. 34:6)
3. Moses later appealed to this perfection in his intercession for Israel. (Num. 14:17)
II. IT IS A QUALITY OF SPIRITUAL PERFECTION
1. The word means “long nose.” Not a physical, but a spiritual attribute. It means calm, slow breathing.
III: Rapid breathing denotes lack of confidence, or control, i.e., over self or circumstances.
2. God need not rush to destroy His adversaries, His kingdom is secure.
3. Satan’s millenniums of survival pose no threat to God, His kingdom is perfectly secure.
4. This perfect calmness is simply a manifestation of His divine person.
III. THE MANIFESTATIONS OF GOD’S PATIENCE
1. He waited 120 years after sentence was passed in Noah’s day. (I Pet. 3:2)
2. From Adam to Christ, He waited nearly 4,000 years to punish sin, in the “seed of the woman.” Consider Rom. 3:25, Gen. 3:15, Heb. 9:15.
3. This longsuffering was manifested in God’s dealing with Pharaoh. (Rom. 9:22)
4. It is so with transgressors today, but it is always to His glory. (Ps. 76.10)
5. God is equally patient in dealing with vessels of mercy. (Rom. 9:23, I Tim. 1:16)
6. There is a perfect relationship of the longsuffering in these two areas. (II Pet. 3:8-10)
IV. DEPRAVED HUMANITY SEES THIS AS SOMETHING TO ABUSE
1. The regenerate heart, “The inward man” (Rom. 7:22) lives in gratitude for this longsuffering.
2. His heart, daily, praises God for mercy, and that he has been made a vessel of mercy.
3. Conversely, the natural man genders to more and more sin. (Ecc. 8:11)
4. Such men often see this patience as an indication that God does not exist.
III: The ground tilled, planted, cultivated, and harvested on Sunday.
III: Bob Ingersol’s dare to God to strike him dead within five minutes.
5. Every believer needs to be aware of this attribute, so he may exercise patience.
i. When God does not exercise judgment within the scope of our observation.
ii. When God does not relieve injustice against the weak as soon as we expect.
iii. When God does not relieve suffering as soon as we feel He should.
Ill: The suffering and patience of Job.